"Many of these pictures have great—indeed, astonishing—beauty. The interest which they present from the scientific point of view is three-fold:—(a) They are important as examples of a very nearly perfect method of investigation by photographic and electrical appliances. (b) They have also a great value on account of the actual facts of natural history and physiology which they record. (c) They have, thirdly, a quite distinct, and perhaps their most definite, interest in their relation to psychology."—Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F. R. S., in Nature.
"Mr. Meissonier's critical guests were evidently sceptical as to the accuracy of many of the positions; but when the photographs were turned rapidly, and made to pass before the lantern, their truthfulness was demonstrated most successfully."—Standard, London.
"Meissonier, devoting himself to his friends, evidently cared little for personal compliments; he was anxious for the well-deserved distinction of his protégé Muybridge.... 'C'est merveilleusement arrangé!' said Alexandre Dumas. 'C'est que la nature compose crânement bien!' replied Meissonier."—Le Temps, Paris.
"The sensation of the day, and the topic of popular conversation."—Boston Daily Advertiser.
"The rapid movements by different animals were most interesting: and hurdle-racing by horses—the very whipping process being visible—brought down the house."—Boston Herald.
"On revolving the instrument, the figures that have been derided by so many as impossible absurdities, started into life, and such a perfect representation of a racehorse at full speed as was never before witnessed was immediately visible."—The Field, London.
"Mr. Muybridge showed that many of our best artists have been in the habit of depicting animals in positions which they never assume in nature."—Chambers' Edinburgh Journal.