THE FRENCH ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 373 
which composed the cavalry at that time were much stronger 
and heavier than those of the present day : more attention was 
paid to the horses — their food and stabling were better — their 
diseases were less frequent and less serious. If our losses are so 
great at the present day, it is because we have not paid sufficient 
attention to the forewarnings which the veterinary surgeons have 
for more than forty years continued to give, and the causes which 
annually carry off so great a number of the horses of our regiments. 
Is this the fault of science? or is it attributable to the too inferior 
position of the men to whom the care of the horses used to be 
entrusted ? 
The example of Austria and of Prussia has also been re- 
feired to. 
Well ! I will ask again, have we a cavalry like these states ? do 
we lodge our horses in quarters as salubrious? do we exert for 
them the same care? do we feel the same attachment which the 
cavalry of Austria and of Prussia possess ? If we did, we should, 
perhaps, like them, have less illness among our horses, and, like 
them, we should be able to do without learned veterinary sur- 
geons. I cannot repeat it too often, that we fall into a serious 
error in dwelling so exclusively on that which takes place in their 
cavalry. We are much deceived if Austria and Prussia have not 
more mechanics and ignorant men as veterinary surgeons in 
their different regiments ; and this is not the result of choice, but 
because no other men are to be found. 
They have also felt there that the mediation of science is in- 
dispensable for the preservation of the cavalry, and, for want of 
veterinary surgeons who possessed it, they had to apply to human 
surgeons. I have already said that, in Austria and in Prussia, 
the care of the horses and the infirmaries is entrusted to medi- 
cal men. Ours is a singular country. The government, after 
long years of neglect, has proposed to grant to the veterinary 
surgeons a position a little more honourable, and to give a slight 
proof of its solicitude for improvement to the only men in France 
who make the horse a complete and exclusive study ; and it is 
among those who complain the most of the general indifference 
for the improvement and security of our horses that we meet 
with the greatest resistance to improvement. 
What progress will the professed improvement of the horse 
make, if it is in this way that it is encouraged ? In whatever 
point of view we examine the opposition that has so long re- 
tained our veterinary surgeons in the rank of sub-officers, it is 
impossible to find a reasonable foundation for improvement. 
It is said that they fear the restraints of the service, and that 
