826 
FRENCH ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
minister of war. In all the cavalry regiments which I have in¬ 
spected, I have remarked that the veterinary surgeons are inva¬ 
riably treated with distinction ; and they obtain that confidence 
which the importance of their duties merits. I myself have been 
employed in soliciting from the minister of war the most honour¬ 
able recompense for a veterinary surgeon, who was equally dis¬ 
tinguished for his talent, his diligence, and his gentlemanly 
manners. I ought to remove the erroneous impression which 
this article might cause as to the feelings with which the veteri¬ 
nary surgeons are regarded by the commanders of regiments. I 
shall add to the observations which I have made, that the 
greatest interest is attached to the condition of the veterinary 
surgeon by the minister of war, whom I had the honour to see 
during the last summer at the cavalry office. He had examined 
all the anonymous petitions relating to the interests of veterinary 
surgeons. All the petitions addressed to the minister of war, and 
taken into consideration, have been submitted to the examina¬ 
tion of a committee of infantry and cavalry officers, recently or¬ 
ganized by the minister of war, and the committee, at the 
present moment, is diligently employed on this subject. This 
is the point demanded by the army veterinarians. 
The observations made by the honourable peer who spoke last, 
relative to the care w'hich ought to be taken of the cavalry 
horses, are perfectly right. The important character which vete¬ 
rinary surgeons ought to support has also been justly described : 
but there are other causes for the loss of horses than those men¬ 
tioned by the honourable gentleman. It is the result of the 
great quantity of horses which it is necessary to procure in a given 
time, and that time very short. France cannot furnish them, and 
they are therefore bought by contract from dealers, who, getting 
them at the lowest price, furnish us with the very w’orst kind of 
horses, the refuse of Germany, and often even those rejected by 
foreign cavalry regiments. This evil is the offspring of necessity. 
We have been subjected to the conditions imposed on us by 
necessity, which, to the present day, weighs upon the army, and 
from which it is very requisite that the country should be freed. 
These considerations will, doubtless, be the objects of the 
reports that will be submitted to you, and to which you will 
give all the attention that they merit, both for the interest of 
the army, of France, and of agriculture, which would have pro¬ 
fited by the millions now unhappily given to strangers. This 
necessity of buying horses from foreigners, and to which w^e will 
no loncrer submit, is the cause that has most influence on the loss 
of so many horses. 
- ^ There is also another circumstance, about which the minister 
of war is now actively occupied : this is the bad system of con- 
