43S 
JACOB HELMEE. 
practice and establishing it upon a permanent basis. These laws 
have not been altered or changed, but the scope of their useful¬ 
ness has been extended. The recent re-registration act of 1909 is 
a notable example of such extension. It is a credit to the pro¬ 
fession that among other things the re-registration, act furnished 
the Board with sinews of war and made it possible to accom¬ 
plish what could not have been done without this aid. Pecuniary 
aid from the State of Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Associa¬ 
tion has always been a compliment to the Board and a guarantee 
that you fully believed in its efficiency. 
The Board has found from year to year a larger number of 
graduates presenting themselves for examination and to receive 
the license to practice in the state. It has prepared a directory 
containing the names of all the legally qualified practitioners, 
and in this directory, among other matters of interest, are all 
the laws as they were enacted from time to time, governing the 
practice of veterinary medicine and surgery in Pennsylvania. 
The Board, through its Secretary, has conducted extensive 
correspondence with complainants and also those complained of 
as law-breakers. Suits against the latter have been instituted 
and pushed as rapidly as circumstances and means would permit. 
The Board found itself at times in trying conditions, and 
if it has erred (for to err is human) it has been a mistake of the 
head rather than of the heart. 
It is not at this time my purpose to eulogize the Board, but 
to point to the fact that in its work it has not been a mutual 
admiration society but a potent force to fulfill the responsibili¬ 
ties placed in its hands. In this connection it would be natural 
to infer that as our laws become older the necessity of enforcing 
them against illegal practitioners will become less and less. But 
the above is more true of the human medical profession than 
of the veterinary profession. There are yet a number of for¬ 
midable aspirants knocking at the door for admission under the 
acts of 1889 and 1891, with whom we have to deal. Then there 
is a tendency to take the work of dentistry from the domain of 
veterinary surgery, thus making it a specialty that our present 
