EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XII. No. 7. 



The proceedings of the American Veterinai\v Medical Association for 

 1900, recently issued, contains a paper on the work of the veterinary 

 section of the experiment stations, by Dr. John J. Repp, of the Iowa 

 Station, This article is worthy of the thoughtful attention of those 

 interested in the development or proper direction of the veterinary 

 feature of experiment station work. 



Dr. Repp has taken a census of the opinion of station veterinarians 

 as to their true functions, the work which it is of most importance for 

 them to do, and the general conditions pertaining to their departments. 

 He finds the conditions far from satisfactory, or such as could reason- 

 ably be expected to materially advance the cause of veterinary science 

 in very many instances. Only one station veterinarian has no other 

 duties than station work, and in only two cases are the other duties 

 light. In all other cases the burden of the work done is in some other 

 line tnan that of station veterinarian. Most of the men are reported as 

 being so loaded down with other work that they have very little time 

 for station work. It should perhaps be remembered that thus far 

 veterinarians have been employed by a number of institutions prima- 

 rily to give instruction in veterinary medicine, and their station duties 

 have been made distinctl}' a secondarj' matter, because of lack of funds 

 to equip and run a department of veterinar}^ research. As a matter of 

 fact, however, at fully half the stations where veterinarians are em- 

 ployed as anything more than consulting experts they receive one-half 

 their salary or more from station funds, and in a number of cases three- 

 fourths. Lack of time for investigation or inability to utilize advan- 

 tageously the fragments of time left from college duties is, unfortu- 

 nately, not confined to the veterinarians, but is far too prevalent for 

 the best interests of investigation. 



Dr. Repp considers separately the various taxes upon the time of 

 the station veterinarian aside from his research work. Of these the 

 most onerous and diflicult to avoid are prescribing treatment for sick 

 or diseased animals on the basis of correspondence or otherwise, and 

 examination of pathological and bacteriological specimens for the pur- 

 pose of diagnosis. Under a strict construction such work is very 

 properly held to be without the scope of the station veterinarian, at 



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