The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-12-02
ALL THE CATS OF HORSES,
The Exact Difference Between Ans
bling, Pacing, Trottins, and Gall
Looping.

looping.
New York Sun, 1Sth.l
Prof. Eadweard Muybridge deliver
ed last evening, in the Turf Club Thea
tre, an exceedingly interesting lecture
| upon the attitudes of animals i'll mo-
| ton, illustrating it by photographs
| made by instantaneous process and by
| a machine called the zoopraXiscope,
| which caused animals and human be-
| ings to appear in actual motion upon
the screen in startlingly lifelike man
ner. He explained first the ingenious
| apparatus by which these pictures
| were made-a series of twenty-four
: cameras, each fitted with an electro-ex-
poser that exposed the negative to the
light for one five-thousandth of a
second when an animal in motion be-
| fore it broke Il thread and made the
electric connection.
| The series of pictures thus produced
represented every movement of any
animal for the observation of which
this apparatus was employed, and re-
volutionized the old ideas of the mo-
tions of quadrupeds in their several
gaits, especially of those of horses. 1t
had been a matter of dispute whether
the horse ever had three feet on the
ground at one time when walking.
These pictures settled that. He al
ways has two feet on the ground, and
! part of the time three, the two feet be-
ing alternately diagonals and laterals.
Wherever a walking horse is sup
ported on two feet, and the suspended
feet are inside, the suspended feet are
invariably on the same side; where lie
is supported on two extended feet the
suspended feet inside are diagonals. If
horse drops the left hind foot on the
ground, the next to follow will be the
left fore foot. followed by the right
fore.
Egyptian, Assyrian and Roman pic
lures were shown to demonstrate that
an erroneous idea of this motion pre-
vailed in the earliest attempts at art.
It was perpetuated in the famous statue
of Marcus Aurel.us, which has been
the model of almost all equestrian stat
ues to the present day, and is as con-
spicuous in the equestrian statues of
Washington, in Boston and in Union
Square as in any Of the old Egyptian or
Assyrian pictures. 1t is not possible
for horse to walk in the way there
depicted. Meissonier had correct
idea of horses walk when he painted
his great picture of Napoleon in 1914,
but the critics ridiculed it and pro-
nounced it incprrcct. Now he has the
satisfaction of knowing that he was
right and they were all wrong. Miss
Thompson also was correct, and the
critics derided her for being so. Now
the laugh is on the other side.
A dozen pictures were next shown
illustrative of a horse ambling, gait
of the ground, but is supported alter
nately by one and two feet, the single
foot being alternately fore and hind
foot, and the two feet alternately late
rails and diagonals. This was best un-
derstood when actually represented by
the zoopraxiscope, and the demonstra-
tion was SO perfect as to elicit great ap-
plause from the spectators.
The racking or pacing gait was next
amply illustrated. In it the horse
moves the lateral feet simultaneously
instead of the diagonal feet, as in the
trOt. Then the trot was shown in an
exhaustive series of photographs cover
ing every movement of Il trotting
horse, both at slow and a fast trot.
In the latter the horse was, at one
point in his stride, entirely off the
ground, the right fore and hind feet
quite clear and the others not quite
touching. In fast trot the horse in
variably puts the heel down first, never
the ball of the foot or toe.
By an ingenious arrangement of five
cameras five pictures were successfully
made simultaneously from different
points of view, for artists use, of hor-
ses in the several attitude Of motion,
and several of these foreshotened ami
mails, when thrown upon the screen,
were astonishingly comic, however true
to nature they unquestionably were.
The canter was next shown, in which
during portion of his stride the horse
has th.ee feet on the ground and the
fourth almost touching it. Then the
gallop was illustrated. A fast horse,
going rapidly, Mr.. Muybridge said,
will be in the air three times in sin
gle stride, he believed, but this was
daily his conjecture, arguing from the
illustrations he had obtained.
The lecturer reverted again to ancient
history, showing the old Egyptian and
Assyrian models of the running horse
models blindly followed by artists
ever since-in which the animal is pres
ented poiSing himself on both hind