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CONSERVING LIVES OF ARMY HORSES First Organized Attempt Being Made to Carefully Guard Our Equine Warriors This is the first war in which any organized at ¬ tempt has been made to conserve the lives of horses says Frederick J Haskell in the Chicago Daily Xews In the Crimean War and even recently in the war of the Balkans horses wore sacrificed on nil enormous scale Tales of horses that lay for days wounded and helpless on battlefields de ¬ serted by an advancing army of blind horses that died a slow death of starvation and of rivers changed to red by horses blood were sufficiently horrible to start a movement among horse lovers to prevent their recurrence But it is fron an economic rather than a sentimental point of view that the lives of horses ara so carefully guarded in this war warIt It is the same kind of economy that demands the conservation of all human wreckage of the battle ¬ field and of metal shrapnel as well it is the economy that lias created a reconstruction force equally as numerous equally as scientific and equally as necessary as the force of destruction destructionThe The horse that goes to war today is as carefully protected with the exception of insurance as the man wlio rides him He is chosen by purchasing officers with as much care as to his physical capac ¬ ity and suitability When lie gets to the firing line there is an army veterinarian to look after him himThe The purchasing of army horses is done by the quartermasters corps of the war department After they are brought in large numbers by agents of the war department to the horse recruiting stations whore they are carefully inspected by army veter iiiarians When a great many horses are brought together ninny are found afflicted with various maladies such as strangles glanders and influ ¬ enza Such cases are isolated and other liorses inoculated with vaccines vaccinesThe The horses temperature is taken and his tongue looked at The same drugs arc administered as to human animals only poor horse in larger doses dosesWhen When the horses are thoroughly inspected and their physical condition brought up to standard they are distributed among various training camps Even here they are under close surveillance by army veterinarians Living quarters must be kept clean comfortable and well ventilated Drinking water must be fresh and nncontaminated Certain water borne diseases are contracted by horses horsesFOEAGE FOEAGE SCEUPULOUSLY INSPECTED INSPECTEDForage Forage is scrupulously inspected by the veterina ¬ rian for the horse is fastidious about food and has firm and unalterable habits of eating Unlike the amiable cow and the hog the horse insists upon food being clean not an unreasonable demand when you consider that horses are subject to attacks of forace poisoning quite as terrible as the human ptomaine poisoning Furthermore he likes his food to be served at the same time every day Ani ¬ mals fed at different intervals every day lose their appetite and finally their robust health healthUnder Under this elaborate care it might be expected that nothing could happen to disturb the life of the horse But there is still plenty of work for the army veterinarian Distributed among the various training camps are horse hospitals in charge of veterinary surgeons and horses becoming ill or debilitated arc immediately removed to them Here they are treated operated upon if necessary and then put in a fine green meadow of convalescence convalescenceFrequently Frequently a veterinary finds that there is noth ¬ ing the matter with a horse except his teeth These often become misshapen from constant grinding and prevent proper mastication of food In this event lie is led into a hospital stall his head placed in a skillful appliance tliat holds his mouth open and the army veterinarian proceeds to file or remove his had teeth Fortunately for the horse how ¬ ever the nerves of his teetli are dead by the time lie is six years old and they suffer no pain in having their teeth treated treatedThe The veterinary corns is an important division of the medical department under SurgeonGeneral Gorgas It has a large personnel including 1273 officers r 00 reserve officers and 1000 enlisted men all extremely busy for thews are 300000 liorses and mules in the American army armyIn In Europe the health of the horse is guarded as carefully as in this country He is inspected at the port of disembarkation and again when at mobilization camp Army veterinarians accompany each division of liorses to the front When a horse falls in battle and there is no hope for his recov ¬ ery some one is there to shoot him if his wound will respond to treatment lie is jiut in a horse am ¬ bulance arid taken to the train for wounded liorses behind the firing line lineVETEEINAEY VETEEINAEY SUEGEONS EEGTOAE WIZAEDS WIZAEDSThe The veterinary surgeons in these horse hospitals are wizards when it comes to turning wounded and woebegone horse into strong healthy animals Under a strong anaesthetic usually chloroform they perform marvelous operations extracting pieces of shrapnel from the most delicate tissues and even mending fractures It is the policy to destroy all animals with bone injuries apt to make them cripples since they are no longer of any use to the army armyThis This practice is also based more upon economy than iinon sentiment Horse fodder is too valuable a product in a warridden country to support a horse in idleness the rest of his life and then in Europe horseflesh itself is an appreciated commodity The European in thinking the matter over lias decided that the horse is a much cleaner animal than the cow or tile hog and cannot understand the American repiunance for horseflesh horsefleshA A new affliction to which horses have succumbed recently is shellshock Army veterinarians have been surprised to discover the existence of neuras ¬ thenic iiorses in this war in about the same propor ¬ tion as neurasthenic men Heretofore the remark ¬ able courage of the horse under fire has been one of the most important factors in Ids use in war but now it appears that the horses nervous system is MI more invulnerable than that of man manThe The army veterinarian has recently had to add horse psychology to the numerous studies attached to his profession and the attempt to weed out the neurasthenic horses from the army before they get to the front There is no cure by the way fur a neurasthenic horse he may respond to treatment hut it is useless and even dangerous to put him back on the firing line lineThen Then is a private organization known as the lilne Cross operating in France to rehabilitate wounded liorses The first Blue Cross hospital for horses was established at Serjueaux three month after the outbreak of the war and after the ISritish government had refused its assistance Xow there are five such hospitals to which the French government passes outfits wounded horses This organization also contributes veterinary chests for the treatment of horses on the firing line and other gifts for the benefit of horses such as port ¬ able forges waterproof blankets canvas water troughs and bandage bandageThus Thus the salvage of horses lias become an import ¬ ant feature of modern warfare The unnecessary pain and extravagance of other wars are gone for this is a business age in which even war musT Se waged with thrift and economy
