EDITORIAL. 
495 
until suitable rank and pay are attached to their appointment, 
and the end will not be distant. The resignation (in their own 
pecuniary interests) of those now holding official place, and the 
withdrawal or withholding of applications now made or contem¬ 
plated, will “ strike ” a blow at the snobbery which undoubtedly 
inspires the disgust of the epaulletted gentlemen whose gorges 
rise at the thought of messing with “ horse doctors,” which will 
effectually settle the whole question. The army will hardly be 
suffered^to retrograde to the period when every blacksmith was a 
farrier, and the fleam, the firing-iron and an aloectic ball consti¬ 
tuted the whole materia medica. The need of reputable and 
responsible veterinarians will, in due time, necessitate their em¬ 
ployment. Their value having been tested and proved, the gov¬ 
ernment call will be heard, and the inducements to secure a 
favorable response will be forthcoming with the tender of 
appointment. 
Civil veterinarians were ignored as to the value of their 
acquirements until their researches into the philosophy of con- 
tagionjjjjand’their services in the protection of both man and brute 
from the ravages of fatal epidemics conquered and compelled the 
consideration of the public, and their reward has come to them in 
the appreciation they have so laboriously earned and now securely 
hold. 
The lesson must not be’lost to the army veterinarian. The 
army’jieeds 'him more than he needs the army, and his self- 
assertion’pn abandoning a position he cannot hold without a 
sacrifice of his manly dignity and professional and scientific status 
will involve no risk of damage of any description which he may 
not complacently contemplate and safely encounter. Justice at 
the hands|‘of the government will be sure to meet his demand 
when thusjboldly urged, and his final reward will be found in his 
permanent retention of the well-earned standing in the ranks of 
scientists and savants already accorded to him, and finally his 
reception as the social equal of even the graduates of West Point 
—which, being once conquered, leaves nothing more worth the 
contention necessary to acquire it. 
As this is not our first reference to this subject, it is not likely 
