OBSERVATIONS ON INJURIES, ETC'., AMONG ARMY HORSES. 267 
the contour of the injured quarter cannot always be noticed at 
first. We allowed time for the development of corroborative 
evidence, and prescribed rest with a curative view. Had we 
been able to prescribe slings, we should doubt their being of 
benefit in these cases. (But it is a notable fact that we cannot 
get slings in India ; no one will supply them to the Veterinary 
Department, though a General Order of some years' standing 
directs the officer commanding each battery of artillery and 
each troop of cavalry to provide “ one set of slings and two 
sets of sling-ropes." Whenever they are required, of course 
a fuss is made, the order re and re-re-promulgated; the 
horse dies, or is shot, without his having the chance of being 
benefited by slings ; the order is kept in abeyance till another 
casualty occurs, and then there's another fuss. It is perhaps 
as well to remark that these slings are to be paid for out of 
the captain's troop allowance, and this is where the shoe 
pinches) . 
Reverting to our case ; three weeks elapsed, during which 
time the patient became much emaciated though he fed well. 
Subsequently he gained in condition, suffering less, and 
moving with greater freedom. The crepitation was now 
more audible, which, together with the general condition 
and appearance of the horse, suggested that the chances of 
his ever being serviceable were nil; he was shot, and the 
post-mortem appearances disclosed a comminuted fracture of 
the right os innominata. The fractures were not so minute 
as in the preceding case, and false joints were in process of 
formation. A large piece of the ilium had protruded into 
the acetabulum, and by its influence on the head of the 
femur, the cartilage of incrustation and subjacent osseous 
tissue had been removed; the rough point of the bone having- 
now become round and blunt. Another part of the head 
of the femur was also worn away by its attrition on 
another piece of bone, and it was in this joint, no doubt, 
that crepitation was more audible than could at first be de- 
tected. Ossification of softer tissues was going on round the 
neck of the femur, along the margin of the cotyloid cavity 
and in other parts. Several pieces of bone were detached 
and imbedded in the structures about the obturator foramen. 
Most of the ligaments of the joint were partially or totally 
destroyed, and massed together with the products of inflam- 
mation. 
N.B. When a horse is shot, for the same reason as the 
above one was, he will, as a matter of course, fall more or 
less heavily on the affected parts and render matters worse. 
In noting post-mortem appearances it is well to keep this fact 
in view, and relate accordingly. 
