CORRESPONDENCE. 
817 
cently been promulgated by the Department of War: 
Circular 55, 
Headquarters of the Army, Adjutant General’s Office, 
November 23d, 1899. 
The following decisions have been made and are published to the 
Army for the information of all concerned : 
1. Courtesies lo be shown Acting Assistant Surgeons by enlisted men oj 
the Army.—— Acting assistant surgeons are entitled to the same protec¬ 
tion in their positions and the same respect and obedience from enlisted 
men as commissioned officers.—(Republication of Par. 1^53 A. R. of 
1899, approved by Sec. War, Nov. 17th, 1899.) 
2. Status and Allowances of Veterinarians .—A veterinarian appointed 
under the act of Congress approved March 2, 1899, is not a commis¬ 
sioned officer or an enlisted man, but a civil employee. 
A veterinarian of the second class is entitled to all the allowances or 
emoluments of a Sergeant Major, other than his pay proper, which is 
fixed by law, the same as if he were an enlisted man.—(Decision Sec. 
War, Nov. 7th, 1899—290576 A. G. O.) 
The status of the army vet, as may be seen from the above, 
has been defined, and the knife has been again buried in his 
unresisting anatomy, but no blood drawn, as he by this time is 
bloodless. The status of the contract doctor employed tem¬ 
porarily by the Surgeon General (possessing no more education, 
technically or otherwise, than the vet) is redefined presumably 
by way of contrast, but was it necessary ? The new definition 
of civil employee places the vet in a very unenviable position, 
both as regards his work and social standing. Officially being 
a civil employee, his efforts from a professional standpoint are 
productive of less results now than they were formerly, when 
he was ranked as a sergeant major {vide his warrant), and had 
some little authority. Now, having none, he is but a thing , 
with less influence for good in the service than a troop farrier, 
who is a grade above a private, anyhow, and certainly outranks 
the vet, who is nobody. Then, again, the spectacle of a vet of 
the second class, a civil employee, drawing helmets, riding 
boots, chevrons, stripes, and other military equipments that 
lie. is not allowed to wear, is without parallel in any other civ¬ 
ilized service that we know of. Socially, an army civil em- * 
ployee, from a military point of view, is a dog. 
How the decision in the above circular came to be given we 
do not know, but it needs no Daniel to read the handwriting- 
on the wall, and plainly shows the estimation in which the vet 
profession is held by the War Department, regardless of the 
good it might do if recognized. By this decision the veterinary 
service in the army has been reduced to the minimum in use- 
