TREATMENT IN THE VETERINARY HOSPI'JALS 109 



sum of £50,000 a month is brought into the British (iovernmcnt's exchequer. 

 The figure, indeed, is rising, as horses, alive or dead, are fetching bigger prices. 

 Horseflesh is a fairly common article of food in France, and from some of the 

 hospitals I have seen truckloads of cast animals leaving for Paris, where they 

 are dealt with at the abattoir hippophagiquc. Under agreements the animals 

 are bound to be destroyed under the supervision of the Veterinary Service 

 within forty-eight hours of admission, and humane cattle killers are specially 

 provided by the R.S.P.C.A. for their destruction. 



Those animals which have died or which are too poor or unsuitable for the 

 purpose of food are disposed of at special abattoirs in close proximity to veteri- 

 nary hospitals. Their skins are salted on the premises and dispatched to 

 England for sale ; the carcases are rendered down for fat, and on an average 

 two gallons are obtained from each animal, realizing as much as 14 fr. a gallon. 

 I recall that at one hospital I saw gas being drawn off from a tremendous 

 manure dump, and the gas was being utilized in the rendering down of the 

 carcases. Now an economizer apparatus is being erected at selected centres, 

 and so the Veterinary Service is using its splendid organization to get the utmost 

 possible out of our war animals whether in life or in death. 



It has been my portion to be associated with our war-horses and mules in 

 their hundreds of thousands. I hope that my sketches of their lives, from the 

 time they are trained in the United Kingdom, through their active service life 

 in France, and then in their days of tickness, will have interested readers. 

 They have necessarily been brief, maybe even superficial, but there was no 

 alternative. Either the subject had to be dealt with as one would mirror first- 

 hand impressions, or else by minute and detailed chronicle of unlimited ength. 

 The latter was ruled out, first of all by the fact that we are still in the midst of 

 the raging tumult, and therefore the story, once begun in detail, could have no 

 end in detail ; and, secondly, because it was against military interests to write 

 too definitely of our horse organization both on active service and in sickness. 

 Thus there have been omissions, discreet enough now, but which I shall hope to 

 fill in when happier times come. While, therefore, much remains to be said of 

 very great interest, a good deal has been written in these articles which, I hope, 

 will have conveyed a better understanding of how gallantly and worthily our 

 horses and mules have assisted our cause and of the infinite care that is taken of 

 their welfare. 



Both services — the Remount and the Veterinary — have every reason to be 

 proud of their records. Both have learned by experience as, indeed, they could 

 not help doing. But there were those in authority unashamed of profiting by 

 mistakes and capable always of acting on first knowledge and new ideas 

 acquired. I may not have attempted to deal with the vast question of preven- 

 tive medicine in veterinary science, but then only a fool would have ventured as 

 a layman to enter into scientific detail which, under the circumstances, would 

 assuredly have been out of place, and would probably have bored the reader. 

 The success of preventive medicine in the Army Veterinary Service will make 

 an admirable after-the-war theme for an official professional pen. Meanwhile I 

 can only once again put into simple language my admiration for what has been 

 done by the Veterinary Service in France. The fact will give much satisfaction 



