ARMY FARRIERS AND SHOEING SMITHS. 
821 
In consequence of the training of a faulty system they do not 
reach the standard that a veterinary surgeon is led to expect, 
nor do they attain to that which Government demands. 
The present system has no pretentions to speciality. Its 
principles are as unsound as they are indefinite, and possess 
the disadvantage of placing the farrier and shoeing smith in 
anomalous positions. More is demanded of them than they can 
possibly render, and even those things which they do render 
in the pharmacy and infirmary are almost without an object, 
certainly without method ; and by reason of an insufficient 
education, and an ill adaptation to learn, army farriers often 
prove, directly or indirectly, detrimental to the property of the 
State, and more or less seriously affect the duties of the veter- 
inary surgeon, if by any chance too much should be conceded 
to them. 
In this particular branch there is an extensive field for 
emendation and improvement, towards which, however, some 
attention has of late been directed, with what result we are 
not acquainted ; but at the present time there is so little regard 
paid to the selection of men (and their subsequent training) 
to fill these important posts that we often wonder how we 
manage to meet the requirements of the service. 
In thus noticing a subject, which might be discussed with 
more propriety within the limits of its own sphere, we are 
simply representing, in a more tangible form than heretofore, 
its lamentable conditions. 
They are well known to each, yet have escaped the due 
consideration of army veterinary surgeons collectively. Op- 
portunities for the adoption of such a course do not offer 
themselves to us, especially in India. We are too districated 
to act as a body, nevertheless a general effort is demanded 
to give an impetus to a force which should, eventually, exer- 
cise some influence in rectifying the principles that regulate 
the constitution of farriers and shoeing smiths. 
To these points the earnest attention of veterinary medical 
officers is directed, in the hope that each will add his quota 
towards the improvement of those who come under his im- 
mediate surveillance ; for upon them he has to rely, to some 
extent, for assistance in operations, as well as in the care and 
treatment of his patients. Who has not essayed, some time or 
other, to strengthen the weaknesses of the system referred to, 
and how often has he failed ? Who has not noticed the reces- 
sion of that support, which is essential to success, at a critical 
period ? Who has not known phantom-like difficulties crop up 
in the usual quarters, or who has not encountered opposition, 
prejudiced and imaginative as its opinions may have been ? 
xliii. 54 
