ARMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
233 
officer entering the army—an examination which lasted about io 
days—in which the young veterinarian is examined thoroughly 
on all subjects pertaining to his general education, as well as on 
all subjects pertaining to his technical duties. I have been in¬ 
formed by officers that they prescribed these long, tedious exam¬ 
inations anticipating the time when the veterinarians would be 
organized into a corps of officers. The idea is not a young one. 
The idea occurred in Mr. Lincoln’s time. In 1861 Mr. Lincoln 
sent for a veterinarian who was residing in Washington to se¬ 
cure his services for the army. This veterinarian was an English 
graduate and a very fine man in every respect. Mr. Lincoln 
said to him that he would like to have him enter the army as a 
veterinarian. The old gentleman proudly drew himself up and 
declined, saying, “ Why, sir, in my army and in my country the 
veterinarian is a commissioned officer, and when you see fit to 
commission me I will serve, but not otherwise.” And in order to 
secure that man’s services he was commissioned a captain quar¬ 
termaster and stationed at a point across the river, where the 
horse depot was located. So we are following a precedent in our 
army when we ask you to commission the veterinarians. We 
have also a captain of infantry and a major who rose through 
our work, but when they enlisted they were in the ranks. It 
seems to me that if our army, through its general staff, has to 
go to Europe and pattern after European models, they should 
follow them in this respect. While I am not a military man, I 
know of nothing original in our army. 
I do not know of anything that has not been borrowed from 
the War Lord; everything we have in our army from the general 
staff down, it seems to me, has been borrowed from the War 
Lord, and I believe we have not a single original military officer 
in this country. We have commissioned dentists, and that is a 
very necessary position to my mind. Any man stationed out on 
the Black Hills, several hundred miles from Omaha, plagued 
with the toothache, can certainly appreciate the advantage of hav¬ 
ing the dental officer at hand. It was said that the dentists ought 
not to be commissioned because they did not command men, and 
the same argument is being urged against commissioning the 
veterinarians, who must command men. He must command his 
stable sergeants, farriers and blacksmiths, and the privates who 
are detailed to his hospital. It has been advantageous in all the 
armies of all the civilized nations to commission the veterinarians 
in order to get better service and to get the full benefit of their 
work. The United States gives these men the pay of officers, 
