ARMY VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
411 
it is now, he can only make suggestions which may or may not be 
complied with. If his commanding officer, even though but a 
second lieutenant who has no knowledge of the habits, diseases 
or abilities of the animals in his charge, sees fit to ignore his 
directions, the inevitable is to submit. If the same officer chooses 
to do without your opinion entirely, you have no alternative. 
The Veterinary Surgeon is a sort of convenience whose services 
may be used or dispensed with at will. He may stand by and 
witness the death of the best horses in the service, brought about 
by the malpractice of an ignorant blacksmith, and yet powerless 
to interpose an authority that could have the least weight in 
saving the life of a public animal. 
The personal animosity of the officers in charge permits him to 
vent his spite at the expense of the Government. It has hap¬ 
pened under my own observation, and I have no doubt in other 
instances. It is an expensive pleasure which can be curtailed by 
making the Veterinary Surgeon a commissioned officer. 
The present constitution of the Veterinary Department ren¬ 
ders it impossible for the general results of the employment of 
skilled veterinarians to be even approximately determined. But 
a small percentage of the public animals have the benefit of a 
Veterinary Surgeon’s care, and many of these under such adverse 
circumstances that only a comparatively limited good result is 
appreciable. 
Assigning one Veterinary Surgeon to a cavalry regiment 
which is divided into two, three or more batallions, serving at as 
many different posts, sometimes hundreds of miles apart, is a most 
imperfect providing of veterinary attendance. 
The Veterinary Surgeon in such cases is generally stationed 
at headquarters of the regiment with, as a rule, not more than 50 
per cent, of the horses belonging to the regiment. The other 50 
per cent, are deprived of medical attendance, unless there happen 
an outbreak of some contagious disease amongst them, when it is 
customary for the Veterinary Surgeon of the regiment to visit 
them. If such an outbreak happen in all the batallions at once, 
then the chances are that but the animals at headquarters will 
receive proper attention, or if otherwise, all may receive an 
mperfect attention. 
