ARMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
235 
officers, 'but if we have gone to the extent of commissioning* doc¬ 
tors, and have gone to the extent of saying that ministers of the 
gospel shall be captains; that dentists, who have no command 
whatever, shall be first lieutenants; that the cashiers of the army 
shall be major paymasters; if it is necessary and proper that the 
lawyers of the army shall be colonels, it is just as essential that 
the veterinarians should be commissioned. Consider for a mo¬ 
ment the important duties of the veterinarian; the duty of in¬ 
specting animals before they are purchased and the inspection 
of horses prior to their condemnation; the duty of inspecting 
certain commissary supplies, as well as the inspection of camps 
under certain rules of camp sanitation. All this work is in the 
hands of amateurs—and when I say amateurs, I refer to the 
active officers and quartermaster officers who attempt to perform 
this duty, which should be intrusted only to the hands of those 
who have been specially trained for it. 
I know there is a prejudice in this committee and in the War 
Department against an independent corps of veterinarians, and 
for that reason I am in favor of Mr. Hull’s amendment provid¬ 
ing that they be placed under the quartermaster-general’s divi¬ 
sion for purposes of administration. 
Gentlemen, I know if there had been a commissioned veter¬ 
inary corps in the camps during the Spanish-American War, 
that if the veterinary sergeant had had the rank of major or cap¬ 
tain-quartermaster, or if he had been a commissioned officer of 
any kind, the amount of money which would have been saved 
during that war, by preserving the thousands of horses which 
had the strangles and influenza, later developing into glanders, 
would have been sufficient to have paid the veterinary corps for 
a hundred years to come. It is preposterous to think that during 
the Spanish-American War and shortly after the close of that 
war State boards of health had to go into the United States courts 
to prevent the army from selling horses which had been exposed 
to glanders. 
Mr. Anthony— Were these horses sick at the time they were 
purchased, or did the diseases develop in the camps? 
Dr. Turner— The diseases developed in the camps largely. 
Mr. Anthony— Were there any veterinarians attached to 
the regiments at that time? 
Dr. Turner —There were, but if you had been a veterinarian 
for several years and had on several occasions found it neces¬ 
sary to go to your colonel and make certain recommendations, 
