384: THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 



position should never be disgraced by being filled by political favor- 

 ites of congressmen, secretaries, or commissioners. The present 

 Commissioner of Agriculture would gladly have the appointment 

 given over to his dispensation. Fortunately, Congress has not yet 

 seen fit to give him such a liberty. A man must, at least, know 

 something of the duties of the office to be filled, if he is to appoint 

 an incumbent. This position must be filled on its merits, and by 

 public competition before the members of the National Board of 

 Health in the first place ; but when the time comes, the incumbent 

 should be elected by vote of the trustees and teachers of the national 

 school, from among the State veterinary inspector-generals of the 

 country. No teacher or professor of the school should ever be 

 eligible to the office so long as they were connected with that insti- 

 tution. In no other way should it be possible for any man to gain 

 the position. Science is the search after truth. A scientist who 

 uses the ways of politicians to gain a position does not deserve the 

 name. Science is open as the day. Politics is as dark and intricate 

 as the passages of a coal-mine, and about as dirty. Science is not 

 politics, as we see it displayed in America. There is such a thing 

 as political science, but it has not yet been introduced into our legis- 

 lative halls. The great men of science have been the truest servants 

 of mankind. Scientists are patriots, not demagogues or political 

 hucksters, ready to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. 



The "Veterinary Inspector-General of the United States should 

 be attached to the National Board of Health, as should all State 

 inspector-generals to State boards. The whole system of veterinary 

 sanitary police should be part and parcel of one grand national sani- 

 tary system, working in the interests of true preventive medicine. 



These officers should hold their positions until sixty years old, 

 unless incapacitated for work by sickness. They should be liberally 

 paid ; and, in case of retirement, their pay should be continued to 

 them during life. The nation and the States need all their energies 

 and time. 



On his death, if leaving a widow or minor children, the former 

 should have at least two thirds of the husband's pension during life, 

 and the children a proportionate share until sixteen years of age. 

 The State inspector-generals should be selected by public compe- 

 tition of approved veterinarians before the members of the State 

 Board of Health. In each State there must be county, district, mar- 

 ket, and other local veterinary officials. These men must first have 

 passed a special examination, instituted for the purpose, with refer- 

 ence to sanitary police duties, at the National Veterinary Institute. 



