754 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
ment, through which all the vital needs of society are regulated, I present again 
a desire which I long to see consummated and which I believe every gentleman in 
the profession hopes for: that the standard be made higher; that the practice 
of the art in the State of New York shall rise above its present environments; 
that its position in the commonwealth shall be one in which the observer must 
look up rather than look down in order to behold. I fear there is a tendency 
toward retrogression, and this, it seems to me is through the medium of cheap¬ 
ened education. The springing up of new schools in the country is not so much 
on account of a demand for a greater number of institutions teaching the art, as 
it is to offer facilities for an easier method of obtaining a degree. The old es¬ 
tablished colleges and universities of our country are quite capable of taking 
care of tbe demand at the present time. They are in a position to offer induce¬ 
ments which are superior to any new school; their experience, reputation and 
faculties are a sufficient guarantee of their fitness and ability. It seems to me, 
with these facts in view, that the tendency of this sort of education is to lower 
the character of the profession, and to place a class of practitioners before the 
public who will be holding degrees and passing as qualified men, who are yet 
morally but very little above, if not on a par, with the empiric of the day. This 
seems to demand arbitrary restrictions upon the profession to the extent re¬ 
quiring a thorough preparation to the end, not merely of obtaining a degree, but 
that the student is in possession of a thorough college training. I believe one of 
the most important duties of the hour is, that every lover of the profession 
should exert his best efforts in behalf of what the art has been able to achieve- 
and sustain and cement his honor with its pride, that her good name shall be in¬ 
vulnerable as against the attack of those who do not love her virtues, and whose 
aims are purely mercenary. The bill which this Society has placed before the , 
present Legislature possesses these merits. It presumes that the student coming 
from an institution requiring a four years’ course of six months each of contin¬ 
uous study is thoroughly qualified, so far as lies within the power of any institu¬ 
tion to qualify. It was not the intent of the framers of the act to strike at the 
heart of any of the established institutions. It was a matter of serious reflec¬ 
tion, knowing that within the border of our State there exists one of the best 
schools on the American continent, many of whose alumni hold positions. 
of professional honor and trust in the Federal Government, whose aim has been 
to emulate those principles and bring to the surface the product of scientific re¬ 
search, the best fruits and experience the profession affords to-day, their able 
corps of instructors, and particularly her dean, whose idea has been to reach the 
highest standard attainable; and yet to exempt the graduates of this institution 
would seem to be class legislation, and to my mind would not only prove disastrous 
to the bill but to the interests of the same. I feel justified in the position I take 
regarding the colleges. 
While I would in no way dictate matters which to them are of an individual 
nature, and assume in any way to know what to them are vital interests as a 
corporation in which I have no part, yet I do presume that should a demand 
arise in the profession from this State asking that the institutions teaching the 
art extend their curriculum to four years of six months each, with a more elabor¬ 
ate exhaustion of the science, it would not only be science of profit to the col- 
