THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
159 
For the fullest realization of our opportunities we need, and 
should encourage, that liberal support of the public press which 
we have hitherto enjoyed. 
We have already expressed our disapprobation of indiscrimi¬ 
nate gratuitous prescriptions, and feel that the need of them (if 
there was ever need) has passed, but we can still offer much for 
publication which will be read with interest and appreciated by 
the public, and prove of far greater service to them than gratui¬ 
tous recipes. Yes, we need the support and good will of the 
press, and should court these favors by contributing whatever we 
can to enhance the value of the press to the public, without in 
any way violating professional propriety or interfering detriment¬ 
ally with the standing or patronage of any worthy veterinarian, 
however humble. 
To more fully occupy the vast fields of usefulness spread out 
before us, we need also laws protecting the title of veterinary 
surgeon, and securing its exclusive use to properly qualified veter¬ 
inarians, letting the empirics rest upon their own merits under 
the title of farrier, horse doctor, or almost any other name, 
which they can have copyrighted, for all we care. These laws 
should be so framed as to afford equal protection to profession 
and public, as it is important for a stock owner to know whether 
a man be duly qualified or not, and that the profession should not 
he judged harshly on account of the acts of ignorant, worthless 
empirics. All non-graduates who have, under difficulties, attained 
fair skill and knowledge, should, after due evidence of such qual¬ 
ifications, be allowed the same privileges and title as ourselves, while 
those not competent should be debarred from using our title by 
severe penalties, and the source of supply of empirics should be 
cut off by allowing no more to establish themselves in the State. 
And then, the further supply of poorly educated veterinarians 
should be prohibited by law, and notice given to colleges that if 
they would have their graduates practice in this or that State they 
must advance their standard of education to correspond to the 
demands and needs of the times. This continuous outpouring of 
poorly educated veterinarians is too pernicious an evil to be 
allowed to exist longer. 
'Of > <' ! ' . 
- 
