426 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
through his associations and study with his learned instruc¬ 
tor. This indirect influence, through the medium of stu¬ 
dents, added to the direct influence of the veterinarian by his 
contact with intelligent stockmen, exerted a powerful influ¬ 
ence in the formation of our profession. 
It was impracticable to obtain figures as to the exact 
number of students who came under the direct influence of 
these earlier teachers, but it would probably be safe to estimate 
their number in 1870 at no less than one hundred different stu¬ 
dents each year, which has slowly increased, until the twenty- 
seven professors of veterinary science in these schools come 
in c< mtact with not far from six hundred new students annually. 
These students, going out into their respective communities, 
imbued with a true conception of veterinary science, have ex¬ 
erted and continue to exert a good influence, second only to 
that of genuine veterinarians from our best veterinary schools. 
They had much in their favor. The agricultural colleges 
being jointly Federal and State Institutions, were founded upon 
a high plane, and were independent to a great extent from the 
greed exhibited by private institutions conducted for revenue, 
and demanded for admission to their classes a high order of 
moral and educational attainments from their very origin, 
which are as yet undreamed of in many of our veterinary 
schools of the present day. The veterinarians, therefore, 
came in contact, not with ignorant, dissipated, ungentle- 
manly boors, but with high-minded gentlemen, destined to 
occupy an honorable rank and exert a profound influence. It 
was these instructors of veterinary science, more than any 
other one agency, which made the phenomenal moral and ed¬ 
ucational progress of our profession within the past few years 
possible. I have heard this form of education bitterly de¬ 
nounced by graduates of cheap veterinary colleges, who were 
sadly wanting in those qualities which go to constitute a gen¬ 
tleman ; who lacked sufficient education to enter the prepar¬ 
atory classes in such institutions, and who had utterly failed 
in their brief college career to gain any conception of veter¬ 
inary science , but only learned a few empirical formulas, which 
might enable them to eke out a fraudulent existence. These 
