790 
EDITORIAL. 
that they had been carried out under unfavorable circum¬ 
stances, and, besides, to condemn the method in its practical 
object required a greater number of animals than those that 
were used. Notwithstanding, if the experiments of the com¬ 
mission, made in contagious kennels, have caused disappoint¬ 
ment among the members, the results which have been obtained 
by Dr. Physalix in private tests are much more satisfactory. 
Out of 256 dogs which were vaccinated, 13 only have died, a 
mortality of about 5 per cent. Those tests have been carried 
out among dogs belonging to packs of private gentlemen. No 
doubt the principal point is to find out if, in packs of dogs or 
among breeders, death or permanent invalidity is in the pro¬ 
portion of a third or of half of the pups affected. A comparison 
will then give the value of the method, which, after all, cannot 
be absolute in its success no more than any other operation of a 
similar nature. 
At any rate the commission is still at work, and we may 
hear from it later on. A. E. 
A SERIOUS MENACE TO VETERINARY PROGRESS. 
It is infrequent that a writer or speaker upon the history of 
veterinary medicine does not enlarge upon the progress made 
in the last forty years. Certainly this short period will encom¬ 
pass all the material advances so far as the subject refers to 
America, for it has in that time sprung from virtual charlatan¬ 
ism to an enviable position among the advanced sciences. To 
the small private college, which sowed good seed, ripening 
in various States of the Union and bearing excellent fruit, and 
to the chair of veterinary medicine in the agricultural college, 
we owe our first obligations. Eater on the institutions which 
came into being as a result of private enterprise, became popu¬ 
lous veterinary colleges, with faculties made up of the most suc¬ 
cessful practitioners of the country. Gradually the cause of 
comparative medicine in America became a matter of govern¬ 
mental concern, and many of our best schools of to-day are de- 
