A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 423 



graduation, the people have no difficulty in at once ascertaining as 

 to who is an accredited man. 



Unless we have one form and grade of education for the whole 

 country, it will be absolutely impossible to ever have any effective 

 veterinary police, or to have any uniformity in the laws, or to meet 

 the requirements set forth when considering this part of our subject. 

 It is really a scientific question to decide, how all these ends can be 

 met by one institution. Yet it is possible. The first question is, 

 How can we have an institution, national in its purposes, yet free 

 from the evils of American politics ? Naturally, it must receive its 

 charter from the central Government. Unless the institution can 

 serve the needs of the Government, it is absolutely useless. In dis- 

 cussing " a national veterinary police code," I have shown the rela- 

 tion of the government to the schools, and said that the Veterinary 

 Inspector-General of the United States should be a member of the 

 board of trustees, and one of the board of examiners. This gives 

 the Government a technical representative. If, however, such an 

 officer is appointed by political nepotism, then the less he has to do 

 with the school the better. He must be selected in the way I have 

 said, or all our work is useless. 



I propose, then, that an association be formed and chartered, 

 with the right to hold property, personal and real, to the amount of 

 two million dollars ; and that said association be called the Na- 

 tional Association for the Promotion of Veterinary Science in the 

 United States. The work of this association is at first to be limited 

 to opening subscriptions for funds. In the earlier pages of this 

 book we have endeavored to make our readers cognizant of the 

 very near relation which exists between many animal diseases and 

 human health. Every man and woman of means in this country, 

 whose education will permit of their grasping the idea of preventive 

 medicine, should contribute accordingly to the foundation of this 

 institution. It is an object which should especially appeal to the 

 self-interest of every breeder and owner of domestic animals in the 

 country. The humanitarian, the enthusiastic friends of our domes- 

 tic animals, those interested in the reform of animal transport, are 

 all knocking at the wrong door, and endeavoring to push an almost 

 immovable load up-hill without the aid of intelligent and highly 

 educated veterinarians. 



The late Commodore Yanderbilt saw fit to endow a university. 

 We think a large veterinary institute an object which the country 

 has much more need of than more universities at present. It seems 

 strange that an object which should appeal at once to the generous 



