MILITARY HYGIENE 959 



animals in war is a most important subject. Before our 

 last great struggle in South Africa we published papers on 

 this subject,* in order to attract the needful attention to 

 those sources of loss which were under control. Such 

 extracts from these as specially bear on the subject we 

 are now considering will be reproduced. 



Speaking roughly, of every 100 horses sick on service : — 



25 will be suffering from exhaustion or debility. 



25 from sore backs and other forms of preventable 

 wounds, such as rope galls, bit injuries, etc. 



25 from mange. 



25 from other causes, of which lameness will pre- 

 dominate. 



It is obvious that the object of this tabular statement is 

 rather to fix attention on the principal causes of sick- 

 ness, than to state the exact proportions in which they 

 occur. 



It will be convenient to separately consider each of these 

 causes. 



Exhaustion may result from starvation, from insufficient 

 food combined with too much work, or it may occur in the 

 midst of plenty where horses are being worked incessantly 

 without rest, or at such a fast pace as to kill them. Ex- 

 haustion may occur in time of peace ; there is no regiment 

 that does not possess a certain number of horses that after 

 a hard field-day go ' off feed,' probably for two or three 

 days, until the effect passes off. The life of such a horse 

 on service is necessarily a short one ; if he cannot eat he 

 cannot work, or if he has to work in spite of not eating his 

 days are numbered. 



But whether food be liberal, sufficient, or insufficient, no 

 animal can produce an unlimited amount of work ; every- 

 thing over and above a certain useful effort means wearing 



* ' Saddles and Saddlery ': Lecture, Aldershot MiUtary Society, 

 July, 1891 ; ' The Loss of Horses in War ': United Service Magazine, 

 August, 1893 ; ' The Loss of Horses in War ': Journal of the United 

 Service Institution, vol. xxxviii., 1894. 



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