_ VETERINARY EDUCA TION, ETC., in NEW YORK STATE. 6 77 
to the subject. ... I hope, therefore, that while you will accept 
my warm thanks for the honor devolved upon me you will also 
receive my remarks with indulgence and with the assurance that 
if I en in my conclusions it will be with the firm belief that I 
am speaking for what I consider a good cause. 
The subject of legislative regulation of the practice of vet¬ 
erinary medicine in the state of New York is one of the natural 
consequences of the well-deserved reputation and past history 
of the state, namely that of being the one in the Union where 
. lgher educatl °n is the principal aim of her citizens. The first 
in almost everything, New York State has been the leader in 
witnessing the establishment of veterinary schools on compara¬ 
tively solid foundations, even if those are the results of private 
undertakings: she was the first where, for higher standing of 
her veterinarians, her veterinary schools were seen to require a 
matriculation examination, and she was among the first in the 
endeavors which were made to obtain legislative action to regu¬ 
late the practice of that branch of medicine. The first act in that 
direction being passed by the Legislature in Albany in 1884. 
But these were only the first steps in the right direction. 
The profession has made great strides towards improvement 
since the day when the first veterinary school had opened her 
school in New York City in 1864; a daring step had been taken 
by the American Veterinary College when, in 1875, candidates 
to her degrees were requested to pass an examination before 
they could matriculate and enter her lecture-room, and though 
this examination continued to be made more severe and more 
difficult little by little, they were and are yet inadequate to the 
requirements and to the qualifications of the educated veterinarian. 
In former days, as many of you may remember, and up to 
last year the requirements of our veterinary colleges (I speak of 
those in this state) weie: an attendance of two courses of lec¬ 
tures; first, those were only short sessions of a Winter course 
of 4 to 414 months; then a Spring session was added, making 
the course 6 months; then came the two-year course of 6 
months each; and now we find in the American Veterinary 
