EDITORIAL. 
803 
pects of complete fulfillment of its ardent hopes. Before that 
month had expired we found ourselves confronted by as ignoble 
a defeat as it was possible to receive. 
The brief history of the effort which has resulted so disas¬ 
trously dates back less than a year, when Senator Kenney, at 
the instigation of the Committee on Army Legislation of the 
American Veterinary Medical Association, introduced an am¬ 
endment to the Army Efficiency Bill, creating a Veterinary 
Corps, which, although opposed by the Committee on Military 
Affairs, passed the Senate May 4, 1900, by a narrow margin. 
At the Detroit meeting of the A. V. M. A. the committee made 
a full and vigorous report, urging united effort for a last strong 
pull, giving the members the assurance of vivid prospects of 
success ; and never was there a more loyal response from men 
working unselfishly for a grand purpose. The association sup¬ 
ported the committee morally and financially, and from every 
section of this country the profession stood solidly together and 
stretched every nerve to fulfill the hopes that had been en¬ 
gendered by the favorable action of the Senate, and the assur¬ 
ances emanating from the members of the House. Nor were 
the committee or the profession over-confident, for they had 
previously tested the friendship of the high officials of the War 
Department, and felt that they had little to hope for from that 
quarter. It is true that various members of the profession had 
preferences as to the form of advancement which the army vet¬ 
erinarian should receive ; some believed that the demand should 
have been more modest, that an entering wedge of simple rank 
would have given greater promise of success than the establish¬ 
ment of a corps, with high ranking officers and divorcement 
from the Adjutant-Generars authority ; but they were evidently 
in a minority, and it was conceded that a house divided against 
itself must fall, and, throwing aside their individual views, 
struck out for what seemed likely to receive official sanction. 
It is unnecessary here to recite the efforts which followed the 
adjournment of the meeting at Detroit. The position of the 
association was endorsed by State and local associations, every 
