466 
A. A. HOLCOMBE. 
rougher western country where the majority of the cavalry does 
duty, needs no explanation. Some of them break down as soon 
as put to duty, while others stumble, get lame, are sore in front 
from fever of the feet or chronic periostitis ; develop low ring¬ 
bone, navicular arthritis and other complications. 
Now, what is true of sidebones is true of nearly all other dis¬ 
eases, i. e.: non-professional inspectors are not capable of detect¬ 
ing them in many instances. And that other diseases which serious¬ 
ly impair serviceability are of frequent occurrence also, is seen 
from a reference to the above table. 
The mules inspected, it will be observed, presented fewer cases 
of sidebones than did the horses, 45 per cent, of the diseased ones 
being affected with it. 
Like the horses, more than half of them (62 per cent.) had 
both feet affected ; unlike the horses, the right foot, in so far as a 
record has been kept, was scarcely more prone to the disease than 
the left. But it is important to note that sidebones do not so 
surely impair the usefulness of the mule as is the case with the 
horse. Having only their own weight to carry (pack and saddle- 
mules excepted) concussion is comparatively slight, the growth of 
the bones correspondingly slow, and the effects less disastrous. 
.Respecting saddle-mules it is in place to chronicle the obser 
vation I have made, that this disease is very frequent in these 
animals, and I cannot doubt but that it is due to the carrying of 
the teamsters. 
Sub-periosteal deposits on the os coronse (low ring-bones), are 
very much more frequent in horses than in mules, appearing in 
16 per cent, of the former and but a fraction over two per cent, in 
the latter. High ring-bones are of infrequent occurrence in eith¬ 
er the public horse or mule. 
Of the diseased animals reported in the table, more mules 
were spavined than horses—37 per cent, of the former to 18 per 
cent, of the latter. In the horses, both legs were seldom found 
diseased, while the mules presented about 25 per cent, of these 
cases. 
In 56 per cent, of these diseases in the horse, the left leg alone 
was the seat of the disease. The left leg in the mule was also 
more often affected than the right by about 10 per cent. 
