602 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



least when it is of such a character or reaches such proportions as to 

 be a hindrance to the real work of investigation. This touches a ques- 

 tion of policy which affects nearly everv department of the station. 

 It is a difficult matter to make a general decision affecting all work of 

 this kind, but it should be kept well within bounds, and there is per- 

 haps reason why it should especially be restricted in the veterinary 

 department. 



The station veterinarian is not employed as a doctor, but as an 

 investigator. He can not_underlake..to give up his time to public 

 doctoring, anj^ more than the station chemist can to being a public 

 analyst. Both would soon be swamped with mere routine work that 

 would more than absorb their entire time if this practice were encour- 

 aged. The station is maintained for the greatest good of the greatest 

 number. No station veterinarian can, even if he devotes all the time 

 and facilities of his department to that one end, doctor or prescribe 

 for all the animals which sicken on the farmers' hands; but one farmer 

 has just as much claim upon him for this service as another. As a mat- 

 ter of fact veteriuar}^ science or practice is not materiall}' advanced bj' 

 this general practice; no progress is made, as the same ground is likely 

 to be gone over j^ear after 3'ear, and the greatest good of the greatest 

 number of stock owners is not subserved. Such work is not onlj^ 

 unsatisfactory, but even risky for both the advisor and advised, for 

 the descriptions of diseases which are sent in are often such as to make 

 a diagnosis questionable; and furthermore, the station veterinarian, if 

 he is a skillful investigator, may not necessarily be a good practitioner. 



In States where a veterinarian is employed as a State officer, we do 

 not find him spending his time prescribing for sick animals Avhich are 

 affected with ordinary ailments. He leaves that to the local veterina- 

 rians, while he attends to the larger problems of protecting the health 

 of the live stock at large, restricting epidemics and removing the 

 causes of contagion. 



The field of activity of the station veterinarian is even more 

 restricted than that of the State officer, and while a little advice now 

 and then can be given without much trouble, as a rule farmers should 

 be encouraged to employ private practitioners for their animals when 

 occasion calls for their services. We can not agree with the position 

 taken by Dr. liepp that the station veterinarian should render the 

 service as a private individual and then demand a fee for it, when the 

 requests come to him by virtue of his connection with the station. 

 Such requests are in line with all sorts of inquiries which come to the 

 chemist and the agriculturist and the entomologist, and the attempt 

 to collect fees for the service rendered in such cases would be a dan- 

 gerous one for a station to follow. Carried out consistently it would 

 do far more to promote dissatisfaction than refusal to comply with the 

 requests. But we agree with him entirely that such duties should not 



