artists and called the "flying gallop," in which the
legs are fully extended and all the feet are off the ground, with the
hind hoofs turned upwards, never occurs at all in the galloping horse,
nor anything in the least like it. There is a fraction of a second
when all four legs of the galloping horse are off the ground, but they
are not then extended, but, on the contrary, are drawn, the hind ones
forward and the front ones backward, under the horses' belly (see Pl.
I, figs. 2 and 3). A model showing this actual instantaneous attitude
of the galloping horse has recently been placed in the Natural History
Museum. When the hoofs touch the ground again after this instantaneous
lifting and bending of the legs under the horse, the first to touch it
is that of one of the hind legs (Pl. I, fig. 4), which is pushed very
far forward, forming an acute angle with the body. The shock of the
horse's impact on the ground is thus received by the hind leg, which
reaches obliquely forward beneath the body like an elastic <- spring.
Since the instantaneous photographs have become generally known
artists have ceased to represent the galloping horse in the curious
stretched pose which used to be familiar to everyone in Herring's
racing plates (see Pl. II, fig. 1), with both fore and hind legs
nearly horizontal, and the flat surface of the hind hoofs actually
turned upwards! Indeed, as early as 1886 a French painter, M. Aime
Morot, availed himself of the information afforded by the then quite
novel instantaneous photographs of the galloping horse, and exhibited
a picture of the cavalry fight at Rezonville between the French and
Germans, in which the old flying gallop does not appear, but the
attitudes of the horses are those revealed by the new photographs. The
picture is an epoch-making one, whether justifiable or not, and is now
in the gallery of the Luxembourg. It must be noted that though
Meissonier and others had succeeded in representing more truthfully
than had been customary, other movements of the horse, such as
"pacing," ambling, cantering, and trotting, yet in regard to them,
also, more easily observed because less rapid, the instantaneous
photograph served to correct erroneous conclusions.

[Illustration: Plate II.--Various representations of the gallop. Fig.
1.--From Gericault's picture, "The Epsom Derby, 1821." Figs. 2 and
3.--From gold-work on the handle of a Mycenaean dagger, 1800 B.C. Fig.
4.--From iron-work found at Koba