FRENCH ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 315 
comprises, in a few words, my ideas :—The riding-master is the 
veterinary surgeon, and the veterinarian is the surgeon. 
As to the 84th article, it proves how indispensable the creation 
of farrier-majors are to the well-being of the cavalry regiments ; 
and also shews the necessity of a constant surveillance ad hoc, 
by some competent man, on this essential part of the service. 
A few brief remarks will prove to M. le Marechal the truth of 
these propositions. 
The riding-master is charged with the care of the infirmary, 
says a passage in art. 77. These words lead to the following 
dilemma: eitherthe veterinary surgeons of the regiment are honour¬ 
able men, and well versed in the practice of their art, or they are not. 
In the first case, if the importance of the medical treatment of 
horses requires from those who exercise it a military rank ana¬ 
logous to that of captain, why is the veterinary surgeon, instead 
of being invested with that rank, made to submit to the humilia¬ 
tion of a control, which is not even thought requisite in the 
medical treatment of men, who are much, more valuable to the 
country than horses can possibly be ? And, in the second place, 
the army has no business with dishonourable men, or men in¬ 
capable of their profession. 
The riding-master, says this article, is to send to the major a 
report of the service of the veterinary surgeon, and of the infir¬ 
mary ; and also an account of the state of the horses, the nature 
of the food which is given them, and the supplies and substitu¬ 
tions which he deems requisite. 
Let us examine scrupulously, and without presumption or 
partiality, what kind of report the riding-master can give as to 
the service of the veterinary surgeon, and the state of the in¬ 
firmary. A stranger both to the medicine and surgery of do¬ 
mestic animals, he cannot form an adequate judgment of the 
competence and conduct of the veterinary surgeon ; and what¬ 
ever be the terms in which his report is couched, it can contain, 
in substance, but these words :—The veterinary surgeon is or is 
not attentive ; he does or he does not that which he promises to 
do: for whatever determinations the veterinarian may have 
taken, though they may have been dictated by a profound know¬ 
ledge of the disease, or by some egregious error, the riding- 
master, ignorant of the veterinary art, and being ordered by the 
terms of the 83d article not to meddle in any thing relative to 
it, can neither approve of nor condemn it, and must blindly re¬ 
port according to the interested representation of the practitioner. 
Of what value, then, can be his control ? 
Besides, however distinguished a soldier he may be, however 
liigh his reputation as a riding-master, does he always know 
