582 
FRENCH VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
Without recapitulating here all the inconveniences and hard¬ 
ships which result from this imperfect organization of the ca¬ 
valry, we may advert to one fact, which is singularly inconsistent 
with the habits of our time. When consigned to an hospital, they 
obtain only the position and the comfort of the common soldier, 
while they are nevertheless compelled to pay no less than fifty- 
nine centimes per day more than the captain, and ninety-nine 
more than the surgeon-major, and, after thirty years’ service, 
their retired pay does not ordinarily exceed more than 400 francs, 
or a little more than £16 per annum. 
We w^ould beg also to remind your Royal Highness, that 
while, before the creation of the veterinary schools, the farriers- 
major of the corps held the rank of sub-officer, we remain sta¬ 
tionary, after the improvement that has been effected in veteri¬ 
nary science, and are yet only sub-officers. We would also re¬ 
spectfully state, that, while the legislative assembly has again 
and again taken our claims into consideration, they have been 
uniformly referred to the minister of war, and there the matter 
has ended. 
Full of confidence in your sense of justice, and your solicitude 
for the well-being of the army, and after the numerous and in¬ 
fluential voices that have been and are daily raised in favour of 
our cause, we do most respectfully solicit your support, and 
submit to your consideration the claims which we feel ourselves 
compelled to urge. 
Is it too much. Sir, to ask that, in consideration of the im¬ 
portant trust confided to us, we, like the veterinarians of other 
countries less advanced, perhaps, than ourselves inJhorse know¬ 
ledge, should, after ten years’ of effective service, and proof of 
knowledge of our duty, and good conduct, and zeal for the ser¬ 
vice, hope to obtain, at the recommendation of our colonels, the 
rank of sub-lieutenant, and that of lieutenant after twenty years’ 
service, if we should continue to merit that advance, and, finally, 
a retired pay equal to that of the grade to which we may have 
advanced ? 
Th is, and this alone, would indemnify us for the sacrifices 
which our studies exact from us, and which the progress of me¬ 
dical science has multiplied tenfold. It would also powerfully 
excite a spirit of emulation among us, which it is always the 
true interest of the government to maintain in full activity ; and, 
finally, from the adoption of this reorganization of the service, 
there would arise the warranty, that he alone would obtain this 
recompense who was deemed by a competent authority to be 
wmrthy of it. 
We venture to hope. Sir, that how great soever may be the 
