REVIEW — STATE OF THE FRENCH CAVALRY, &c. 225 
The State of the French Cavalry, and the Treatment of the 
Horse in Barracks. By the Lieutenant-General Mar- 
quis OuDINOT. 
We have often expressed our deep feeling of the irreparable 
injury inflicted on the veterinary art by the obstinacy with which 
the late Professor Coleman opposed many species of improvement 
in the education of the veterinary pupil. On the cavalry service, 
however, and on the owners of horses generally, he conferred a 
benefit which cannot be too highly appreciated, and which will 
somewhat atone for his errors and his obstinacy in other respects. 
He has given a different character to the stabling of the horse, 
and he has banished glanders and grease from all our barracks, 
and from every well-conducted establishment. 
It is strange that our neighbours on the other side of the 
channel have scarcely advanced one step in the management of 
the horse ; but, even in those establishments which ought to be 
a pattern to the country to which they belong the most fearful 
diseases often prevail, and one-tenth of the horses of every regi- 
ment are yearly carried off by glanders. The government — the 
cavalry officers — we were going to add, the veterinary surgeons — 
have slumbered at their post. We will not, however, say that, for 
they have remonstrated as often and as earnestly as they dared. 
The plain fact, however, is, that no essential reformation in the 
treatment of the horse in barracks, or the construction of his 
habitation has taken place. A few intelligent men have occa- 
sionally remonstrated ; and the Marquis Oudinot has now, much 
to his credit, sternly opposed himself to the crying evil. 
“ A plague spot,” says he, “ has long rested on our cavalry 
establishment. That' arm of war, not less difficult to maintain in 
its efficiency than to form at first, is placed in a situation which 
interferes with its very existence ; and they who ought anxiously 
to watch over it, suffer the evil to be more and more aggra- 
vated. In proportion as the number of our cavalry is increased, 
the evil which destroys them acts with rapidly accumulating 
force. I understand,” continues he, “ the nature of this plague 
spot; and I will no longer remain a passive spectator of the ruin 
of that arm of war which is the object of my devotion, and my 
