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 
