518 
THE HORSE SANDAL. 
written nothing. No one is aware he ever discovered any- 
thing. Art is not indebted to him for any invention. As a 
practitioner, he is unknown, and that so humble an individual 
should have been taken from the ranks does smell somewhat 
“ musty.” That both precedent and scientific principle 
should be passed over, simply to favour an arbitrary choice, 
I must confess fills me with the worst fears for our service, 
and the most doleful anticipations for the future government 
at head quarters. 
It would have been quite as well if Mr .Wilkinson’s “ profes- 
sional acquirements,” which gave him a preference over you 
had been mentioned. I do not know in what his extra- 
ordinary ability consists, and though l have made several 
enquiries, 1 cannot learn. Those I have asked are as 
ignorant as myself. As to “a very important duty in Turkey” 
there are many civilians I could name ready to be backed in 
the choice of a horse against Mr. Wilkinson, who will, after 
all, be ruled by the necessity of getting what he can, where 
horses are small and scarce, or else shape his approval by the 
liking of the Colonels. Besides, I thought it was the place 
of the veterinary surgeon attached to a regiment to pass all 
horses required for the men. But by the new law it seems 
the principal veterinary surgeon is to buy horses subject to 
the approval of the regimental veterinary surgeon, and the 
Colonels in command. Such confusion does an act of in- 
justice involve ! I always imagined the uses of the numerous 
gradations of rank in the service was to keep the acts of 
the subordinate under the supervision of the superior officer. 
But where is all this now ? When the principal veterinary 
surgeon is chosen to perform the duty of a common horse 
dealer. And the animals he has purchased, and of course 
approved, are afterwards to be subjected to the rejection of 
the regimental veterinary surgeon. 
Yours, &c. 
To W. Percivall, Esq. 
THE HOUSE SANDAL. 
Sir, — I was very much surprised to see another notice of 
Mr. Percivall’s Horse Sandal in the last c Veterinarian ,’ 
because the Sandal appeared to me to be so perfect as it 
was that it required no alteration. I see the change now is 
to a band instead of the buckles and straps, which I must 
