424 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
the various positions are supposed to be provided with unu 
sual facilities for study and research, and that such study is to 
be pursued and the results recorded as a part of their duty 
to the college, then this band of thirty-five veterinarian' 
should be looked upon as at least a possible force in our pro 
fessional development. 
For the first few years of the period which our subjeci 
covers, the duties of these veterinarians were confined nomi 
nally to the teaching of veterinary science to students in agri¬ 
culture, in such a manner and to such an extent as to be oa 
practical value to them in rearing and handling live-stock 
Later, veterinary departments, leading to veterinary degrees 
were established in several colleges, and still more recentl} 
the position of veterinarian to experiment stations. 
The scope of our paper, as announced, is already toe 
great, and we shall be obliged to leave out of consideratior 
the veterinary departments in agricultural colleges, and shal 
barely remark in passing that of four of these colleges which 
have been organized and solicited public patronage, Cornel 
University and the University of Minnesota have discontin 
ued them, leaving the University of Ohio and the Iowa Agri 
cultural College as the sole representatives of this class o: 
instruction. 
At the outset, when in 1868 and the immediately succeed 
ing years, the pioneer teachers of veterinary science in agri 
cultural schools were beginning their labors, the veterinary 
profession was practically unknown except in a few limitec 
areas, including the great cities of the Atlantic seaboard 
while the medical care of the far greater part of our vasl 
number of domestic animals was intrusted to a horde of un¬ 
tutored farriers, and dissipated, unprincipled charlatans. In¬ 
deed, at that time the name veterinary surgeon was unknown 
to the great mass of people, while that of “ horse doctor ” was 
one of opprobrium and disgrace, and the two terms were sej 
frequently transposed as to occasionally cause annoyance tc 
pioneer veterinarians. In some of our Western States, the 
first qualified veterinarians to locate there were those em 
ployed by agricultural colleges, and in some cases, doubtless 
