412 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING! 
Chicago, August 27, 1890. 
Prof. C. C. Lyford, N. W. Veterinary College , Minneapolis , Minn.: 
Dear Sir: Before receiving your 1*tter we mailed you our prospectus for 
the coming session. We do not know* if this has given you the information 
required; if not, please state more fully what you want—whether graduation 
or matriculation—and oblige, 
Yours truly, R. J. Withers, 
President. 
President Micliener: The next in order will be the reception 
of the report of the Committee on Army Legislation. 
I)r. P. S. Huidekoper, Chairman of the Committee on Army 
Legislation, made the following report: 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ARMY LEGISLATION, 
By Dr. R. S. Huidekoper, Y.S., Chairman. 
Your committee has the honor to submit the following report: 
After our appointment as a committee on army legislation, at the meeting of 
the United States Veterinary Medical Association last year, we collected, from all 
sources, copies of the various bills which had in past years been submitted to 
Congress on the subject of army veterinary legislation, and were furnished with 
copies of several new bills containing more or less changes from previous ones. 
From these we made a digest and outlined a bill asking for the organization of 
a veterinary department, to be added to the other departments of the United 
States Army. We asked in this bill for the organization of a corps of veterin- 
« 
arians, &to consist of one chief veterinarian, with the rank of colonel; one 
veterinarian, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel; one veterinarian, with the rank 
of major; ten veterinarians, with the rank of captain, and twenty veterinarians, 
with the rank of lieutenant. 
This draft of the bill we submitted to General Schofield, to the Surgeon Gen¬ 
eral, to officers of the staff department who would be especially interested in it, 
and to the officers at a number of military posts both in the East and West, by 
whom the matter was courteously considered ; and we received advice both from 
older officers, high in rank, and from younger officers, who are at present actively 
engaged in the practical details of the cavalry and artillery. After mature de¬ 
liberation as to what was needed, and careful consideration of the limit which 
we could expect to obtain from Congress, in numbers and rank, for the new 
corps, we submitted a modified draft of the bill to General Schofield, who still 
further modified it into a form which would be acceptable to him, and this we 
gave to the Honorable H. H. Bingham, of Pennsylvania, who kindly introduced 
it into the House of Representatives, where it was read twice, referred to the 
Committee on Militaiy Affairs, and ordered to be printed on January 6th, 
1890, Number H. R. 3912, 51st Congress, 1st Session. 
In the next few weeks we made a number of visits to Washington, and saw 
individually each member of the Committee on Military Affairs in the House of 
Representatives. At about that time Senator J. Donald Cameron, of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, introduced the same bill into the Senate. We obtained permission and an 
invitation from the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs of the House } 
