EDITORIAL. < 825 
the profession of the State ; instead of different factions of the 
profession fighting the provisions of the bill before the Com¬ 
mittee on Public Health of the Assembly, its provisions should 
have been debated and determined upon in the open meeting 
of the State Association. Just what was needed by the profes¬ 
sion should have there been agreed upon, and then the Judiciary 
Committee, as the accredited and legal exponents of the veter¬ 
inarians of New York State, should have presented their bill 
to the legislature as a demand of the grand body of men who 
constitute the profession of the Commonwealth. Instead of 
this the situation becomes ridiculous, and the law-makers will 
lose confidence in the sincerity of our demands in the future. 
We learn that a substitute bill is under consideration, creating 
a State Live-Stock Board, whose Secretary, a veterinarian, will 
be virtually a State veterinarian. 
Without here discussing the wisdom of the establishment of 
such a board, we doubt very much the advisability of introduc¬ 
ing the measure at this session, as there is liable to be developed 
an opposition by virtue of the effort to side-track the original bill. 
It does seem to us that such an important step should be taken 
after full discussion at the State Society Convention, in which 
all should participate, including the author of Assembly Bill 
No. 231, and when the bill has been so drafted as to be the de¬ 
mand of the State Society (as the representative of the profession), 
then go to Albany with an unbroken front, and tell the law¬ 
makers to make this law. Our cause will not suffer for this 
delay, and our chances of success will be greatly enhanced by 
reason of our unity. Another objection urged against Bill No. 
231 is the fact that it permits the State Board of Health to have 
charge of the veterinarian, and in a very earnest letter sent out in 
advocacy of two other bills—Assembly Bills 614 and 619—Dr. 
Claude D. Morris, of Pawling, makes some very convincing 
arguments as to why the infectious diseases of animals should 
not be in the hands of the State Board of Health, but in those 
of the Commissioner of Agriculture. No. 614 is a bill to accom¬ 
plish this, and No. 619 relates to the employment of veterinary 
