666 
Editorial. 
value of the services for which the community is its debtor. 
It is, in fact, to this alone that the credit is due for the recog¬ 
nition of its claims and the acceptance of their justness which 
has been secured, not only from the people at large, but on 
the part of the General, as well as of many of the State Gov¬ 
ernments. Its own honest self-assertion has compelled acqui¬ 
escence from others. 
It was, indeed, by the profession itself that the necessity 
for the organization of schools of more thorough equipment 
and enlarged capacity than had hitherto existed, was first felt 
and comprehended, although only the more thoughtful and 
experienced could realize what a labor of love and expendi¬ 
ture of hope and patience it would cost to raise them to the 
standing they hold to-day. And now that the most ample 
means and appliances for imparting an improved education 
have gradually accumulated and enforced their own adoption 
upon both those who teach and those who seek to be taught, 
we may honestly boast of institutions which may be advanta¬ 
geously compared with any of their kind on this continent, if 
not even with those of old Europe. 
Veterinary graduates becoming thus by degrees possessed 
of a higher education, and the superiority of their qualifica¬ 
tions being discovered and felt, their services become of greater 
value, and the masses begin to appreciate them better. 
Specialists in veterinary medicine exist, it is true, but their 
pretensions and the extent of the ground covered by their 
specialties are without significance or importance. No man 
can possess an exclusive or patent-righted knowledge in any 
distinct or peculiar branch of the practice of medicine. A 
competent practitioner must possess a familar knowledge of 
the science as an entirety, even to become exceptionally ex¬ 
pert in one or more of its branches. Graduates of veterinary 
medicine do not restrict their studies by any limitations of 
subjects ; but realizing that their profession is a progressive 
one, and knowing that to keep abreast with the times they 
must take advantage of every help which offers itself capable 
of facilitating their work, they have organized associations, 
and there is to-day no State of any importance that has not 
one, and, in a few instances, more veterinary societies, with 
