472 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
ilk until some of us came near passing in our chips with typhoid 
and malaria. We did it for $75 a month, and because we 
wouldn’t show the white feather, and we did it because we were 
Americans, who were possessed of that quality that despises to 
give in. 
We want to be placed on some kind of a plane where 
we will be recognized and have an influence. We demand that 
we be taken out of the sink of prejudice and usage, and we 
assert that as a profession we consider ourselves the equal of any 
and in any way. 
All this may not have more influence than a spoonful of 
sulphuretted hydrogen in a hurricane, but what is stated above 
is true, and I am here behind it to substantiate every word of 
it. 
Why am I here ? That’s what I’d like to know myself. 
' Gerald E. Griffin, 
Vef. Stirg. ^th Cavalry. 
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE.* 
By Veterinarians Corcoran and Treacy, 8th Cavalry, 
Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
You do me much honor, as you do my army colleagues, by 
the invitation to read a paper on the ‘‘ History of the U. S. A. 
Veterinary Service.” 
The ablest writer, even a romancer, can do little without a 
basis, and, as there are no records of our services, I fear my 
efforts will be inadequate and uninteresting. 
In the glorious era of the immortal Lincoln, our Army Vet¬ 
erinary Service first saw the light. That great and good man, 
appreciating the service of veterinarians in the Army, offered 
them commissions as lieutenants, which they refused, believing 
themselves entitled to higher rank. Soon afterwards, in 1863, 
there was one appointed to each cavalry regiment, with the pay 
of a lieutenant ($75 per month) and the nominal rank of ser¬ 
geant-major, to entitle them to allowances, quarters and fuel, etc., 
but the provision of retirement for disability and long service, 
evidently contemplated at the time, was overlooked in those ex¬ 
citing and trying times, and has been overlooked ever since. 
In 1866, at the reorganization of the Army, four more regi¬ 
ments of cavalry were added, and from the sad experiences of 
the immense losses of public animals during the war for want 
* Read before the U. S. V. M. A. September 6, 1898. 
