MILITAEY HYGIENE 955 



Food supplies are often hidden on the approach of an 

 army, the grain is generally buried, and anything in the 

 shape of straw or forage hidden away ; the roof of the 

 house is a favourite place for the latter. The enemy is 

 perfectly right to destroy food supplies ; enormous tracts 

 of grass country may be fired with this object, as was done 

 during the late war in South A.frica, which very success- 

 fully defeats the invader from using this important source 

 of local supply. 



Campaigns of starvation have not been unknown. 

 Napoleon in Eussia, Wellington in Spain, the Army of the 

 Indus in Afghanistan in 1838, and the British Army in 

 the Crimea, are notable examples. 



Horses and other animals have to be fed if they are to be 

 kept alive. As Nansouty remarked to Murat in the 1812 

 Campaign in Eussia — when the latter was complaining of 

 want of vigour in the cavalry charges — ' Horses have no 

 patriotism ; the soldiers fight without bread, but the 

 horses insist on oats.' A pound or two of hay and a 

 handful of grain, can only have one termination. 



Food may be available, but military necessity may not 

 admit of giving animals time to eat it. A man can halt 

 for a few minutes, consume his biscuit and beef, and 

 be fit to go on ; but this amount of time is of no use for 

 any animal. It takes a horse at least five minutes to eat 

 a pound of corn, and about twenty minutes to eat a pound 

 of hay ; at least five hours out of the twenty-four are 

 required for feeding, and as he is fed in the hours of 

 daylight and not in the dark, the bulk of the five hours is 

 required to come out of the working day. And so with 

 cattle ; not only must time be given for feeding, but also 

 for rumination. Without this they lose condition, and in 

 time die from exhaustion. 



In hot countries as much work should be done at night 

 as possible. The animals at the front may have from 

 necessity to work during the day, but there are convoys on 

 the lines of communication which may be just as safe at 

 night as in the day, while the work got out of the animals 



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