824 
FRENCH ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
The Duke of PrasUn was the reporter. He thus addresses 
the Chamber of Peers : 
M. Felix Vogeli, of Lyons, assistant veterinary surgeon fifth 
squadron of artillery, now garrisoned at Douai, shews, that dur¬ 
ing many years the army veterinary surgeons had been soliciting 
the intervention of the chambers, to obtain for them a chano-e 
in their position in the army, which would be more conformable 
with the interests of the service, and also their assimilation 
to the rank of a commissioned officer. He added, that they 
alone in the army are deprived of the advantage of a law, or 
ordonnance, wffiich would fix their rank in an invariable manner; 
that every thing concurs to make this class of military men a 
mixed body, participating both of the civil and military charac¬ 
ter ; that they are sometimes considered as commissioned offi¬ 
cers, sometimes as sub (non-commissioned) officers ; that they 
are destitute of hope for the future, and of the proper incitement 
to emulation, with nothins; to encourao'e them in their humble 
but useful labours; that such a state of things must materially 
interfere with the well-being of the service. 
Your committee always acknowledging that it belongs to 
the government alone to regulate the rank and advancement 
of the divers classes composing the army; considering that 
the veterinary surgeons, both of the artillery and the cavalry 
regiments, may render great services to the state by preserving 
many valuable horses; that their medical studies, their infor¬ 
mation, and their indefatigable services, seem to render them 
worthy of a better fate than to be put on a level with workmen, 
boot-makers, saddlers, tailors, and others; considering the atten-^ 
tion of government should be solicited to determine the situation 
and rank of these persons in a more proper manner; to put an end 
to the uncertainty, which must, by discouraging them, prejudice 
the well-being of the service; considering that a demand similar 
to this was, in the session of 1831, sent to the minister, your 
committee, from these motives, have the honour to propose that 
you shall also refer this petition to him.” 
M. le Marquis de Laplace ,—I rise to support the proposition 
of referring this petition to the minister of war, with which the 
report of your committee concludes. I begin by declaring that 
I should not do this, if the petition were not drawn up in the 
manner in which it seems to be in the report now before us. I 
think, if I heard it aright, that the petitioner does not impera¬ 
tively demand, in the name of an association of all the cavalry 
veterinary surgeons, such or such amelioration; but he confines 
himself to the prayer that the attention of the minister of war 
may be directed to the situation of the army veterinary surgeons. 
