PRACTICE OF VETERINARY SURGERY 65 



principled practitioner may easily do the entire 

 nation millions of dollars worth of injury. A 

 veterinarian, buying cheap serum for the treat- 

 ment of hog cholera, may spread the foot-and- 

 mouth disease, with its resulting paralyzing in- 

 fluence even upon the dairy interests. It is the 

 incompetent man who least realizes the dangers, 

 and he fails also to realize that cheap products 

 generally indicate inefficient care in production. 

 It is the incompetent man who is not prepared to 

 recognize a dangerous disease which may be new 

 in the district. It is therefore a prime necessity, 

 under the present state of advancement in scien- 

 tific knowledge of animal diseases, for the safe- 

 guarding of the great animal industry of the 

 United States that strict laws be enacted, and en- 

 forced, regulating the practice of the veterinary 

 profession. 



Such serious results of incompetence of practi- 

 tioners of veterinary medicine as the death of a 

 number of mules from tetanus received when they 

 were inoculated with anti-anthrax serum, or out- 

 breaks of foot-and-mouth disease in hogs received 

 in anti-hog-cholera serum, tend to prevent the use 

 of these great aids in the restriction of disease. 

 They also cast a reflection upon the character of 

 the profession. On the other hand, a stringent law 

 regulating the practice tends to elevate the stand- 

 ard of the profession, and to attract men of the 

 highest scientific attainments. Such men are 

 needed in the profession by the animal industries, 

 but they are loath to enter competition, and be 

 classed generally on the same level, with men who 

 are deficient in ordinary education, and whose 



