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The Military Surgery School includes surgeons of the Army Medical Corps, and licensed medical practitioners and pharmacists who wish to become military surgeons on active service. First-class students are taught for four months, second class for one year.
The Military Veterinary Surgeon School includes veterinary surgeons of the Military Veterinary Surgeons Corps who require training, and also the farrier foremen of the various corps, the latter being instructed in the science of farriery. The course extends from three to nine months.
The Military Gunnery and Mechanics’ Work School trains those who wish to become foreman smiths, foreman saddlers, foreman gunsmiths, foreman wood mechanics, and foreman of casting work. The course may be one or two years.
The Military Band School takes prospective bandsmen through a course of training lasting about one year.
Courts-martial have considerable powers, dealing both with combatants and non-combatants as long as they remain in any way connected with their respective services, and enforcing the Military Criminal Code and the ordinary criminal provisions. These courts are divided into two branches, the higher and the divisional bodies, one of the latter being established in each military division, where it has jurisdiction over criminal matters within the limits of its own particular division. The higher court, established at Tokyo, deals with matters affecting the conduct of officers of the rank of General, and also with appeals from the decisions of divisional courts.
The judgment of a court-martial must have the approval of the Emperor or of the supervising chief, according to rank, before being carried into effect.
Military or garrison gaols are located in centres possessing garrisons and divisional courts-martial, and come under jurisdiction of the garrison commander.
Each military garrison is provided with a military hospital, to which are taken all cases of illness among the troops, and which keep supplies of medical stores and surgical instruments. All expense of treatment is supplied gratis to the army, except for one-year volunteers and for those of or above the rank of special sergeants. Special provision is made for the effective isolation of contagious or infectious cases and for patients requiring change of air.
The ‘Sick Horse Stable,’ as it was called, has been abolished, all matters pertaining to the care of this department being now vested in the Cavalry Office of the War Department. Great attention, however, is given to the subject of equine hygiene.
For some years colts were purchased from stock-farmers, and