CHAPTER XIII 



Treatment in the Veterinary Hospitals 



WE at once get on terms of peculiar intimacy with tlie Veterinary Service 

 and its splendid work in curing the sick and healing the wounded 

 among our hundreds of thousands of dumb helpers when we come to visit their 

 hospitals and learn something at first hand of the highly organized methods of 

 filling and emptying them. Contemplate for a moment these figures and the 

 unmistakable meaning they convey : 551,960 horses and mules admitted to the 

 veterinary hospitals and convalescent horse depots in France from the beginning 

 of the war to the middle of February, 1918, of which 394,768, or 7i'5 per cent., 

 were passed out as cured, leaving 34,327 still vmder treatment. In the same 

 period 16,215 died, and 106,650 were destroyed, cast and sold, including those 

 cast and sold to horse butchers. There was a time when 84 per cent, were 

 cured and sent back into the fighting line. The percentage dropped to 80, then 

 to 78 per cent., for it must be remembered that horses, as I have already 

 explained, are getting older, while another factor in increasing the number of 

 castings is the desire to retain in service only absolutely sound and workably 

 sound horses. I am assured that, for the sake of economy in the long run, every 

 possible care is taken to rid the Service of those worn and broken animals 

 which are not likely to be of any more use to the Army in any sort of capacity. 



The reader is invited to follow the career of the sick or wounded animal 

 which the veterinary officer on the spot has decided shall be sent from the front 

 to the base. It should be understood that with every formation in the field 

 there is an Administrative Veterinary Officer, and Executive Veterinary Officers 

 are with the different units of the formation. On faffing sick or wounded — 

 " ineffective," as they would say in military language — an animal is sent 

 to a Mobile Veterinary Section, which is a very small veterinary unit, one 

 of which is attached to each cavalry brigade and each infantry division. 

 These sections were introduced as the result of experience gained in South 

 Africa, and, having seen them at work, I can vouch for their efficiency and 

 the important part they are playing in beginning the movement of the sick 

 from the front. It is their function to give first aid, and simple cases they 

 retain and issue into work again. Their real work, however, is to dispatch, 

 as often and as quickly as possible, the hospital cases to one of the large 

 reception depots. 



There may be several such depots, and two which I saw yielded lasting 



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