MILITAEY HYGIENE 



963 



Let us, therefore, first inquire into this dead continuous 

 pressure so destructive of military horses. 



A cavah-y horse carries nearly the equivalent of two men 

 of average weight, and this weight may be divided into 

 living and dead ; obviously the living weight is the man, 

 the dead weight consists of the saddle, arms, accoutrements, 

 ammunition, kit for the man, and rations for both. Fig. 218 

 shows diagrammatically the weight carried by a troop horse. 

 It would almost appear as if the troop horse were to be 

 considered some special act of creation for military purposes, 



STONES 11 ._ 



-MAN 



SADDLE 



KIT 



-CLOTHING 



ARMS 

 AMMUNITION 



Fig. 218.— Diagrammatic representation of the "Weight carried by a Cavah-y 



Horse. 



otherwise it is inconceivable that anyone could imagine an 

 ordinary horse could carry the above 19^- stone day after 

 day, especially on short rations, insufficient water, short 

 rests, and over broken ground. 



Yet this supposed special product the troop horse has to 

 do it, as if the fact of being a soldier's horse gave him 

 supernatural strength and energy. 



We have at p. 773 gone into the question of the weight- 

 carrying powers of the horse, and have shown that 15 stone 

 is the maximum which should be enforced. The Emperor 

 Theodosius had evidently a keen appreciation of the weight- 

 carrying powers of his cavalry, for in the Theodosian Code, 

 Digitized by Microsoft® 61—2 



