492 TKANSLAT10NS FttOM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
send veterinary surgeons from the chief towns of the depart¬ 
ment^ at a great expense and inconvenience. In imitation 
of what is done in Belgium, it has been suggested, in one of the 
reports to the administration, that perhaps when leaving the 
school it would be desirable to send the young veterinary sur¬ 
geons into those localities where they would be most useful: 
and it is added that in Belgium an indemnity is given to these 
young practitioners for the first two years. As to the legal 
points in the petitions presented by these societies, we will 
not here discuss them in detail; only they appear to us to 
be a little too restricted, and tending to monopoly. If only 
to enlighten the government, it seems useful to us “ to 
transmit them to the administration, which has been occupied 
since 1854 with a legislative intervention. From this time, 
no doubt, preparatory measures have been taken. A circular 
was sent to the prefects by the Minister of Agriculture and 
Commerce, directing them to placard the list of the names of 
all veterinary surgeons who had obtained a diploma. This 
circular, unquestionably useful in some localities, is of no 
avail to those who reside seven or eight leagues from any 
veterinary surgeon ; but let us hope that this is the forerunner 
of an act, either administrative orlegislative, which has been 
so long wanted. After these considerations, we have the 
honour to propose that these petitions be sent to the Minister 
of Agriculture and Commerce. 
Count Beaumont—\ demand to be heard—not to combat 
the conclusions of the commission, but to support them. 
The question of veterinary surgeons has long since occupied 
different committees of agriculture, and in general all the 
inhabitants of the country (campagnes). You know that 
first one school was founded, that of Alfort; subsequently 
two more were formed. The petitioners now demand a fourth 
school. I oppose this fourth foundation, for this reason,— 
these three schools provide at present for the pupils a highly 
scientific instruction, and since hospitals have been added to 
them they take in sick animals, affording facilities to the 
students to learn practice, the result of which is the acquire¬ 
ment of a higher attainment of science by them. But these 
young men, after four years’ hard study and labour, and 
after having undergone a satisfactory examination so as to 
obtain a diploma, go into the country, where they find them¬ 
selves in the presence of empirics who have never studied at 
all, and who, in certain villages, even resort to witchcraft 
and charms, thereby deceiving the peasants, while the cattle 
die. It must be borne in mind, that since the first request 
was addressed to the chambers, agriculture has considerably 
