DETERIORATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE 23 



says ' it is well for breeders to recognise that defects 

 in form and constitution intensify at an alarming 

 rate.' 



Dr. Chappie, writing recently on ' The Fertility 

 of the Unfit,' says that all these defectives are pro- 

 lific, and transmit their fatal taints. The proportion 

 of habitual criminals is steadily on the increase, and 

 was never so high as now. It seems the same in 

 racing horse-flesh. 



W. H. Lang wrote in the Australasian (June 

 28, 1902) that we were not improving the breed 

 of horses, and were in a much worse position 

 as regards our saddle and harness horses than 

 before ; and he adds the most suggestive obser- 

 vation, that he has met no one who says that we 

 have improved, and he does not think that Diogenes 

 with his lantern could find anyone who does think so. 



' Faneargh,' in the Mount Barker Courier, a 

 weekly paper published near Adelaide, appealing to 

 a large country district (May 2, 1902), wrote that 

 it is a difficult matter to obtain a young, sound, 

 well-broken horse free from vice and yet of decent 

 appearance. 



Major-General Viscount Downe, C.B., spoke of 

 Australian horses {vide telegram in the Adelaide 

 papers, October 21, 1902) as being mere weeds, lack- 

 ing in the substance necessary for a cavalry charger. 



Major-General Plumer told the Royal Commis- 

 sion on the War that the little horse will do with less 

 food than the big Australian horse ; that the latter 



