240 MILITARY COMMISSION TO EUROPE. 



The pay of a senior veterinary surgeon is about $12 per month ; the squadron veterinaries 

 receive about |9 per month. 



Both are permitted to practise upon the horses of civilians, on their own account, and also 

 receive a small additional stipend for their services in treating the squadron horses ; this last 

 amounts to from |9 to $10 per month. 



The horses are shod about once in five weeks. 



The evening before a horse is to be shod, he is caused to stand in wet clay ; if no clay is to 

 be had, a mixture of dung and mud is substituted, or else the foot is wrapped in rags, filled 

 with dung. 



The efiect of this is to soften the hoof, and facilitate the operation of paring and shoeing ; it 

 is represented as being attended with the most beneficial effect. 



Very little of the hoof and frog is cut away. 



The number of medicines used in the regiments is very small. Nadosy's "Equitation 

 Studien," and Professor Eolls' works, contain the Austrian views of tlie veterinary art. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



The imperfect sketch of the Austrian cavalry, given in the preceding pages, will show that, 

 as might have been expected, it presents many things well worthy of imitation, and much to 

 be avoided. 



The foundation of the efiiciency, and well deserved reputation of the Austrian cavalry, would 

 seem to be the great perfection of the individual instruction of the men ; without this, no 

 organization, however perfect it may be, can lead to good results ; with it, the defects of a 

 very bad organization may be overcome, or lost sight of. 



The system pursued in the purchase of horses is good. 



The manner of posting the officers in a division is worthy of the most attentive considera- 

 tion ; there may well occur exceptional cases in which it is absolutely necessary that the officers 

 should be in front of the men to lead and encourage them in desperate situations ; but it would 

 seem that the A-ustrians have good reasons for placing the officers in the ranks. They say that 

 since the officers have, as a general rule, perfect control over their horses, they will keep them 

 in the proper direction, and thus prevent the men from opening out, the charge being thus 

 rendered compact and effective — they state that this formation results from the experience of 

 actual charges upon an enemy. The general features of their veterinary system might be 

 followed in our service to great advantage. 



Their system of depot squadrons is good, and produces good results. The cooking utensils 

 seem to be well adajated to the end in view. The tactical unit would aj^i^ear to be entirely too 

 large to permit that great mobility and celerity which are the essential conditions of the success 

 of cavalry ; this defect i's probably overcome only by the perfection of individual instruction. 



The number of things carried by the men, and the excessive weight of the equipment, seems 

 pernicious and absurd in the extreme. I was informed by cavalry officers that the men usually 

 manage to throw away the greater part of their load before many days passed in the field. 



The number of non-commissioned officers is too small, in comparison with the number of 

 privates. 



The exercises preliminary to the instruction in equitation are worthy of imitation ; while it 

 would, by no means, be advisable to follow blindly all their conditions for a good seat. 



The articles of clothing would appear to be altogether too great ; no doubt the comfort of the 



