444 
EDITORIAL. 
target for the most bitter attacks by the newspapers, army medi¬ 
cal men, and politicians. The fact that he is a veterinarian is 
sufficient to call down the vituperation of the M. Ds., while 
his education along their own lines is entirely lost sight of. 
The fact that he has not been engaged actively in human prac¬ 
tice does not really make any difference, as the position is 
almost entirely executive, and the great principles of medicine 
are as familiar to him as to any other medical gentleman in the 
army of the United States. But it seems that his additional 
accomplishment of being a veterinarian is a fatal one. Probably 
the standing of the army veterinarian is the level from which 
they take their sighting. 
We learn with regret that Dr. Huidekoper has tendered his 
resio:nation and is about to return from Port Rico. We trust 
that when he arrives in this country he will demand an investi¬ 
gation, and those medical men who have maligned him should 
be compelled to substantiate their charges. If the basis of their 
malignity rests upon simple prejudice against a profession 
which is in every sense the equal of their own, they should be 
exposed to the odium which is theirs by every reason of human 
right. R- R. B. 
The appointment of Dr. R. S. Huidekoper, of New York, as 
Division-Surgeon, First Army Corps, with the rank of Lieuten¬ 
ant-Colonel, is being severely criticised by several high army 
officers, army surgeons and chaplains, and the press all over the 
country has joined in an attack upon his person and work. We 
are far from believing that Dr. Huidekoper’s appointment was 
wise or even just, because he had practically abandoned the 
medical profession and had devoted himself entirely to veteri¬ 
nary practice during the last eighteen years. Thus his place 
belongs rightly to an active member of the medical profession. 
But every right-minded veterinarian must feel with indignation 
the wild and vicious manner in which Dr. Huidekoper’s case is 
referred to by certain army officers and the press. Thus, Gen¬ 
eral Sanger is reported to have said to^ Secretary of War Alger, 
