532 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



■walks, each of -whicli was nearly 

 similar to the previous one, the 

 difference in no case amounting to 

 more than one or two per cent. 

 when tJiey ice re wallcing xmder simi- 

 lar circumstances. But if a walker 

 had on heavy boots or even a heavy 

 overcoat, his velocity was greatly 

 altered, and in some cases this 

 alteration amounted to nearly 30 

 per cent. This latter, in cases 

 where walkers were provided with 

 heavy fishing-boots. An overcoat 

 or other light weight on the back 

 altered the velocity in no case to 

 a greater extent than 5 per cent. 

 No heavy weight on the back was 

 tried. 



It will be seen that on an average 

 when a man is walking under or- 

 dinary circumstances his velocity 

 varies only about 17 per cent, 

 from the mean. That is, he will 

 be walking about one-third faster 

 for some portion of his step than 

 another. It must be remembered 

 that this is the case when men are 

 walking under circumstances that 

 can hardly be called natural, for 

 their brains are certainly to some 

 extent occupied by the idea that 

 they are walking for an experiment. 

 Nowt here is reason to believe that 

 men would and do walk more xini- 

 formly when walking, suppose, in 

 the street in conversation with a 

 friend, than they would in the ex- 

 periments here recorded. 



The method here employed is 

 perhaps somewhat better than that 

 ill use by Marey, which is mentioned 



Fig. 2. 



