Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying / With a dissertation on aëronautics

by James Bell Pettigrew

Fig. 38.

Fig. 39.

Fig. 40.

Thus when the arms and legs are pushed away from the body, the arms describe the inner sides of the ellipses (fig. 38, a a), the legs describing the outer sides (c c). When the arms and legs are drawn towards the body, the arms describe the outer sides of the ellipses (b b), the legs describing the inner sides (d d). As the body advances, the ellipses are opened out and loops formed, as at e e, f f of fig. 39. If the speed attained is sufficiently high, the loops are converted into waved lines, as in walking and flying.—(Vide g g, h h of fig. 40, p. 81, and compare with fig. [18], p. 37, and figs. [71] and 73, p. 144.) The swimming of man, like the walking, swimming, and flying of animals, is effected by alternately flexing and extending the limbs, as shown more particularly at fig. 41, A, B, C.