8 
EDITORIAL. 
tain evils against which we have been fighting so persistently 
for many years. We are informed that the whole power of a 
Staff-Department was thrown against our amendment and that, 
when it was found impossible to kill it entire, at least the 
successful attempt was made to have stricken out the one word, 
u rank,” leaving to the veterinarian only the “ pay and allow¬ 
ances of a lieutenant of cavalry.” We also think little of the 
provision which allows the present army veterinarians to re¬ 
main in their unchanged position if they do not pass the pre¬ 
scribed examination. It will kill the ambition for advance¬ 
ment of some, and assist others, incompetent and undesirable, 
to remain in the service indefinitely. 
Yet, even this Bill marks a distinct step in advance. With 
an examination as entrance requirement, and the pay of a lieu¬ 
tenant provided for, we will see more competent veterinarians 
enter the army service. They will surely use their better knowl¬ 
edge and energies to modify and modernize the veterinary serv¬ 
ice and produce results similar to those so well acknowledged 
in other armies. Moreover, with the solid backing of the vet¬ 
erinarians of the whole country, and the experienced guidance 
of Dr. Salmon in the halls of Congress, we may hope to see 
planted a nucleus of an efficient army veterinary service within 
the next few years, and which may gradually grow into a great 
economic Army-Department, encouraged by the rapid develop¬ 
ment of the United States as a world-power. O. S. 
WONDERS OF MODERN SCIENCE. 
In these days of automobiles alid other such like ilk, which, 
according to the fervid visions of the too confiding investors in 
horseless carriage stocks and bonds, will in a few years cause 
the horse to become as rare an animal as the American buffalo 
is at the present time, it may not be amiss to call attention to 
the fact that the gentle bovine also seems to be threatened with 
extinction by the onward march of scientific discoveries. 
We are told that in the interior of Madagascar botanists 
have discovered a species of palm to which they have given the 
