320 
FRENCH ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
the unjust inequality of the law, which accords to a young soldier 
having just joined a regiment, without any other instruction than 
that which he may have gained at the school of his village, the 
right of becoming sub-lieutenant, lieutenant-captain, or even a 
superior officer; while the veterinary surgeon, whose acquire¬ 
ments should recommend him to the esteem of every one, vege¬ 
tates far below the happy conscript who had once been so inferior 
to him. 
“ It is the nature of the human heart that every one should ex¬ 
aggerate the importance of his own profession, and form his 
judgment according to his own prejudices and interests. Self- 
love is often the instigator of actions useful to society ; but when 
it breaks through those limits which destiny and laws have 
assigned to it, it is necessary to restrain it, and to prevent those 
wanderings, which would introduce trouble and difficulty into 
all social institutions. 
“ The veterinary art is a profession useful and honourable, freely 
chosen by those who exercise it, and who know, when they em¬ 
brace it, what they ought to expect. But, to compare it with 
the profession of arms : the life of a soldier, whom the law drags 
from his domestic hearth to undergo a service of fatigue, priva¬ 
tion, and every sacrifice ; whom it causes to undergo all the 
chances and all the dangers of war; which requires from him a 
total abandonment of his will, a temporary dereliction of his 
liberty; and to claim, as the reward of services rendered to the 
faithful companion of the soldier’s glory, that rank which the 
soldier obtains only at the price of his courage, his devoted¬ 
ness, and his blood shed on the field of battle ; this is to set up 
a ridiculous pretension, and to exhibit the very extreme of pre¬ 
sumption. 
The laws have regulated the duties, the rights, and the rank 
of regimental veterinary surgeons. On their first entrance they 
wear the uniform and take rank of assistant quarter-master, and 
take rank under the quarter-master, with the title of second 
assistant veterinary surgeon. 
After a stated time of service they assume the insignia of quar¬ 
ter-master, and rank after the adjutant, with the title of first 
veterinary surgeon. Their pay as second veterinary surgeon is 
superior to that of the subaltern officer; their pay, as first vete¬ 
rinary surgeon, is equal, with their rations, to that of the sub¬ 
lieutenant, and is increased after certain years of service. 
On their retirement their half-pay is regulated by their full 
])ay, and by the length of their service. 
“ They may, by their good conduct and skill, obtain the 
title of veterinary inspector, with a salary of 2000 IVancs (£100), 
