THE FRENCH ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 171 
any degree of perfection veterinary science, has proved, little to 
her credit, the last to confer upon its professors, enlisted into her 
military service, the rank and pay of commissioned officers. The 
veterinary surgeons of the British army have now for nearly half 
a century past been in the enjoyment of these privileges : indeed, 
as it appears from the representation made to the King of the French 
by his Secretary at War, no European nation has denied them to 
her veterinary officers. Even Egypt has granted them : France 
alone remained holding under water the head of the votary of the 
science she had created and done her best to bring to perfection, 
and from which a numerous offspring had gone forth into other 
nations, and there had risen to rank and station far exceeding that 
of their degraded French parent. While the veterinary surgeon 
of a French regiment of cavalry ranked no higher than a non- 
commissioned officer, and consequently was shut out from the 
society of gentlemen, the British military veterinarian found him- 
self seated at the mess-table with his brother officers, linked 
together with them in the same social chain, and denied no privilege 
they in common enjoyed. Holding his commission from his 
sovereign, the veterinary surgeon of our army feels himself amena- 
ble to the same code of laws — “ the articles of war” — to which 
other commissioned officers are responsible, and to no others ; so 
long as he discharges his duty in conformity with the regulations 
of the service, he has no petty influence to fear — no apprehension 
of being superseded by such a thing as a “ ministerial warrant 
he cannot be deprived of his commission by any power inferior to 
that from which he derived it. 
The veterinary department of the French army, as now consti- 
tuted, consists of four grades of officers, — two commissioned, and 
two uncommissioned. In our army there are but two grades, and 
one of these grades is filled by a single individual, — the principal 
veterinary surgeon. So far we must admit the French service 
to possess an advantage over ours. A regiment of our cavalry 
having attached to it but a single veterinary officer, and the regi- 
ment commonly being split into two divisions, often into more, 
and these divisions being stationed at distances too great to 
receive any or due attention from the veterinary surgeon, the 
want of an assistant veterinary surgeon is on many occasions sorely, 
