454 
EDITORIAL. 
member of the United States Veterinary Medical Association who has at heart the 
name of the Association, her reputation and her welfare, to only one point—that is, 
to the 
UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF YOUR ACTIONS, 
and if I am not going to approve, alter or suggest on the programme, what I intend 
to do is to ask you to stop where you are, Mr. Chairman, and to tell you and your 
colleagues of the Association of Veterinary Faculties of North America: 
Stop ! or, rather, begin over again ! 
Yes, stop , because you are illegal ! 
Yes, begin over again , because the work that you may do, the subjects that you 
may consider, the laws or regulations that you may enact, will all be thrown away 
uselessly, because it cannot be entertained ; because, remaining a dead letter, it will 
do no good to the noble work you intend to do, no good to the great reform that you 
will attempt to bring out; because in this land of liberty arbitral actions are illegal; 
and because, if your existence may serve personalities, it will do no good to American 
veterinary medicine. 
What you may say is, “Is it I)r. Liautard who speaks thus?” “Is it he, who, 
at the first Veterinary Congress of America, expected what he had on previous occa¬ 
sions urged in his paper on ‘ Veterinary Education; As It Was, As It Is, and As It 
Should Be?”’ “ Is it he, who, before the New York State Veterinary Medical Soci¬ 
ety, presented an address to the same effect?” “Is it he who tells us to stop when 
we are about considering the reforms which he has so urgently asked of us, and 
which, should they be brought to effect, would crown his professional work in behalf 
of veterinary medicine with the most glorious reward ?’’ 
Yes, it is I! and why? 
Mr. Chairman, let me ask a single question : By what authority does the “ self- 
named" Association of Veterinary Faculties exist? 
It maybe answered, by direction of that great Association for which we all work, 
by that great body of veterinarians who for years have endeavored to elevate the 
profession, and have succeeded. Right! I grant that it became a duty for the 
United States Veterinary Medical Association to ask the formation of the Association 
of Veterinary Faculties of North America, which I have myself asked for, and which 
I ask for again. 
But—and here are my objections to her existence, to her right of existence, to 
her legality—and, if I am right, I say and I repeat: Stop where you are and begin 
over again. 
That which I am now going to say I wanted to say last year at the meeting at Phil¬ 
adelphia. Landed but just a few hours from a trip across the Atlantic, and finding 
my inability to be at the meeting before action was taken on the report and discus¬ 
sion on the new-born society, I had telegraphed to my friend, Prof. Robertson, to 
ask for a short recess, a brief delay, to allow me to arrive from New York. This 
request was denied, and I just entered the room to hear that the child was born— a 
child doomed to death from its birth. What I wanted to say at the meeting I told 
you, Mr. Chairman, in Philadelphia, and my remarks at that time you seemed to 
approve. 
What were these remarks? They were imbedded in the following words, or 
