Eadweard Muybridge

“ The action of no single limb can be availed of for artistic purposes without a knowledge of the synchronous action of the other limbs; [Pg 2] and to the extreme difficulty, almost impossibility, of the mind being capable of appreciating the simultaneous motion of the four limbs of an animal, even in the slower movements, may be attributed the innumerable errors into which investigators by observation have been betrayed. ”

“ Selecting for an example of the trot a horse making a stride of 18 feet in length, we find that at the instant his right fore foot strikes the ground, the left hind foot is a few inches behind the point where it will presently strike at about 38 or 40 inches to the rear of the fore foot. When both feet have reached the ground, the right hind leg is stretched back almost to its fullest extent, with the pastern nearly horizontal, while the left fore leg is flexed under the body. ”

“ When the body of an animal is being carried forward with uniform motion, the limbs in their relations to it have alternately a progressive and a retrogressive action, their various portions accelerating in comparative speed and repose as they extend downwards to the feet, which are subjected to successive changes from a condition of absolute rest, to a varying increased velocity in comparison with that of the body. ”

“ By some observers the perfect trot is described as an absolutely synchronous movement of the diagonal feet. This simultaneous action may be considered desirable, but it probably never occurs.
Sometimes the fore foot will be raised before the diagonal hind foot, sometimes afterwards; but in either instance, the foot raised first will strike the ground first; repeated experiments with many racing and other trotting horses confirmed this want of simultaneity. ”

“ The action of a fast-trotting horse while drawing a vehicle is very different from his action under the saddle; in the latter case, the hind legs are kept thrust back for a longer period, and their final forward movement is much more rapid. ”

“ When, during a gallop, the fore and hind legs are severally and consecutively thrust forwards and backwards to their fullest extent, their comparative inaction may create in the mind of the careless observer an impression of indistinct outlines ”

“ Heavily built horses will sometimes merely drag the feet just above the surface, but, in every instance of a trot, the weight of the body is really unsupported twice during each stride (see stride 2, positions 4 and 4d) . It sometimes happens that a fast trotter, during the two actions of a stride, will have all his feet clear of the ground for a distance exceeding one-half of the length of the entire stride ”

“ This movement has in all ages been employed by artists to convey the impression of rapid motion, although, curiously enough, the attitude in which the horse has been almost invariably depicted is one which is impracticable during uniform progressive motion. ”

“ In every age, and in every country, philosophers have found it a subject of exhaustless research. Marey, the eminent French savant of our own day, dissatisfied with the investigations of his predecessors, and with the object of obtaining more accurate information than their works afforded him, employed a system of flexible tubes, connected at one end with elastic air-chambers, which were attached to the shoes of a horse ”

“ A few eminent artists, notable among whom is Meissonier, have endeavoured in depicting the slower movements of animals to invoke the aid of truth instead of imagination to direct their pencil, but with little encouragement from their critics; until recently, however, artists and critics alike have necessarily had to depend upon their observation alone to justify their conceptions or to support their theories. ”

“ The employment of automatic apparatus for the purpose of obtaining a regulated succession of photographic exposures is too recent for its value to be properly understood, or to be generally used for scientific experiment; at a future time, the pathologist, the anatomist, and other explorers for hidden truths will find it indispensable for their complex investigations. ”

“ It is extremely doubtful if there can be any interval of suspension between the [Pg 13] lifting of one hind foot and the descent of the other, no matter what the length of stride.
Many able scientists have written on the theory of the gallop, but I believe Marey was the first to demonstrate, that in executing this movement, the horse left the ground with a fore foot and landed on a hind foot. ”

“ It is highly probable that these photographic investigations, which were executed with wet collodion plates with exposures not exceeding in some instances the one five-thousandth part of a second, will dispel many popular illusions as to gait, and that future and more exhaustive experiments, with all the advantages of recent chemical discoveries, will completely unveil to the artist all the visible muscular action of men and animals during their most rapid movements. ”

“ If the entire stride of a trotting horse is divided into two portions, representing the comparative distances traversed by the aggregate of the body while the feet are in contact with, and while they are entirely clear of, the ground ”

“ The camera in which any one negative in a series of exposures is made is designated on that negative by the parallel direction of the vertical stake with the horizontal line extending to the corresponding number immediately opposite. ”

“ This opinion is to some extent corroborated by the productions of the Grecian artists in their best period, when their heroes are represented of the same size as other men, and their horses in attitudes more nearly resembling those possible for them to assume. ”

“ The remarkable conventional attitude of the Egyptians, however, has, with few modifications, been used by artists of nearly every age to represent the action of galloping, and prevails without recognised correction in all civilised countries at the present day. ”

“ In the studio are arranged 24 photographing cameras; at a distance of 12 inches from the centre of each lens an electro-exposor is securely fixed in front of each camera. Threads 12 inches apart are stretched across the track (only two of which are introduced in the engraving) , at a suitable height to strike the breast of the animal experimented with, one end of the thread being fastened to the background, the other to the spring, Fig. ”