PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION K. 699 



The distinction conferred upon the profession by the admission 

 of veterinary science to University grade has done much to 

 elevate its status. Like all similar honours, it carries with 

 it certain responsibilities, important among which is the 

 necessity to live up to the best traditions of the older academic pro- 

 fessions. From the establishment of a veterinary school as an 

 integral part of a great University, the benefits to be derived by 

 the graduates are many and precious. Of the more important of 

 which, one might mention the freer acquisition of general culture 

 so manifest in the social life of a University, the maintenance of 

 that high standard of education required by a profession, and the 

 expansion of the mind to be obtained from unfettered intercourse 

 and exchange of views of students of one faculty with those of 

 another. In addition, there are inducements offered to foster 

 the scientific mind, so important in the laboratory and in the field ; 

 while opportunities are made available for the encouragement of 

 original research, which is so necessary for the elucidation of the 

 many problems met with in our sphere of usefulness, and so essen- 

 tial for the general advancement of science. 



Thus, from an unsympathetic past, when the future appeared 

 so hopeless as to discourage many visiting veterinarians from 

 settling among us, our present satisfactory position has been won. 

 The progress made is most marked in Victoria, owing to the advan- 

 tages derived during the past twenty-six years from the Melbourne 

 Veterinary College — the founder of which must be regarded as the 

 father of veterinary teaching in Australasia, and to the benefits 

 that have accrued from the possession of a Veterinary Surgeons Act 

 since 1887. Efforts to acquire similar legislative protection have 

 been made in other States, but so far those in Western Australia 

 alone have succeeded. In New South Wales a Bill was introduced 

 last year to provide for the registration of veterinary practitioners 

 within that State, but owing to the exigencies of other measures 

 of more importance to our politicians, the further consideration of 

 the Bill was deferred until a more convenient opportunity offers. 

 It is to be hoped that the vigilance of the Veterinary Association 

 of New South Wales will be successful in obtaining an Act to 

 provide the desired protection without too great a sacrifice. Few 

 who have studied the question will deny that legislative enactment 

 is necessary in all the States of the Commonwealth, not only in the 

 interests of the profession, but to safeguard the community 

 against the nefarious practices of impostors, and to prevent the 

 infliction of cruelty to animals under the guise of treatment by 

 persons ignorant of the very elements of the science. It is a 

 regrettable fact that against these unscrupulous persons our prac- 

 titioners have to compete in the majority of the States. Unfortu- 

 nately, the competition is an unwholesome one, and constitutes a 

 hindrance to proper public appreciation of the profession, and 



