OF THE SCHOOL OF ABOU-ZABEL. 
559 
v opposed to all these plots; and that on more than one occasion 
he expressed great disapprobation of what was going forward. 
“ To have resigned my situation would have been to compro- 
perhaps, the existence of that institution for which I was re¬ 
sponsible in the estimation of his highness. No personal con¬ 
sideration prevented me from retiring; but I had devoted myself 
entirely to, and had become the property of that institution, the 
high importance and the success of which I had before this 
fondly contemplated. I therefore clung to the post which I 
occupied : I repulsed with firmness every attack directed against 
us, and still continued to denounce the existing abuses. 
“ I contended for a long time against a superior power. The 
council of war said that my reports wearied them : w ? hen, at 
length, this gelder, so highly esteemed, was accused and con¬ 
victed of robbery. But while I was enabled thus to defend 
from external attack the establishment in which Egypt will here¬ 
after glory, difficulties from within awaited me in the same esta¬ 
blishment. 
“At the opening of the school of Abou-Zabel, his Highness 
Ibrahim Pacha had issued a regulation, which determined that 
the pupils of the three institutions, human pharmacy, and human 
and veterinary surgery, should enjoy equal privileges. At the 
last examination three veterinary surgeons were nominated sub¬ 
assistant surgeons, and twenty-three w 7 ere raised to the first 
class of students. 
“ These happy results were precious to me. They seemed to 
consolidate the edifice I had been labouring to raise: but I was 
deceived ; it was not to be so. The council of war sanctioned 
the promotion of the pupils of human surgery and pharmacy, 
but they rejected our pupils, because in France the army vete¬ 
rinarians were not put on the same footing with the regimental 
surgeons. This had been secretly whispered into the ear of the 
minister, and I was unspeakably grieved at the decision. 
“Thus continually at war, and tormented from within and from 
without, I saw no possibility of saving the institution from this 
dreadful precipice. Deceived in their most ardent wishes, would 
the pupils continue to labour? All hope of promotion or of ad¬ 
vancement in life being cut off, it seemed to me that the institu¬ 
tion could no longer continue to exist. Amidst the painful re¬ 
flexions with which I was overwhelmed, one especially distressed 
me. In order to force on their improvement to that point which 
was so apparent at the examination, I had been compelled to 
adopt an extraordinarily rigorous and severe system of study. 
The students were not permitted to go out of the school from 
the rising of the sun until ten or eleven o’clock at night:—would 
they continue thus to labour, or could I demand of them this 
