45 



The author proceeds to observe that in enlarging 

 the structure we seem to modify rather than im- 

 prove the vital powers of the animal ; and by way 

 of illustrating his meaning points out with great 

 truth that 



" In the human race any extent of skeleton or 

 amount of muscle which is unusually large is rarely 

 allied with a full amount of vital power. Still, 

 the man who has most muscle can make the 

 greatest muscular exertion. If we change the 

 nature of the trial and render it one of time or 

 privations, the greater vital power of smaller but 

 well-formed men is apparent." 



Our author then proceeds to examine the proper- 

 ties which animals derive from nature, comparing 

 these with those they derive from art. In this con- 

 nection I have been much interested to observe that 

 he cites the greater strength, staying power and 

 activity of the hare of the downs over the hare of the 

 park and low pasture-land. The same comparison 

 was made by me* as proof of the advantages to an 

 animal of life-conditions that compel the free use of 

 limbs. 



Nature, observes this author, erects her own 

 standard for measuring the constitutional power of 

 her creatures, and the individuals who no longer come 

 up to this perish prematurely. In other words, the 

 constitutional strength of animals is so regulated by, 

 and adjusted to, the conditions of feed and climate 

 under which those animals pass their lives, that they 

 thrive vigorously. We do not, for instance, find the 

 ponies of the Welsh hills or of Exmoor, a feeble and 

 delicate race ; the feeble individuals die off without 

 perpetuating their weaknesses, and those which come 

 up to the standard of vitality Nature has prescribed 

 survive to reproduce their kind. 



* "Young Race Horses," pp. 21-2, by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. 

 Vinton & Co., Limited, 1898. 



