356 
AliMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
Department, which has since long objected to the formation oi 
a veterinary corps. However, the number of veterinarians has 
been increased from forty-two to sixty-two by the consolidation 
of all those serving in the line, in the Subsistence and Quarter¬ 
master’s Department, and as all these veterinarians will be, in 
the future, officers of the Army, a united body of some strength 
will at least be created, who’s better unity, self-reliance and in¬ 
fluence should lead to a greatly increased efficiency of the Army 
veterinary service. There can be no doubt that this first and 
loosely constituted veterinary body is the forerunner of a prop¬ 
erly organized Army veterinary corps in our Army. 
In order to have this bill become a law, it is now imperative 
that the hands of Chairman Hoskins be strengthened for his 
work in the Senate, where he seems to fear a greater opposition 
than he found in the House. This bill must become a law at 
this session, or an enormous amount of energy will have been 
wasted and large expenditures been made in vain. Furthermore, 
it may be possible for Dr. Hoskins to save, by compromise in 
the conference committee, some of the omitted positions as orig¬ 
inally recommended. 
It is to be regretted that the favorable and liberal report of 
the Committee on Military Affairs of the House is spoiled by the 
very faulty reports on the organization and ranks of the Euro¬ 
pean army veterinary corps embodied therein, which, in a large 
measure, were accepted as models by our Congressmen. These 
reports were evidently furnished to the Congressional committee 
by the War Department. They are from ten to twenty years 
behind the times, and so poorly translated and pregnant with 
mistakes as to give an entirely erroneous impression. If the 
War Department, instead of relying on the reporters and trans¬ 
lators of the general staff, would have accepted the similar re¬ 
ports as made in the brief to our bill, which are up to date and 
correct in every respect, perhaps some of the old prejudices 
against veterinary matters in our Army might not have come 
again to the surface during the recent Congressional considera¬ 
tion of our bill. This phase alone shows how little our military 
authorities are interested in veterinary questions, for it is well 
known that they are thoroughly posted on all other matters of 
foreign army organization and improvement. Evidently, then, 
the War Department needs a chief veterinarian as much as it 
needs any of the other chiefs of bureau, because they are nat¬ 
urally interested and keep themselves well informed on all im- 
