EDITORIAL. 
17 
has been maintained; officers and men have been taught in hippo- 
logical lectures the essentials of veterinary science; farriery has 
been improved. In short, in scores of ways the army veterin¬ 
arian has been, as a professional man, a boon to the War Depart¬ 
ment. Moreover, the army veterinarian has, with his regiment, 
in time of danger, faced unflinchingly disease and death. He has 
acquitted himself with the fortitude of the soldier; has been 
maimed in limb, cut down, or died from disease in the army hos¬ 
pital or the field. What are his rewards for it ? To be spurned 
by the War Department he serves; to be tittered at as a person of 
no consequence; to be kept down as if he were a man without 
knowledge, without genuine worth to the government or to his 
country. 
How much longer will the veterinary profession tolerate this 
iniquitous policy of the War Department of keeping the veterin¬ 
arian down? Is the veterinarian a foul thing, that he should be 
shunned ? Is he a rough, uncouth, collarless boor, or is he a gen¬ 
tleman fitted out in regimental dress, a man of dignity, special 
knowledge and attainments, suitable for the company of officers 
and gentlemen? The veterinary profession must smite the policy 
of keeping the army veterinarians clown and brand it as in¬ 
famous. And, because the Committee on Military Affairs of the 
House of Representatives gave a patient hearing to Chairman 
Hoskins, of the Legislative Committee of the American Veter¬ 
inary Medical Association on February 28 last, and listened at- 
tentively at that hearing to addresses by Captain J. A. T. Hull, 
Lieutenant-Colonel M. A. Piche (Canadian Army Veterinary 
Service), Dr. John R. Mohler (B. A. I.) and Dr. John P. Tur¬ 
ner, and seemed to be much impressed with the statements and 
arguments brought to them by those earnest gentlemen, who had 
pleaded our cause well, it is not to be taken as a sign that the 
battle is won, or that any one person can slacken his zeal in the 
slightest degree. It means, on the contrary, that the battle for 
the passage of the bill to commission veterinarians in the United 
States Army (H. R. 16843) is on. And, while it cannot fail of 
passage if every veterinarian in the land will get his Represen- 
