THE POSITION OF ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 583 
most valuable. If this argument is true towards one branch 
of the service^ it must be so to the other. Our Indian 
veterinary surgeons have done good work for the State, and, 
though our ranks have become thinned, it yet contains many 
good and useful servants, whose local experience cannot but 
he of great use in this part of the world, where nature plays 
her fickle game of opposites. 
How far right our principal veterinary surgeon may he in 
passively refusing to assist the local branch of our profession, 
I will not attempt to argue; he doubtlessly, and perhaps 
with some grounds, will not interfere with a body over which 
he has no immediate control. We are, from the nature of 
our covenant with the old East Indian Government, sworn to 
serve in India and its dependencies ; consequently he cannot 
exercise the right of bringing us to England, or of sending a 
black sheep to vegetate in Canada or elsewhere. I quite 
agree that as head of a profession we ought to be placed under 
him as far as would be consistent with the nature of our ser¬ 
vice. At present our position is anomalous. The Secretary 
of State says the principal veterinary surgeon to the army 
will so far assist in furnishing examination papers from time 
to time. This, I think, is wrong, as it places ns in the hands 
of a man who has not, nor may not have a feeling of sympa¬ 
thy with us aliens. I trust I may not he considered personal 
in my remarks ; let me at once assure you it is only the 
principle, and not the principal, I am objecting to. We all 
owe the little we have to the gentleman at our head, who has 
laboured hard in our cause, and I only regret that we are not 
immediately subordinate to him. 
In espousing the cause of army professional members gene¬ 
rally, I wish to impress the injustice towards the local veteri¬ 
nary surgeons in particular. 
Shortly after the Warrant was published in this country (I 
think it was in 1860) the Bombay Government at once made 
promotions according to the spirit of it. They were told 
they acted wrong in the letter, but, having once been made, 
they were allowed to stand. Here, then, are comparatively 
young men promoted over the heads of seniors by a ‘‘ fluke.” 
Why Bengal and Madras did not fluke too I cannot say. 
Possibly they had not an energetic Collins, or a willing 
Mansfield among them. Anyhow, we did not do so, and the 
golden opportunity was lost. The faux has, however, 
only done justice to them, and strengthened our claim. 
Another strong argument, too, in favour of local veterinary 
surgeons is the promotion of young men formerly belonging 
to our service, but since volunteered for general service. It is, 
