HORSES AND MULES IN SICKNESS 103 



tioned that mange attacks four horses to one mule. In the case of debiUty 

 there are 4-50 horse patients to one mule ; lameness is about equal, and it 

 is a curious thing that mules seldom recover from bone lameness. Eight 

 horses to one mule is the proportion in respect of digestive diseases ; cellulitis 

 is as four to one, and ophthalmia is as two to one. 



Gunshot casualties naturally fluctuate according to what is going on at 

 the front. Veterinary surgeons do indeed owe much to the experience war 

 has brought them. Especially is this so of those who, day after day, have 

 been engaged in the operating theatres searching for and extracting the cruel 

 jagged shell spHnters, shrapnel bullets and bomb splinters, and in many 

 different ways bringing relief to the poor suffering creatures. Theirs has, 

 indeed, been humane and splendid work, for by their skill and knowledge 

 they have saved the hves of thousands that would have been doomed in days 

 gone by, when surgery was nothing hke as advanced as it is to-day. Then, 

 too, their operations have been assisted by the aseptic methods of steriliza- 

 tion of wounds and instruments in place of the antiseptic methods once 

 favoured. One officer I know is very proud of twenty-three pieces of shrapnel 

 of all sizes which he extracted from one horse. That same horse was in due 

 time restored to active service. When I think of the great work being done 

 by the Veterinary Service, of the immense strides it has made forward in 

 research, surgery, and the study of disease, my wonder is that the authorities 

 have not estabhshed schools on the spot for the training of those who must 

 one day fill the ranks. The opportunity is unique. Certainly every veteri- 

 nary surgeon in the United Kingdom who is fit for service abroad should, 

 for his own sake as well as his country's, have a period of service in France. 



