VALUE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. 223 



cholera, and anthrax especially, might be better controlled 

 if some veterinary scientist could prepare an attenuated 

 virus, such as Pasteur has so successfully used in France. 

 I have no doubt of the discovery and application of such 

 viruses at some future day. 



Before concluding, I wish to speak of three other spheres 

 of usefulness for the veterinarian. The first is the appoint- 

 ment of veterinary surgeons to boards of health. There 

 are so many diseases common to animals and man that come 

 under the jurisdiction of these boards, that it seems as if a 

 properly educated veterinarian's services would be most 

 valuable. New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey City, each 

 have a veterinarian on its board of health, and it is to be 

 hoped that other large cities will soon follow their ex- 

 ample . 



Another field for veterinary science is the inspection of 

 meat. This is done upon the Continent, but has not been 

 attempted, to any extent scientifically, either in this country 

 or in England. 



The third field of usefulness is one which is of little im- 

 portance to farmers, but I see no harm in mentioning it 

 here. That is, the recognition the veterinarian receives in 

 the army, both abroad and. in the United States. In all the 

 European countries of importance the army veterinary sur- 

 geon ranks as a commissioned officer ; he must be an edu- 

 cated man in order to be in the army, and enters on much 

 the same footing as young medical men, and associates with 

 other officers on an equality with them ; he is promoted 

 from time to time, as age or merit demands, and retires 

 with a suitable pension when old age approaches. The chief 

 veterinary surgeon in the English Army ranks as colonel, 

 and those under him descend through the various grades to 

 the second lieutenant. The United States is the only civil- 

 ized country of its size where the army veterinarian does not 

 rank as a commissioned officer. He is a sort of nondes- 

 cript, neither an officer or a soldier ; but it is to be hoped 

 that this state of aflairs may be changed ere many years, 

 and that the veterinarians of our army may rank with those 

 of other civilized countries in education, position and 

 pay. 



