THE VETERINARY PROFESSION 
117 
With such influences at work for half a century, what is our 
present status ? 
Everywhere there exists a stronger and ever increasing senti¬ 
ment in favor of a higher standard in veterinary education. In 
all communities the sentiment has changed, and even the empiric 
lays aside his once proud title of farrier or horse-doctor and as¬ 
sumes the title of veterinary surgeon or M.R.C.V.S. True enough 
he still exists, but the number is stationary or on the decline, and 
his influence is decidedly on the wane. 
Scattered everywhere in important live-stock districts, there 
are veterinary surgeons from this or that college, mostly young 
men, largely well-meaning, judicious and earnest, who by their 
own merits occupy honorable positions in their communities and 
a fair or lucrative patronage, while others occupy honorable posi¬ 
tions in the employ of State or National Governments, where their 
work does much to give our profession standing. 
The press of the country, we believe, is a unit in favor of high 
veterinary qualifications and are affording us much useful assist¬ 
ance by keeping, in one way and another, our profession almost 
constantly before the public. 
We now have veterinary colleges presenting a variety of fa¬ 
cilities and requirements, varying largely in their patronage and 
character of students, and in the qualifications necessary to en¬ 
trance and exit. 
Statistics of most of the colleges were not available, hence we 
are able to allude to a few facts only, to demonstrate, in a very im¬ 
perfect way, their educational requirements. 
For convenience, we will denominate the Ontario, Montreal, 
American and Chicago schools the old, and the University of 
Pennsylvania, Harvard, Cornell, University of Iowa, &c., the new 
schools, and will as far as possible treat them collectively. 
The new schools claim to require at least a thorough common 
school education for admission, and we lipve no evidence at hand 
to lead us to suspect any deviation from the claim. 
The old schools make less pretentious claims, and judging 
from observation, and from evidence at hand, in shape of commu¬ 
nications, &c., of too personal a nature to allude to farther here 
