THE POSITION OF ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 681 
It may be thought that the Warrant of 1859 has answered 
the requirements of our case, but it has in no wise done so 
beyond making a few senior promotions, leaving the medial 
and younger branches in the position of completing their 
service in the junior grade, thereby defeating its object, i.e. 
zeal, and a spirit of emulation, it was expected to produce. 
The scientific portion of our army is strictly a seniority 
service; in fact, I may say the whole is so, though modified 
in a measure in the combative portion (Artillery and Engi¬ 
neers excepted) by the purchase system. 
In the staff corps and medical services promotion goes by 
fixed periods of service in the various grades, but not so in 
ours. Yet a casual reading of the Warrant would lead one 
to suppose that this is the case. In paragraph 3 it says we 
are eligible (note the italics) after five years to promotion to 
first class; and further on, in paragraph 5, it deludes one to 
suppose that even this limit of five years is not necessary. It 
speaks of the good of the service ” and “ emergency,” 
thereby leading one to suppose that contingencies of emer¬ 
gency and good of the sermce are likely to arise. This may 
be a good cloak in the case of a doub ” to take care of,” 
hut I think the second column from the right appended to 
paragraph 7 might have been omitted, for I cannot call to 
mind a single case of promotion to first class immediately 
after completion of five years’ service,—certainly not after three 
years. It is, indeed, pretty much on a par with the recruit¬ 
ing sergeant’s placard in days gone by, that used to be seen 
posted on the doors of public-houses— 
Wanted.—A few smart young men,” &c. 
And going on to say how soon the recruit would become 
a sergeant, then a commissioned officer! Claptrap, sirs, and 
nothing more. 
We are deluded by false hopes and inducements not to 
be realised, and are left without a remedy. I trust I may be 
pardoned by you and your readers if I appear splenetic, but I 
am writing with the thermometer at 98^, and fifteen sum¬ 
mers have rusted my liver, I suppose. 
I am, as you may see by my admission, a veterinary surgeon 
of the local Indian army. I hailed the Warrant, with its 
shortcomings, as a boon ; but, alas 1 six years were allowed 
to pass before it was made applicable to us, during which 
time we lost rank and pay. In the meantime, I saw the 
names of men in the royal army, who sat by my side at our 
alma mater, appear as first class. Many are junior to me in 
