SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 5 
ence), who would thus be prejudiced. If we consider this 
matter from the point of view of country practice it will seem 
certain to us that these considerations have their value, and 
that, in consequence of the small number of veterinarians 
who carry on professional business in the country, distribu¬ 
tion of the sanitary functions between them would be pro¬ 
ductive of more advantages than real inconvenience ; while 
giving all satisfaction to amour propre , it has the advantage 
of associating all the veterinarians of the country service by 
their own consent, and of thus imposing on them legal obli¬ 
gations, in the performance of which they would be the more 
strenuous, because any laxity would be aggravated in conse¬ 
quence of the official character which they have to support; 
‘ Noblesse oblige ’ says the old proverb; it here finds an 
application. From the time when any one is delegated to 
the sanitary service he accepts all its obligations, and thus 
undertakes the scrupulous execution of the regulations of 
the law in all its rigorous applications. But, it is said, has 
this system not the inconvenience of mixing incapable and 
unworthy personages to superintend matters for the per¬ 
formance of which the highest qualifications ought to be 
employed ? Without doubt; but happily these are only ex¬ 
ceptions, and there is an easy remedy in necessary erasures. 
Also the modus agendi supported by the Congress is not 
without having been put to the proof already ; it is actually 
flourishing in Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Inferieure, and Orne, as 
we were told at the Congress, and, without doubt, in other 
departments. We must wait, before pronouncing on its 
practical value, to see what will follow the execution of the 
law of intervention, and of all the duties it will impose on the 
veterinarians appointed to the sanitary service. Allowing 
the principle of equality of veterinarians in the distribution 
of the duties of this service, the Congress has sanctioned the 
necessary principle of hierachy by asking that the sanitary 
service be placed under the direction of a departmental 
veterinary surgeon, charged with the duty of centralisation, 
and through whom might be established the relations of the 
service with the administrative authorities. We approve of 
this resolution of the Congress, but we doubt whether it has 
selected the best mode of nomination for this superior 
post. Direct election has the serious inconvenience of pre¬ 
venting the prefectoral authority from any participation in 
the nomination of the chief officer of the sanitary service, 
who ought to always be inclose relations with this authority. 
Here is a position difficult to accept, which may probably 
prevent the vote of the Congress from being carried into 
