DEPARTMENT, 
577 
mission; and thus in a manner opening- a door to us all, or at least 
removing that stigma by which we were previously branded, and 
which would have long excluded us? The officer or the nobleman 
who is accustomed to meet the veterinary surgeon at the mess- 
table, and finds him, from his gentlemanly conduct and general 
attainments, worthy of his association, thinks the better of the 
whole profession, and thus a respectability is conferred on the 
profession, which otherwise it would not and could not have 
soon attained. Therefore it is a subject of grave importance, 
whether from mismanagement or neglect this source of our pro¬ 
fessional reputation has become polluted. Not only the “ army 
veterinarian,” but every practitioner, must be jealous of the 
competence and the honour of the cavalry veterinary surgeon. 
We do think, therefore, that our friend Mr. Brown, who de¬ 
precates as we do, and as sincerely as w’e do, disunion among us, 
and especially at such a crisis, and when our emancipation from 
thraldom is nearer than many expect, and can only be protracted 
or prevented by our disunion;—we think that our friend Mr. Brown 
somewhat misunderstands the “Army Veterinarian,” when he 
says that he is “ at a loss to find language sufficiently strong to 
express his feelings on the document” published in our last 
number; a document “incompatible with the respectability and 
gentlemanly conduct” of the writer. The “Army Veterinarian” 
states expressly that he does not mean “ to cast any reflection 
upon the members who are not in the army,” but they are not 
and cannot be in a situation to vindicate their just claims on the 
respect of the public. Such, from mismanagement at the foun¬ 
tain head, or from some other cause, is the stamp which public 
opinion has fixed upon them, that only a fortunate few are en¬ 
abled to vindicate their claim as second only to the practi¬ 
tioners of human medicine. The army veterinarian may not be 
a whit better surgeon, or better man, than the private practitioner; 
but the commission which is conferred upon him enables him to 
mingle with those, with whom the private practitioner cannot 
mingle; and if he conducts himself rightly, the esteem in which 
he is held disposes the higher classes of society to think better 
of all his brethren, and to treat them more courteously, nay, to 
