812 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
PROF. RAW’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
Washington, D. C., Jan. 5, 1897. 
To the Veterinary Fraternity : 
I was much surprised at reading the address of Professor 
James Law, of New York, before the New York State Veterinary 
College. 
His address was filled mainly by depreciation of all our fos¬ 
tered institutions of learning, especially those that aim to teach 
the science and art of veterinary medicine and surgery. 
It is evident from his vocabulaiy that he is either one of two 
things, perhaps both, to-wit: a pessimist or an ignoramus. He 
claims that more than one veterinary college in America has sunk 
to the lowest depth of sordidness. Why don’t he state the names 
of such colleges ? but, no, he has cowardly entrenched himself 
against an attack behind the terms of generality. 
If I am informed correctly, Professor Law graduated from an 
English institution, of which he has warned the American fra¬ 
ternity. If this be true, there is a lack of an alma-mater feeling 
and respect that throbs in the breast of every honest graduate. 
Strange, too, that he should rise from what was a short time 
since embryonic development to such mature and herculean 
j xroportions. Was this growth the result of English education, 
and was this article of his an auto-inspiration ? He claims that 
the colleges of our country—I say the colleges because he has 
failed to designate the specific ones—have been guilty of the fol¬ 
lowing practices : (1) To shorten the curriculum, (2) To admit 
ill-prepared candidates, (3) To graduate large numbers irrespec¬ 
tive of fitness, (4) To sell diplomas. This, I say is false, as 
every informed veterinarian will aver. 
Every college in the Association of Veterinary Faculties has 
increased its requirements for admission, and lengthened its 
curriculum, and guarded its diplomas with conscientious zeal. 
Another accusation which deserves condemnation is, that 
the veterinary schools of America, as well as of England, are 
private ventures, and as such prostitute the higher motives that 
stimulate scientific and conscientious teaching. If the Profes¬ 
sor will cast his august eye over the names of the large institu¬ 
tions of learning in this country, he will be compelled to admit 
that the largest and most successful are those that have depen¬ 
ded entirely upon the results of their own work for their mainte- 
