The Origin and Influence of the Thorotcghbred Horse. By 

 William Ridgeway, (12s. 6d. net. Cambridge Univer- 

 sity Press.) 

 It would perhaps be scarcely too much to say that this is 

 an epoch-making book, for here, for the first time, we have a 

 problem, hitherto considered to be one for the biologist and 

 the breeder, tackled by a scholar and an archaeologist, and, as 

 the present writei', himself of the biological wing, freely and 

 frankly admits, with results of the highest value to the subject 

 as a biological study. 



The pedigree of the horse has passed into one of the 

 comTnonpIaces of manuals on evolution, though these manuals 

 almost invariably refrain from giving the real difficulty of the 

 pedigree — namely, that the fossil forms on which it 15 based 

 almost all belong to the American continent, where there were 

 no horses in modern times until they were imported by colonists 

 from Europe. Evidently, therefore, there are great difficulties 

 in supposing that the American horse is the descendant of 

 these fossil animals. The pedigree of the horse— of our present 

 breeds of horses — is a matter which has attracted a very large 

 share of attention in late years. Prof. Cossar Ewart's work, 

 as detailed in the " Penicuik Experiments," has been of the 

 greatest value, and those who were present at the Cambridge 

 meeting of the British Association will remember the great 

 interest which was shown in the Celtic pony exhibited on that 

 occasion in connexion with a discussion on the subject treated 

 of in the work now under review. Prof. Ridgeway agrees Avith 

 some other writers — for example, Mr. Barclay, who has recently 

 maintained the same thesis in an interesting little volume — 

 that the small pony of the Shetlands and of other parts of the 

 western fringe of the British islands and of islands still further 

 north is a perfectly distinct variety — perhaps one might even 

 use that much-contested word species — from the horses of the 

 more southern parts of our islands. Where were these horses 

 derived from ? Above all, where did the thoroughbred derive 

 his "breeding" and his attributes? Such are some of the 

 questions which Prof Ridgeway sets before himself in this 

 book. Probably nine out of every ten persons, if asked to 

 reply offhand to them, would say : " From the Arab steed, so 

 famed in story and in poetry." Not so Prof. Ridgeway. He 

 holds that this view has no historical foundation whatsoever ; 

 in fact, believes that the Arabs only obtained their fine breed 

 of horses from North Africa at a period later than the Christian 

 era. Where, then, did the thoroughbred come from ? Accord- 

 ing to the Professor, he is derived from the Libyan horse, of 

 the existence of which, as an unmatched animal, there is clear 

 evidence for a thousand years before the Arabs ever bred a 

 horse. It is this Libyan horse which is portrayed on the monu- 

 ments of the XVIIIth Egyptian Dynasty, prior to 1500 B.C. — 

 a horse of a bay colour, with a white blaze in the forehead, and 

 often with white bracelets or stockings. From this North 

 African stock all the best horses of the world have sprung, and 

 it is a variety entirely distinct from the clumsy, thick-set, slow 

 horses of Europe and Asia. With what wealth df knowledge 

 and critical acumen the thesis thus set forth is maintained, 

 those who are familiar with Prof Ridgeway's previous works 

 will well understand. One singular point, of great interest to 

 the biologist, which comes out in the course of this work is in 

 connexion with the striped Kathiwar horses which Darwin 

 believed to be the typical examples of the primitive dun- 

 coloured striped animal from which all our domestic breeds 



