746 
EDITORIAL. 
York Assembly, as may be seen by the following, known as 
“ House Bill No. 249:” 
AN ACT TO AMEND THE PUBLIC HEALTH LAW RELATING TO THE PRACTICE OF 
VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly , do 
enact as follows : 
§ 1. Section one hundred and seventy-one of article ten of the public health 
law, being six hundred and sixty-one of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety- 
three, as amended by chapter eight hundred and sixty of the laws of eighteen hun¬ 
dred and ninety-five is hereby amended to read as follows : 
§ 171. Qualifications for practice.—No person shall practice veterinary medi¬ 
cine after September first, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, unless previously regis¬ 
tered and legally authorized, unless licensed by the regents and registered as required 
by this article ; nor shall any person practice veterinary medicine who has ever been 
convicted of a felony by any court, or whose authority to practice is suspended or re¬ 
voked by the regents on recommendation of a State board. 
§ 2. Sections one hundred and eighty, one hundred and eighty-one, one hun¬ 
dred and eighty-two, one hundred and eighty-three and one hundred and eighty- 
four of article ten of the public health law, as added by such chapter eight hundred 
and sixty of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-five, are hereby renumbered and 
shall hereafter be designated respectively as sections one hundred and seventy-nine-a, 
one hundred and seventy-nine-b, one hundred and seventy-nine-c, one hundred and 
seventy-nine-d, and one hundred and seventy-nine-e. 
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately. 
We will not here review at any length the history of the 
bill to which this is an amendment, further than to say that 
registration was first made obligatory in this State in 1886, 
and after keeping the books open for that purpose for a suf¬ 
ficient time to allow all qualified men to register, were closed 
in every county of the State; but they were reopened by 
amendment at various times since through just such legisla¬ 
tion as is now attempted. In 1893 the Albany law makers re¬ 
fused to pass an amendment to again throw the books open 
for promiscuous registration; and veterinarians throughout 
the State rejoiced that the end of such practices had arrived. 
Following upon this evidence of good faith on the part of the 
State, the profession showed its appreciation of their action by 
enforcing more stringent obligations upon its own members, 
placing their colleges and future members in the custody of 
the Regents, entailing one more year’s attendance and greater 
proficiency in the prospective student, in the very face of un¬ 
precedented national financial and commercial depression, thus 
s 
