THE 
For the purpose of ascertaining how far it was possible 
for a horse, during regular progress, to extend his fore¬ 
foot, a thorough-bred Kentuckian, noted for his long 
stride, was selected for an experiment at Palo Alto in 
1879. 
The line of silhouettes represents a single phase of 
motion—synchronously photographed from five different 
points of view—in which one of the fore feet is thrust 
forward as far as it is possible for the horse to thrust it 
during any method of uniform progressive action. 
A vertical line dropped from the nose of the animal 
in any one of these simultaneous photographs will intersect 
the leg much nearer to the fetlock or the pastern joint 
than to the knee. 
The five figures are entirely free from any outlining or 
retouching. 
In literature, the ancient poets and other authors— 
according to their translators—seem rarely to have made 
use of a distinctive name in their references to the rapid 
movements of animals. They apparently preferred to 
indicate velocity of motion by some simile, or a com¬ 
parison with the phenomena of nature. 
These similitudes abound in Homer. A few selections, 
without reference to line or book, are taken from the 
“ Iliad ” as translated by Pope. 
Should they interest the reader who is not already 
familiar with them, he will do well to read the poet from 
beginning to end, giving particular attention to the twenty- 
third book, describing the chariot-race at the funeral rites 
of Patroclus. 
r ALLOP. 
165 
“ High on his car he shakes the flowing reins : 
His fiery coursers thunder o’er the plains.” 
“ And now both heroes mount the glittering car: 
The bounding coursers rush amidst the war.” 
“ Saturnia lends the lash ; the coursers fly : 
Smooth glides the chariot through the liquid sky.” 
“The coursers fly before Ulysses’ bow 
Swift as the wind, and white as winter snow.” 
“ He said ; the driver whirls his lengthful thong: 
The horses fly, the chariot smokes along.” 
“ He lends the lash : the steeds with sounding feet 
Shake the dry field, and thunder towards the fleet.” 
“The affrighted steeds, their dying lords cast down, 
Scour o’er the fields, and stretch to reach the town.” 
“ High o’er his head the circling lash he wields : 
The bounding coursers scarcely touch the fields.” 
In the “ Odyssey” we find— 
“ Ranged in a line the ready racers stand, 
Start from the goal, and vanish o’er the strand : 
Swift as on wings of wind, upborne they fly, 
And drifts of rising dust involve the sky.” 
Xenophon (Spelman), in the “ Expedition of Cyrus,” 
says, “Patagyas . . . was seen riding towards them full 
speed; and in the “ Institution of Cyrus’’the horses of 
the messengers are said to “ fly swifter than cranes,” which 
he, however, doubts. 
