460 
A. A. HOLCOMBE. 
cavalry service. So, also, might the artillery officer inspect artil¬ 
lery horses and the Quartermaster mules and work-horses. But 
what opportunity a young officer of infantry has to learn of the 
qualities necessity in cavalry and artillery horses I am not aware. 
Nevertheless, they are occasionally made inspectors. 
In some instances civilian employes in the capacity of wagon 
masters, who are considered to have some knowledge of animals 
in general, are appointed inspectors; occasionally they constitute 
the entire Board. But which of the inspectors named above 
know what constitutes soundness ? Are any of them “acquainted 
with ailments of animals used in army service and at the same 
time capable of detecting them ? To the student of animal dis¬ 
eases the answer is self-evident and scarce needs recording —not 
one. Let me offer some statistics on the subject, gathered during 
the last three months of 1880 and the first month of 1881. 
During these four months I inspected 542 ^animals, all of 
which had seen some service. But 253 of these were inspected 
for frost bites only, and no record was kept of their other com¬ 
plaints, leaving 289 whose records appear below. Of these 289 
animals, 217 were diseased: 128 being horses and 89 mules. 
Among those 217 animals were 267 cases of disease, as fol¬ 
lows : 
Diseases. Animal. No. Demarks. 
Sidebones.Horses—64—In both fore feet. 41 
In right foot only. 15 
In left foot only. 4 
Not recorded. 4 
Mules—40—In both forefeet. 25 
In right foot only. 5 
In left foot only. 4 
Not recorded. 6 
Low ringbones.. .Horses—21—In both fore feet. 9 
In right foot only. 7 
In left foot only. 2 
Not recorded. 3 
Mules— 2—In both fore feet. 1 
In right fore foot only. 1 
