A R M Y V r £TE RIN ARY DE P A RTM ENT. 
163 
ter as a professional man. It is notorious enough that but few 
men of the medical profession in the army can raise themselves 
intb much estimation among their professional brethren in private 
life. Whether the same remark be applicable to veterinarians or 
not, I must leave it to others to determine. 
The duties of a Regimental Veterinary Surgeon may be com¬ 
prised under the following heads :—The treatment of sick and 
lame horses; and the registry of their cases;—the superin¬ 
tend ance of the shoeing department;—the passing of horses into 
the service, and the casting of them out for sale;—the regulation 
of the temperature and ventilation of the stables ; and also of the 
mode and times of feeding and exercise, and any other circum¬ 
stances that may affect the general health and condition of the 
horses; also the quality of the forage served in for their use. 
The contemplation of these several duties may serve to place 
the veterinary surgeon of a regiment in a light of more importance 
than he is apt to be viewed in ; at the same time that they may 
serve to shew what the nature of his professional education should 
be to enable him, with credit to himself and advantage to the ser¬ 
vice, to execute them. The examination of the sick and lame are 
the parts of his office he is probably best prepared to undertake, 
as being the species of knowledge he has obtained at his “col¬ 
lege:” but his abilities, as required to be extended much further 
and wider than this, might fairly become a question in the 
mind of the commanding officer into whose regiment he hap¬ 
pened to become appointed. In fact, there is evidently enough, 
from this plain statement, a vast field for the improvement of 
the qualifications of such as enter the army in the capacity of 
veterinary surgeons; and those who enter any of our cavalry 
regiments will soon make this truly important discovery. 
The management and treatment of the sick and lame horses of 
a regiment, is a part of his duty which is, or ought to be, left 
entirely and exclusively to the discretion of the veterinary sur¬ 
geon. Should he in the least be interfered with in these profes¬ 
sional concerns, it will become quite impossible for him to render 
that benefit to the service which is required of him; nay, such 
interference will and must have a contrary effect. Without enter¬ 
ing into any detail of them, or prescribing any fixed rules for the 
performance of these medical duties, it may be observed that they 
(like military duty in general) will be much facilitated and better 
executed by a steady adherence to some sort of arrangement and 
method of proceeding, which must be draw ; n up and regulated 
according to the internal economy of the regiment itself, the 
conveniences or inconveniences of the place in which it happens 
to be quartered, and other contingent circumstances. To method 
