352 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
knowledge on the breeding, selection and use of cavalry and ar¬ 
tillery horses and the draft mules. Such has never yet been 
attempted in our army, and I have recently seen horses passed 
for U. S. service which were about as fit for military work as a 
professional shoemaker would have been for a gunner on the 
U. S. S. Brooklyn. 
I believe, however, that our chance for the passage of a 
proper bill will soon arrive. From correspondence with mem¬ 
bers of Congress I have learned that the failure of the passage 
of the veterinary bill is not due to want of recognition of the 
veterinary profession, but it is mostly based on the objection of 
the members of Congress to creating a new class of officers for 
which there is no pressing necessity. So we will have to wait 
for a chance to demonstrate that our services are really needed. 
Thus far the Spanish-American war has not been lucky for our 
profession, while it has given a wonderful start to many other 
branches of the service. Surely, the several dismounted regi¬ 
ments of United States cavalry, and the heroic “rough riders,’^ 
sung as such already in American poetry, charging “ on 
foot ” the hills of Santiago, is glory surrounded by sarcasm. 
But let us wait for the changing fortunes of war and see if not 
soon the urgent need of the cavalry horse and the ambulance 
mule will be demonstrated to those who wish to see it. If so, 
the war will yet prove that these public animals cannot properly 
be taken care of by detailed cavalry and infantry officers, nor 
by the farriers of the troops, as is largely the case at present. I 
believe that we are nearer the realization of our hopes and the 
result of our years of labor in this direction than many of us 
may think. 
It is quite interesting at present to mention the personnel of 
the Spanish veterinary corps. According to the Berliner Tier- 
arztliche Wocliejischrift^ it consists of one first class veterinary 
inspector (colonel), 2 second class veterinary inspectors (lieuten¬ 
ant-colonels), 9 veterinary majors, 73 veterinary captains, 87 
veterinary lieutenants. Of these 235 officers there are one 
veterinary major, ii veterinary captains and 64 veterinary lieu¬ 
tenants in Cuba. From the large number of veterinary officers 
needed in Cuba we must conclude that large bodies of cavalry 
are operating there. Some of our young cavalry lieutenants 
with their West Point airs may yet be shocked by turning a 
veterinar}^ major or captain his prisoner. 
Olof Schwarzkopf. 
