478 
EDITORIAL. 
The pressing need of such an education must be evident also, 
in our own profession, and especially in veterinarian circles on this 
side of the Atlantic. 
It needs but little observation to discover how little the aver¬ 
age veterinary graduate knows of the finer observances of true 
conventional courtesy toward other members of the profession 
which he has adopted, or towards his colleagues, his patrons, his 
patients or his fellows in any sense. Indeed, how many of the 
elders of the profession are competent to become the mentors of 
their junior brethren in the conduct of life generally ? 
An immediate want of the young graduate who has just re¬ 
ceived his diploma is his card. In what style does he intend to 
have it printed ?—here is a formidable question. He is about to 
make a start in practice ; to enter into the imminent fight for a 
useful and successful career. How shall he announce himself ? 
What shall be his first step in veterinary life ? He is about to 
meet with older practitioners : what is going to be his.reception 
from them, and what must be his deportment toward them ? 
Consultations will take place over serious cases; what are his re¬ 
spective duties when he is the party consulting, and what when 
the party consulted ? Questions of principle touching methods of 
living, of policy, involving questions of conscience and integrity, 
the demands of reputation and honor ; habits of frankness or of 
deception—-these questions must be daily encountered and disposed 
of—-how will he know the right way and adhere to it; how shall 
he detect the wrong way and avoid it \ 
As the Editor of the Record says : u professional deontology 
is of as great importance and value in the'education of the vet¬ 
erinarian as of the human physician ; ” and as the training of our 
veterinary rising generation by formal conventionalities and writ¬ 
ten rules is an innovotion not to be expected if, it is, indeed, to be 
desired, the duty naturally and properly devolves on the teachers, 
whose influence is supposed to be, and ought to be, if not para¬ 
mount, at least powerfully salutary and positive on the side of 
whatever rules and observances, either implied or codified, that 
shall tend to the tempering and polishing of the habits and man¬ 
ners of gentlemen of any profession. And it is only when sng- 
