354 
A. A. HOLCOMBE. 
THE ARMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
By A. A. Holcombe, D.V.S. 
In no country in the world having any claim to considera¬ 
tion as a progressive power lias veterinary science received so 
little attention as in the United States. The recognition accorded 
the veterinary profession by the Government has been more marked 
by its absence of appreciation of importance than for any other 
quality. Stress of circumstances in 1862 forced the Government 
to establish a Veterinary Department for the Army, and similar 
causes compelled some of the individual States, and the Agricul¬ 
tural Department in 1879, and more recently the Treasury De¬ 
partment, to seek escape from impending disaster to our large 
and rapidly-growing live stock trade, by recourse to the protec¬ 
tive efforts of the veterinary surgeon’s skill. Notwithstanding 
this recognition has always come with the poor grace of acts not 
voluntary, it is preferable to being entirely ignored, for it pre¬ 
sents the opportunity of attracting public attention by rendering 
valuable public service. 
But the fact cannot be disguised that the veterinary suigeon 
who attempts to serve his Government in an official capacity iinds 
himself surrounded and hampered in his work by the most annoy¬ 
ing circumstances. This is perhaps more true of the array veter¬ 
inary surgeon than of one in the civil service, for the duties of the 
foi mei consist of an unbroken routine, apt to become most de¬ 
moralizing from the entire absence of any stimulus to do better. 
lliat the practice of veterinary surgery is recognized as an 
important factor in maintaining the health and consequent effi¬ 
ciency of the public animals, is sufficiently demonstrated by the 
early establishment of the Army Veterinary Department; but 
that the Government appreciates fully what the duties of the vet¬ 
erinary surgeon should comprise, and recognizes the difference 
between the scientifically educated and the uneducated, is not so 
apparent. 
Until 1879, the orders of the War Department made it possi¬ 
ble for anybody to become a regimental veterinary surgeon, so it 
