374 THE FRENCH ARM Y VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
there will be a contest with regard to certain privileges. As to 
this, I have no personal opinion ; but I own that I find myself 
perfectly satisfied when I see the project presented by the Duke 
of Dalmatia, a military man, and who has given the clearest 
proofs of his determination to maintain order and discipline ; 
when I see him adopt, by two commissions of the Chamber of 
Deputies, that of the special project and that of the budget ; 
and when I see that it has been approved of by the majority of 
the general inspectors of cavalry, men fully competent to judge 
on such matters. There is one point more on which I would 
present a few short remarks. 
The project of law submitted to the Chamber may be exa- 
mined under three points of view, for it has evidently three dis- 
tinct objects. 
1. It increases the pay and the retiring pension of the military 
veterinary surgeons. This is its most apparent object. In that 
it does not meet with any opposition. 
2. It implies the intention, declared also by the minister of war, 
of better arranging the situation of those military men, by ad- 
mitting the veterinary surgeons-in-chief into the staff of the 
respective regiments. This has not received universal assent. I 
have discussed the principle of this and its effects. 
3. It creates a new class of men — the principal veterinary 
surgeons. The commission of the Chamber rejected this creation : 
perhaps I may be permitted to defend it. 
With the present organization, when a certain malady is severe 
among the horses of one or more regiments — when the veterinary 
surgeon of these regiments cannot arrest its progress, nor, perhaps, 
mark the cause — the minister of war has no other means to ascer- 
tain certain indications with respect to the malady than by send- 
ing for one or more of the professors of the school nearest to the 
regiment, or to apply to a veterinary surgeon in the neighbour- 
hood. But in the present state of our schools, and during the 
delivery of the lectures, it is impossible for a professor to absent 
himself for several successive days without inconvenience and 
the interruption of the instruction of the pupils. 
It is true that there may be veterinary surgeons in the neighbour- 
hood. But, in the first place, they may not always have sufficient 
knowledge or experience for the difficult task of investigation 
and controul with which they are intrusted. It may also happen 
that the disease may be the consequence of the bad or insufficient 
forage, or the faulty construction or unhealthiness of the stables. 
If this is the case, the veterinary surgeon is expected to inform 
the minister of the real truth of the matter : but, may he be dis- 
