360 
Breeding of Hunters and Roadsters. 
Mons. F. Lecog is also referred to by Percival, as calling the 
gallop " a succession " of leaps. jMons. Lecog, in the later edition 
of his elaborate work on ' Progression,' p. 432,* adheres to his 
previous description. 
Neither have these so long prevalent notions been limited to 
writers on the horse. Naturalists and comparative anatomists 
have taken for granted, that what was so authoritatively given 
with illustrations, amplified bv elaborately-w-rittcn pages, was all 
reliable and sound. The action of the horse has puzzled some 
of the greatest among human physiologists, the movements of 
the quadruped being found more complex, when attempts were 
made to analyse them, than those of man : these difficulties, 
however, seem all to be based upon a misconception of animal 
locomotion generally. 
Dr. Humphry, in his large work on the human skeleton, pub> 
lished in 1858, follows in the beaten track on the subject of 
progression ; and the professor, in his more recent work, published 
in 1861,t goes still more at length into the supposed action of 
the horse, to illustrate that of man, where it is very clear that he 
is misled by the teaching on the phvsiology of the horse, and 
consequently the author's special subject has not profited by the 
importation. 
^ly two diagrams represent two animals as galloping, with 
•what is called "right leg first;" these figures cannot, however, 
show movements in the order of sequence : I will therefore 
explain ; and then show how the force is distributed over the 
four limbs, and how they move in succession. 
The horse getting under weigh, which is done with least ex- 
pense of power in a walk or trot for a few paces, pitches into his 
gallop more or less rapidly ; in doing so the near hind foot is 
first moved, next tile near fore, the off hind and off fore following 
in sequence, so that the off fore, which in the case is said to be 
going first, is the last to be raised ; if the horse changes his leg 
the order will be reversed. 
It is only in the canter and gallop that the hind foot docs 
move first. The line of gravity, as Borelli states, is kept perfect 
by the first move in the hind foot : that limb being the first to 
make a short preparatory move, it next makes the fifth move, 
following in sequence to the off fore leg, and this is the true order 
of movement afterwards kept up. 
The horse's balance in his gallop is as perfect as when he is. 
* ' Trait(' de I'Exterieur du ^Cheval et des principaux Animaux Domestiques. 
Pnr F. Lecojr, Directeur de I'Kcole Impe'i iale Vctc'rinaire de Lyou, &c. 3""' edi- 
tion. LalK!, editeur. Place de I'Kcole de Me'decin, Paris, 185().' 
t 'The Human Foot and the Hnman Hand.' by G. M. Humphry, M.D., F.R.S., 
Lecturer on Anatomy and Pliysiology in the Uuivereity of Cambridge, pp. 66-07. 
