12 ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTION. 



Chap. IV.— EBGIMENTAL VBTEEINAEY ASSISTANCE. 



All animals belonging to units within a Formation must be 

 on the Veterinary charge of an Officer of the Veterinary 

 Service. A definite allotment of Veterinary OfUcers is made 

 to each Formation in accordance with Establishments, and 

 they are attached to the principal or largest units. Veterinary 

 arrangements for the smaller units are raade from this allotment 

 by administrative Veterinary Officers of the formation con- 

 cerned. It is most important that every unit should have 

 proper Veterinary supervision and care, as it is only by this 

 means sickness, inefficiency and diseases of a contagious 

 character can be adequately controlled. It was a practice in 

 the B.E. Force, France, that Veterinary Officers, in addition to 

 their daily routine work, should make a weekly inspection of 

 animals in their charge for contagious diseases, i.e.. Glanders, 

 Mange, and Epizootic Lymphangitis, and should certify on their 

 weekly returns of sick and lame that such had been carried out. 

 The bad case of Mange, the " open " case of Glanders, and the 

 advanced case of Epizootic Lymphangitis is usually to be found 

 in a unit that has not, for some reason or other, been under 

 immediate veterinary care. Freedom from disease is in direct 

 relation to the degree of care bestowed on animals, and the 

 spread of mange or any contagious disease is a certain indi- 

 cation of neglect in management and supervisionary care. 



It has been suggested by the After War Eeorganisation 

 Committee that Veterinary Officers of formations should be 

 po6]ed under their respective administrative Veterinary Officers. 

 Owing to shortage, which casualties and expansion of an army 

 are apt to produce, recourse to pooling may be forced on one, as 

 happened during the late War, but looking at it from the point 

 of view of an initial system of organisation, provision must be 

 calculated on definite lines of allotment. 



It is, moreover, much more satisfactory to units and to 

 Veterinary Officers for the latter to be attached to certain units 



