PACES OF THE HORSE. 



147 



pace. Each one has suffered himself to be guided in this 

 respect by theoretical considerations. Those who admit equal 

 intervals between the four footfalls, have thought that they 

 found in this type more clearness and a more decided dis- 

 tinction between the amble and the trot. The other writers 

 have attempted the realisation of a certain ideal in the kind 

 of pace which served them as a type. For Raabe, it was the 

 maximum of stability, which, according to his theory, is 

 obtained wh^n the weight of the body rests longer on the two 

 diagonal feet than on the two lateral feet ; whence arises the 

 choice of the type represented by the notation No. 6. Lecoq, 

 thinking, on the contrary, that the most rapid pace is the best, 

 has chosen as his type the pace in which the body rests longer on 

 the two lateral feet than on the diagonal ones (notation No. 4). 



Whatever may be the value of these considerations, of 

 which practical men alone can judge, it seems to us that the 

 physiologist must first of all endeavour to search for facts, and 

 must take simply such types as experiment may reveal to him. 

 It is for this purpose that the investigations have been made with 

 registering apparatus, the result of which will now be given. 



APPARATUS INTENDED EOR THE STUDY OF THE MODES 

 OF LOCOMOTION OF THE HORSE. 



For the experimental shoe employed in the experiments made 

 on man has been substituted, on the horse, a ball of india- 

 rubber filled with horsehair, and attached to the horse's hoof 

 by a contrivance which adapts it to the shoe. 



Description of Fig. 41. 

 No, 1. Amble, according to all writers. 

 No 2 ^ Bi'o^G^ amble, according to Merche. 

 ' ( High step, according to Bouley. 

 ( Ordiuary step of a pacing horse, according to Mazure. 

 No. 3. < Broken amble, according to Bouley. 



( Traquenade, according to Lecoq. 

 No. 4. Normal walking pace, according to Lecoq. 



No. 5. Normal walking pace (Bouley, Vincent and Goiffon, SoUeysel, Colin), 

 No. 6. Normal walking pace, according to Raabe. 

 No. 7. Irregular trot (trot decousu). 



No. 8. Ordinary trot. (In the figure, it is supposed that the animal trots with- 

 out leaving tbe ground, which occurs but rarely. The notation onlj takes into 

 account the rhythm of the impacts of the feet.) 



No, 9. Norman pace, from Lecoq. 



No. 10. Traquenade, from Merche. 



