ARMY VETERINARY REPORTS. 
459 
chestnut. Cream color, dun, white and pi-colored horses have 
little hardihood.” 
Perhaps the determination of the age is not a matter of any 
great importance, seeing that most men acquainted with horses can 
generally tell whether or not the animal has passed the prescribed 
age. If in any case there is doubt, the inspector can, of course, 
reject the animal as unsuited for the service. I have seen horses 
thirteen years old bought for cavalry service in which the mouth 
was not deceptive, and I have seen “ bishoped ” mouths deceive 
the inspector. But these instances must be comparatively rare 
unless the inspector is unusually deficient. 
Under the specification of “ and suitable in every respect for 
cavalry service ” must come the question of conformation , a very 
important one, and one that must necessarily be intimately asso¬ 
ciated with the remaining specification “ sound in all particulars.’’ 
That this last specification out-weighs all others in importance, 
will not be questioned by those acquainted with the work of our 
cavalry horses, and the general tendency to certain diseases 
which exists to so marked a degree among American horses. To 
determine these questions in the purchase of cavalry horses, 
would seem, to the Veterinary Surgeon, to require the knowledge 
of the veterinarian and the experience of army service. The 
same questions, only in lesser degree, are at stake in the purchase 
of artillery and work-horses, and mules. 
In so far as I know, there are no regulations governing the 
appointment of inspectors of horses and mules. They have some¬ 
times been appointed by a special order of the Department com¬ 
mander, and in other instances they have been named by a depot 
Quartermaster, who was designated to receive and pay for the 
animals bought. 
That inspectors are always appointed because of their especial 
fitness to perform the duties of the office, is not apparent. In 
fact, some inspectors have been entirely ignorant of what consti¬ 
tutes defective conformation, while nearly all those I have known 
have but the most superficial knowledge of what constitutes an 
animal “ sound in all particulars.” 
One would logically infer that a cavalry officer might properly 
serve on a Board of Inspectors for the purchase of horses for 
