ON THE ARMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 501 
Nevertheless, in spite of all this corruption, the veterinary 
surgeons of the army, as a body, may be looked upon as a class 
of persons of respectability; and they owe such character to the 
commission they hold, and not to the worthless document styled 
a “ diploma/’ which they derive from the Veterinary College. 
The king’s commission it is which has stamped them at least with 
the name of respectability; and the stamp is of that nature that 
is not easily defaced, even though the individual who has received 
the impression be any thing but what he ought to have been. 
Though the candidate appointed to a regiment be a person of no 
pretensions to scientific attainments, and still less to any thing 
that appertains to a gentleman, yet will he find himself, on being 
gazetted, “ Gent.,” and joining his regiment, placed in such society 
and under such restrictions as will impose upon him a line of 
conduct and forbearance incompatible with his old habits, and 
such as will, in time, replace them by new and reformed ones; 
thus gradually giving that polish to the exterior wilich it is now 
too late to think of imparting to the interior. On the score of 
“ respectability,” therefore, there is this difference in regard to 
veterinarians in and out of the army. The former are so placed 
and associated, that, even though they be themselves any thing 
but respectable on their entry, yet will they by habit, nay, must 
they by discipline, become so, at least in external appearance 
and general deportment; wiiereas with the latter it must almost 
or quite entirely depend upon the qualifications and inclinations 
of the individuals themselves. 
It has already been stated that commissions in the army were 
conferred upon veterinary surgeons by his late Majesty, George 
' III. It is generally believed that this boon was granted in con¬ 
sequence of the paternal interest taken for us by Professor Cole¬ 
man: but the late Professor Peall (of respected memory) used in 
his lifetime openly to deny this, and to declare that the favour 
was first granted in consequence of a peremptory and stedfast re¬ 
fusal on his part to accept of an appointment on warrant . Mr. 
Coleman, in his dedication “to the King” of his w r ork “on the 
Foot of the Horse,” makes the following mention of the circum¬ 
stance:—“By conferring on veterinary surgeons employed in the 
cavalry the rank of commissioned officers, your majesty has done 
more to promote the veterinary art than otherwise could have been 
effected in centuries . This single act has not only raised the art 
from contempt to respectability, but already induced many me¬ 
dical students of liberal education to devote their services to its 
improvement.” 
Since such a boast was made by Mr. Coleman in returning his 
acknowledgments to his sovereign for a boon of such vast im- 
