IV PREFACE. 



breeding stock, at least in the case of horse flesh. 

 The sires should all belong to the nation, the fees 

 regulated, and the dams accepted or rejected at the 

 discretion of responsible persons placed between 

 the would-be breeder and the nation. Much has 

 been effected by exhibitions and prizes, but this 

 method holds much the same relation to the one 

 named that chance holds to certainty. At present, 

 the breeding of racing stock only approaches the 

 great law of survival of the fittest, much care being 

 taken to register results, and the representatives of 

 best results are set apart to reproduce their like. 

 A more perfect combination of scientific and logical 

 method than is followed in the reproduction of 

 racing stock does not obtain in any physicist's 

 laboratory. With no other class of horse is this 

 method applicable; hence the necessity of judging 

 by other and less exact methods, and therefore the 

 necessity of some such w^ay as has been indicated. 



Lastly, it is desirable here to point out that the 

 book is not written with any intention of standing 

 in place of the thinking out process of the learner, 

 but is more as a guide to the lines along which 

 thought must be directed. By using it as a 

 guide, and thinking out the subject for himself, the 

 author believes that any one of intelligence may in 

 a very few months, by observation and diligence, 

 become a scientific judge of a horse. 



The author craves indulgence as the work is 

 entirely original. 



London, March, 1879. 



