io6 THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



impressions of what can be done by an administration which seems to have 

 mastered every detail in regard to the welfare of the horses and the care of those 

 men who constitute the rank and file of the Veterinary Service. The first of 

 them is in a town of fairly considerable size, and it certainly owes much to the 

 fact that it is chiefly housed in what before the war was a French artillery 

 barracks. Thus there is comfort at once for the sick and wounded that come 

 down from the front by road, rail or barge, and especially is this so in the old 

 riding school, which is now the temporary home of many " cases." The idea 

 of the sick arriving in barges is certainly unique. Five, each to hold thirty-five, 

 are employed on the canal in this way, and the journey makes for peace and 

 rest en route. The other reception hospital I have in mind is probably the last 

 word on such institutions. In all manner of ways — in the utilization of clever 

 yet simple devices, in the observance of absolute cleanliness, in the maintenance 

 of clean and hygienic " standings " for the horses, in the provision of shelters 

 and wind-screens, in the careful study of feeding and general horse management 

 — the hospital is just as perfect as brains, enterprise and abundant energy can 

 make it. Moreover, it is laid out on sandy soil, which is a boon of inestimable 

 worth. 



These reception depots have radiating from them other hospitals which 

 take the animals distributed to them. Each reception depot may be said to 

 be the mainspring of a group of hospitals. They are, of course, of very special 

 importance, since every animal arriving is at once put into a class according to 

 the nature of its sickness. Skin cases are sent along to a hospital which 

 specializes in the care of mange and kindred troubles ; surgical cases are sent 

 to where surgery is made a speciality of ; and ophthalmia may be sent else- 

 where. The success of the system is beyond all question. It means that a 

 hospital commandant and his staff become expert in what they are made to 

 specialize in, though there may be a certain monotony in the institution whose 

 reputation depends on the healing of mange. The treatment, for instance, 

 does not assist that smart and clean appearance which is always aimed at, 

 since mangey horses and mules are of themselves an eyesore and are certainly 

 no advertisement for efficient grooming. 



I have in mind two specially fine " skin " hospitals — one close to the 

 reception depot I have been describing and partly accommodated in an old 

 cement factory, the other many miles away on the outskirts of a famous city. 

 It was at the latter hospital that I was much struck with the close attention 

 given to feeding. Every individual horse, most of them wasted in condition as 

 well as going through the mange cure, seemed to be considered. Then the 

 making of hay racks and partitions between stalls, all made with the old wire 

 from baled hay, were items of clever contrivance. It was at this hospital that 

 the patients were dipped in an arsenical bath in preference to calcium sulphide. 

 It is said to be more efficacious, and is certainly less obnoxious. This hospital 

 has passed through 40,000 animals, of which 24,000 had been sent to the neigh- 

 bouring base remount depot and 8,000 to convalescent horse depots. Every 

 general horse hospital takes special pride in its operating theatres, in perfect 

 cleanliness, and in the refreshing and quiet stimulus of patches of grass lawn 

 here and there. Everywhere an endeavour is made to secure rest and thorough 



