MILITAEY HYGIENE 937 



profound experience which is required for one of the most 

 delicate operations in nature ? To learn the art of breed- 

 ing requires a life-long apprenticeship, and this has to be 

 grafted on a strangely intuitive knowledge possessed by 

 very few men in a generation ; yet, so profoundly ignorant 

 is the public generally of the needful requirements for this 

 delicate art, that the last boy from school is quite prepared 

 to cheerfully accept the responsibilities of conducting a 

 Government breeding establishment. Breeding consists in 

 something more than bringing the male and female elements 

 together, though this is the general standard apparently by 

 which the matter is judged. 



The supply of Eemount horses in peace is not a very 

 difficult matter, as only about 2,000 are required annually 

 by the Army at home. It is otherwise in time of war, and 

 the question then assumes an extremely important aspect ; 

 we may here glance at the system which has to be adopted 

 in order to obtain horses, though the matter is not one 

 which comes within the province of the Veterinary Depart- 

 ment. 



The first system is one which has its counterpart among 

 men, viz., calling out the reserve. Under an enlightened 

 and intelligent scheme devised by a late officer of the 

 Eemount Department, a capitation fee is paid annually to 

 certain owners of studs, to enable in time of war a selection 

 to be made of a certain number of horses at a fixed price. 

 It is known as the Eegistration Scheme, and constitutes at 

 a very low cost a permanent Army reserve, sufficient, in 

 the first place, to meet any ordinary emergency. 



The enormous advantage of the registration scheme 

 consists in being able to obtain not only a large number 

 of horses, but, above all, seasoned ones in hard-working 

 condition, for in civil life horses are not kept to look at. 

 No matter how technically unsound the horses may be, if 

 they are in hard and regular work, the question of sound- 

 ness or unsoundness need hardly be considered, provided 

 they are moving practically ' true.' 



We cannot, indeed, conceive a more admirable system 



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