EDITORIAL. 
505 
United States seems to us to be assuming a character and 
degree more and more urgent, and it seems to us, also, that 
the day is fast approaching when the need for the creation of 
a single supreme authority for the exercise of the right to 
issue degrees will be acknowledged and acted upon, with the 
assent of all parties rightly interested in the questions in¬ 
volved in the matter. While our veterinary colleges are 
every year turning out young men of good education, and 
well equipped for the performance of their professional re¬ 
sponsibilities, this is not the only duty devolving upon these 
institutions, and which constitute the only true obligation 
they have contracted towards their students and towards the 
public who look to them for the protection of their live stock. 
Truly, the young graduates who get their parchments are 
all right, and to them belong the rights and honors of their 
V.S., their D.V.S., or D.V. M., whatever it may be—and to 
them alone that right belongs, by the authority of their diplo¬ 
mas. But are the names of those who have this exclusive 
right well known to the public ? How can one tell whether 
the certificate of any individual who represents himself as a 
graduate of this school or of that college is authentic or not ? 
Do even the alumni of any one school know, and can they 
identify all those who may have graduated from the institu¬ 
tion whose diploma they hold ? 
Look at the following, which by chance came into our 
hands, and which we copy verbatim: 
“ Pleas send me one of your illustrated alphabetical regis¬ 
ter of veterinary instruments and books also one blank di- 
plome of the-college as i am a gradyate of that 
college and have got mine nerly ruined and want to have it 
coped of i also will give you a order in next letter for several 
books for students of mine. 
We have besides this, numerous letters of inquiry from 
persons who want to know whether this or that man is a 
graduate of this school or of that college, and in many cases 
the objects of inquiry are found to be falsely pretending im¬ 
posters, operating to the public detriment by their untruthful 
representations, and inflicting no small injury upon our grad¬ 
uates, as well as reflecting discredit upon the schools. 
