American Veterinary Review, 
MARCH, 1886. 
EDITORIAL. 
ARMY veterinarians: 
We are becoming more or less anxious to know, if possible, 
about how much longer the members of the veterinary corps 
attached to the military service of the United States are to be 
kept in the equivocal if not degrading position to which they 
seem to have been condemned by the authorities at Washington 
—how long the Secretary of War and his snbaltern the Lieutenant 
General will choose to continue blind to the importance of the 
duties and the value of the services pertaining to the competent 
veterinarian in the army of the country—in a word, when gentle¬ 
men of our profession who have accepted official station from the 
Government may expect to enjoy the consideration which an 
intelligent sense of justice would indicate as properly their due. 
It seems quite out of reason to attempt to explain the differ¬ 
ence in the treatment and estimation accorded to members of the 
same profession by the Governments of Europe, and that of our 
own country, except by the fact that while the former have be¬ 
come enlightened on the subject by long observation and ample 
experience, the latter has not even attempted, as yet, to compre¬ 
hend the situation, and to adapt its measures to the facts of the 
case. 
The fact cannot be ignored that the function of the accom¬ 
plished veterinarian in the army is one of the very first and high- 
