PACES OF THE HORSE. 



141 



any progress in this interesting study have arrived at it by 

 the employment of rigorous methods of observation. 



On the other hand, the manner of expressing the observed 

 phenomena has occupied the attention of different authors. 

 Almost all have had recourse, with great advantage, to the 

 use of drawings, but have agreed but little in their mode of 

 representing the successive actions which characterise the 

 different paces. The most perfect kind of representation 

 is that employed during the last century by Vincent and 

 Goiffon.* A sort of musical staff, composed of four lines, 

 served to note the instant of each impact of the four feet, and 

 the duration of the succeeding pressures on the ground. This 

 notation resembles, to a certain degree, that which we have 

 employed to represent the different rhythms of human loco- 

 motion, and which will hereafter serve to explain the various 

 paces of the horse. But we must not forget that the method 

 of Vincent and Goiffon only expressed a succession of move- 

 ments observed by the sight or the ear, and that it realised no 

 greater e:pictitude than that of the individual observer. 



Our registering instruments resolve the double problem of 

 analysing with fidelity the acts which the senses could not 

 accurately appreciate, and expressing clearly the result of this 

 analysis. 



Before we describe our experiments, we shall, in order that 

 the reader may understand their utility, try to present a 

 summary of the present state of the science, and to show what 

 disagreement exists on various points among different authors. 

 As the standard definitions are not always easy to be under- 

 stood, we shall add to them the notation of each of the paces, 

 trusting that this method of representation will render them 

 more intelligible, and especially more easy to be compared 

 with each other. 



Notation of the various paces of the horse. — Becurring to the 

 comparison used by Duges, let us represent the horse as com- 

 posed of two bipeds walking one behind the other. We must 

 determine the manner in which the rise and fall of the feet 



* Memoire artificielle des principes relatifs k la fidMe' representation des 

 animaux, tant en peinture qu'en sculpture. Alford, 1769. 



