CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 155 



lierds. In the United States, in tlie absence of any (xovernnient college, 

 the publicdemaud for veterinarians has led to theestablisbmentof schools 

 ^s jjrivate enterprises, some of which, like the earlier schools of Boston 

 and Philadelphia, have prostituted their charters by nialdng- it a mere ex- 

 pedient for the sale of diidomas to all who would pay the price, irrespect- 

 ive of education or fitness, while others have filled their chairs with 

 men who were themselves destitute of a veterinary diploma, and made 

 them veterinarians by bestowing the diploma of their own institution. 

 The result is that the country swarms with empirics, and that even the 

 possessionof a diploma is no guarantee of education or ability. If sud- 

 denly called upon to stem a great wave of infection among aTiimals it 

 would be no easy matter for this country to speedily provide the neces- 

 sary men who could be relied upon for the work. If, again, it were neces- 

 sary to secure the public health by the suppression in animals of plagues 

 •communicable to man, such as anthrax, tuberculosis, glanders, and 

 farcy, milk-sickness, aphthous fever, diphtheria, trichinosis, &c., we have 

 no State accredited school from which we could draw the requisite ex- 

 perts. Physicians are not instructed in the diagnosis and numagement 

 of these affections in animals, and what have we done to secure reliable 

 veterinarians! Thenumbersof onrhorses andcattle are two-fifths those 

 of Europe — the British Isles included — and the number of our sheep and 

 «wine is over one-third of those of Europe, including the same islands. 



Our latest census makes the value of our live stock in quadrupeds 

 ■$1,'jOO,000,000, which is, doubtless, like all official valuations, considera- 

 bly below the mark. This great moneyed interest, liable to injury by 

 plagues, which tend to increase in geometrical progression, is left with- 

 out that protection which should have its foundation in a national or 

 State guarantee of veterinary education. Such a guarantee cannot be 

 secured by granting charters. These have too often been made the mere 

 occasion of the jtrostitution of the science to mammon-worship. To fur- 

 nish it the institution must be placed above the temptation to acquire, 

 and indeed beyond the possibility of acquiring, means by sacrificing the 

 profession. This may be secured by making the veterinary college part 

 of a well-endowed university, and subject to the laws of the same, or it 

 may be made an independent national or State veterinary school, like 

 most of the schools of Europe, under such laws as will i)reclude the en- 

 trance of the debasing influence referred to. 



In view of the foregoing recommendations of the international con- 

 gress, it would be superfluous to enter into the organization of veteri- 

 nary schools and their curriculum. It may, however, be well to give 

 some further data as to tlie facilities furnished in the European veteri- 

 nary schools. It may be permitte<l me also to hint that we in America 

 cannot abate one .jot of the provisions made for this education in Europe, 

 but rather increase them. In sixteen years since the congress at Zurich 

 it has been found necessary in P^urope to demand an increase of the 

 period of study by one-third, because of the increasing extent of the 



