FRENCH AKIVIY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
327 
fining horses in close stables, where they have not sufficient air. 
It is well known that the horse, as well as every other living 
being, requires a certain volume of air for his existence and 
preservation. 
I will not now enlarge any more on the circumstances that 
occasioned the great loss of horses which our army has sustained. 
I have wished simply to support the observations of the honour¬ 
able peer who spoke before me. And, returning to the object of 
the petition, I repeat, that the minister of war has deeply con¬ 
sidered the petitions of the veterinary surgeons ; they have been 
submitted to a committee of cavalry and infantry, who are com¬ 
petent to examine them, and the committee ought to have deli¬ 
vered some opinion concerning them.’’ 
M. le Comte 3!Amhrugeac, —I think that it is impossible the 
chamber can receive the petition of which you have heard the 
report, otherwise than by the order of the day. In fact, gentle¬ 
men, what is the subject of it ? It requires, that we shall give 
to a very respectable and very useful class of individuals the rank 
and station of officers.” 
M. le Marquis de Laplace. —It requires some amelioration of 
their condition.” 
M. le Comte de Amhrugeac. —They demand to be classed with 
the officers ; which is to the same purpose, it appears to me, as 
claiming the station and rank of officers.” 
It is one of our constitutional principles, that the King is the 
supreme head of the army; that to him belongs the organization 
of the army, that is to say, to give to each his proper rank, and 
to assign to every rank its proper functions. The law has no¬ 
thing to do in such a case. What do they require of us? They 
ask us to interfere in favour of the veterinary surgeons, and ob¬ 
tain for them a superior rank. The chamber is not an office for 
claimants; it can do nothing in this affair ; and I therefore pro¬ 
pose the order of the day.” (Supported.) 
M. le Rapporteur. —I reply to the honourable peer who last 
spoke, that the commission does not demand for veterinary sur¬ 
geons the rank of officers, but only that their situation may be 
fixed, and not subject to variation. It is wrong to put expres¬ 
sions in the report which are not in the petition. Those exj>res- 
sions which offended M. le General Lallemand would have been 
erased by the commission if they had been found in the petition. 
I therefore have the honour to inform the chamber that your 
committee has recognized the principle, that it belongs only to 
the administration to determine the respective ranks; but they 
propose sending the petition to the minister of w^ar, that he may 
