CORRESPONDENCE. 
729 
person was capable of interpreting the law aright, he would 
know that the law does not apply to men practicing in towns 
which have less than two thousand inhabitants, neither does it 
apply to castraters. Even in towns which have less than two 
thousand inhabitants the law has accomplished wonders towards 
the eradication of the quack. This is mainly due to the fact 
that imposters located in small towns are situated in the same 
boat as the person who wrote the article referred to above, in 
California parlance, they do not “savee” the law, as they believe 
it applies to the State as a whole. 
That the law, such aS it is, is vastly superior to any and all 
laws enacted by Eastern States, is a fact well known to all who 
have inquired into its workings. It does not, as most State laws 
in the East, allow a man who can make an affidavit that he has 
drenched a domesticated animal once or twice during the three 
or five years previous to the passage of such an act, but it 
requires all non-graduates practicing in cities and towns of two 
thousand inhabitants or over, to pass a practical examination 
before a board of examiners, who have full power to grant- 
licences to any and all who can satisfy them as to their compet¬ 
ency to practice veterinary medicine and surgery, 
That the board has been lenient in some respects we do not 
deny, but if we understand the objects of the law correctly, its 
objects are not to work a hardship on the deserving empiric, but 
rather to stamp out an element composed of quacks and fakirs. 
This we believe it has done to a considerable extent, and as a 
result we can truthfully say that the veterinary profession in this 
State has gained more social and professional prestige in the past 
two years than it has in any other State in the Union in the 
same length of time. 
It does seem to us, Mr. Editor, that some people will never 
attain the great art of attending strictly to their own business. 
Some people’s minds are so disposed that it is impossible for 
them to avoid villifying any measure adopted by members of 
their own profession, rather than crediting them for what they 
have accomplished, and refraining from exposing to the public 
