THE HORSES OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY. 
901 
in maintaining that efficiency in the field. A humble con¬ 
sciousness of having done one’s duty must stand in the stead 
of public recognition of services rendered; and, perhaps, 
after all, no higher reward could be desired, however much 
it might be deserved. 
My object is to draw attention to several most important 
questions that are being raised on a subject which it should 
be—though it has hitherto scarcely, if*at all, been—the army 
veterinary surgeon’s particular province to discuss, and in 
which his special knowledge and experience would prove of 
great value. I allude to the obtaining of good and suitable 
horses for the army; such as would not break down and be¬ 
come hopelessly inefficient in the first fortnight of a cam¬ 
paign ; as well as to the keeping them in the best possible 
state of health and usefulness during the severe strain of 
active service. 
Owing to circumstances which are palpable enough and 
easily explained, in some corps in the service the veterinary 
surgeon is not allowed to express an opinion as to the phy¬ 
sical fitness of horses about to be purchased for the army, 
but can only certify as to their soundness or unsoundness. 
The absurdity of this arrangement must be particularly 
manifest, when the officer who may chance to be appointed 
to “ pass-in” the horses is deficient in the special knowledge 
or other qualities which would enable him to select or reject 
particular animals. We must, then, frequently have horses 
purchased which are certainly sound, but so notoriously mal¬ 
formed or deficient in physical conformation as to be either 
next to useless, or certain to give way when any test of en¬ 
durance is applied to them. For a horse may be perfectly 
sound, and yet not worth its forage, so far as utility is con¬ 
cerned. I am not aware that in the armies of other countries 
contractors have a monopoly of supplying horses, or that 
gentlemen who have no knowledge of a horse’s exterior should 
be placed in the very invidious and responsible position of 
passing them into the army, provided that they chance to 
be sound. I do not assert that such is the case in our army, 
but the existing arrangements render such a misfortune quite 
possible. 
Such is certainly not the custom in the army of the greatest 
military power in the world—that of Germany. In that 
country horses are purchased as they should be in this—by 
commission ; and the whole business of remounting the army 
appears to be so thoroughly perfect and well adapted to pro¬ 
vide horses physically Jit for service, that much, very much, 
of the success of the German troops during the late war 
