560 Analyses of Booh. [September, 
different character of the architecture. In India the majority of 
houses are elastic structures of wood and bamboo. Those built 
of brick or stone are for the most part only one storey in height, 
and detached from each other. 
We cannot avoid here repeating an old lesson, i.e., insisting 
on the advantages in districts liable to earthquakes, of houses 
built of sheet-iron plates bolted together. To prevent rapid 
changes of temperature the walls may consist of double plates, 
with a layer of air between. Such houses would have, in addi- 
tion, decided advantages in a sanitary point of view, and would 
not harbour snakes, rats, termites, and vermin in general. 
Breeding Horses for Use. By F. Ram. London : Civil Service 
Printing and Publishing Company, Limited. 
We felt at first slightly surprised that a book on such a subjedt 
should be sent to us for review. On turning over its pages we 
soon perceived that the author was taking up the matter from a 
novel, and decidedly rational and scientific, point of view. Mr. 
Ram’s objedt seems to us, indeed, of no small importance. He 
seeks “ to point out the irrationality of the present means of 
determining which particular horses are best to be employed in 
propagating their kind, — that is to say, for raising stock for use- 
ful purposes.” In view of a variety of circumstances both at 
home and abroad, he contends that it is our duty to obtain from 
the farm-produce placed in the stable-manger the maximum 
amount of power obtainable from it. He shows that the amount 
of work to be got out of horses for an equal consumption of food 
varies. The objedl of rational horse-breeding is to obtain “ from 
the same number of blades of grass or grains of corn as now 
yield only one foot-ton of work, a much larger measure of energy.” 
He holds that horses should be judged not by their figure, or their 
power of “ flying, lightly weighted, as fast as scandal, for a few 
moments, for the benefit of gamblers,” but for their capacity for 
work, their power of endurance, and of bearing great fatigue, 
privations, and hardships : the horse which excels in these respedts 
v/ill be the best, whether for the road, the farm, or the battle-field, 
even if he should display what some authorities call “ inferiority 
of figure and utter want of quality.” He says, “ How use and 
beauty may be in conflidt is illustrated in the Californian mustang, 
described in the “ American Journal ” as a coarse-grained, ill- 
built, ugly, vicious brute, but invaluable on account of his never- 
to-be-played-out bottom and speed. With what favour would 
such an ugly beast be looked upon if it made its appearance at an 
English show ?” How comes it, we may ask, that prizes have 
