494 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
however, but more than we had before. I repeat it, and 
unite with my colleagues who have addressed you before me, 
that everything possible should be done to increase the 
number of veterinary surgeons in our rural districts, and 
that every effort be made, first by the government, and 
then by the departments and the communes, so as to arrive 
at so laudable a result. 
His Eminence the Cardinal Bonnet. —Gentlemen, I will 
not combat what has fallen from the reporter, and from 
MM. Beaumont and Ladoucette; on the contrary, I would 
strengthen it by demanding that the petition be referred to 
the Minister of Public Works and Agriculture. But I wish to 
do more. Nothing is so grievous as the state of our rural 
districts. When any serious epizootic breaks out amongst 
the domestic animals, it then becomes necessary to have 
recourse to the only man who is competent to remedy the 
evil, and this man is the veterinary surgeon ; but as in a 
certain number of departments there is a great scarcity of prac¬ 
titioners, and as the question has been settled of the depart¬ 
ments of the AVest and the East, I would speak of those of the 
South, where veterinary surgeons are very scarce, as we have 
too often witnessed, and it is to the empiric, and to the man 
of witchcraft and charms, we are obliged to have recourse. It 
is he who has, to the detriment of principle, and to the great 
misfortune of the agriculturist, attained a powerful influence 
over the people of certain rural districts. It may be said that it 
belongs to us to paralyse, by the influence of religious instruc¬ 
tion, an evil which has its source in superstition, and which we 
seek to uproot wherever we can make our voice heard; but 
when we are powerless, then the power of justice ought to step 
in. Why not treat the empiric and the sorcerer in the same 
manner as you do those who practise medicine without a 
diploma? I would also ask whether recourse could not be 
had to the authority of the prefect in those localties, where 
the empirics and the sorcerers exercise their culpable craft, 
thereby insulting civilisation and true religion ? I therefore 
demand that the petition be not only referred to the Minister 
of Agriculture, but also to the Minister of the Interior, for the 
reasons which I have stated. 
The Count de Beaumont. —There is no law to this effect. 
Count Boulay de la Meurthe. —This question only concerns 
the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, and is in his 
province. 
His Eminence the Cardinal Bonnet. —I shall ask, besides, 
that it be referred to the Minister of the Interior. 
The President .—The question is whether the petition shall 
be referred to the Minister of the Interior, as well as to the 
