THE A-V.C OVERSEAS. 



Reports of 

 Evi:-\ViTNi"ssEs AT Tin-: I'kont. 



"The I'^encli," sa\s the special corres- 

 pondent in The Times of October 15th, 

 "have an enormous admiration for our equip- 

 ment. . . . 'Pile guns, and particularl\- tlie 

 horses, are tlie admiration of e\eryone. 



" No doubt the excellent condition of 

 these animals is in large measure due to the 

 services rendered by the Army Veterinary 

 Corps. It is the particular care of the Veter- 

 inary Corps to collect wounded and abandoned 

 horses belonging to both armies. These 

 liorses are examined ; the less seriously in- 

 jured are operated on on the spot, while those 

 who are badly wounded, or are sick, are sent 

 away to a regular system of base hospitals. 



" Hundreds of horses have been sa\'ed, 

 and the work of the Army Veterinary Corps 

 may ha\e a \ery important bearing on the 

 campaign. It has been computed that e\ery 

 Uhlan and French cavalryman has, on the 

 average, ridden three horses since the begin- 

 ning of the war. The Germans have stripped 

 Northern France of useful horses, and 

 chargers are not made in a day. The 

 German, too, has not had the time, or perhaps 

 the means, to pay much attention to his 

 mount. In very many instances he has had 

 to feed it on green food, with the result that 

 glanders and other diseases have set in, and 

 hundreds of horses have been lost. I have 

 seen many horses lying by the wayside as 

 they fell, with distended bellies, showing only 

 too clearly the manner of food tliey had been 

 living on. 



" One could nearly always tell a dead 

 French horse by the fact that its ribs could 

 be counted. The rider had not made the fatal 

 mistake of feeding it on beetroots and green 

 corn, but had literally ridden it to death. 

 Any horse, therefore, which can be saved 

 now by our Army Veterinary Corps may be 

 worth six later." 



During the whole course oi the war," 

 writes Mr. Beach Thomas, in the Daily Mail 

 of October 16th, especially lately, one arm 

 of the Service into which I have been able to 

 get some insight has surpassed itself. It is 

 the Veterinary Corps, which was first formed 

 after the South African War. This corps has 

 dealt with some 27,000 horses, probably more, 

 and it has sa\'ed the li\es of hundreds of 

 animals, of v.hich many would ha\e been 



condemned as incurable even in time of 

 peace. The other day one of the quite young 

 hands picked up somehow a German horse 

 with three bullets in its shoulder ; and rather 

 against his superior's advice operated 

 successfully, extricated the bullets, and in a 

 surprisingly short time the horse was as fit as 

 it could be. Some of these young men have 

 indeed developed a real talent for quick and 

 efficient surgery e\en under hre. Some have 

 also taken up the Wild West game of 

 catching and carrying off German horses, 

 sometimes by single-handed expeditions in 

 the gloaming. 



" This solitary hunting is, however, off 

 the proper line of the xeterinary surgeon ; 

 and it would be a pity to let anything at all 

 conceal the fact of the really magnificent and 

 humane work done by the corps. By a 

 system of field hospitals and of base hospitals 

 all along the line they are enabled to deal 

 with nearly all the horses that come in 

 wounded ; and as they are treated they are 

 distributed to homes very much as the men. 

 There is one large home, very far in the rear, 

 for horses which are judged to need a long 

 convalescence. 



"The care of the horses has been remark- 

 able all through the war. The Germans 

 must have lost four horses to our one simply 

 from want of care in unsaddling and remoxing 

 harness and feeding. But, apart from this, 

 the Veterinary Corps have saved their 

 thousands by medical skill and organisation. 

 It is hard work, but they have their rewards 

 in many amusing incidents. One is worth 

 mention. A young soldier brought in one 

 day a German horse of which he was very 

 proud. ' You couldn't breed a better in 

 Ireland ' he said, ' and every bit of leather is 

 new.' The veterinary sergeant, even before 

 he saw the marks, recognised the horse as 

 English. It had been lost and taken by the 

 Germans three days earlier, and had now 

 come back with brand-new saddle and bridle 

 and only a scratch to be healed. Incidentally 

 the incident suggests the astonishing per- 

 fection of German eciuipment. It is only in 

 human -and perhaps humane — things that 

 they fail. That horses and men are not 

 machines escapes them." 



Letters i-kom 

 r.s.p.c.a. insitxtors al- 1111; i'kont. 



The following letters will be of excep- 

 tional interest to animal 1o\ims. coming as 

 thev do from inspectors ot the 1\.S. 1 '.(".A. 

 who are now ser\ing with the I'orccs al.iroad. 



