792 
EDITORIAL. 
elements of veterinary progress have been secured by the efforts 
of the members of this profession, and when their last bill be¬ 
came a law it was felt that all necessary safeguards had been 
thrown around the public and the profession, and that quackery 
and charlatanism would be banished from the realm on the ter¬ 
mination of the lives of those who were registered “ by affidavit.” 
The stringency of the requirements to obtain license to prac¬ 
tice in New York State has had the effect of greatly reducing the 
number of those applying for that privilege ; there were not more 
than half a dozen at the last session of the examiners. While 
this effect is everywhere manifest, information keeps reaching 
the Review from various sections that men are opening up 
and practicing veterinary medicine and surgery without diploma, 
registration, or any other qualification than cheek and a sense 
of security from molestation. 
The Review for September, 1900, brought this subject to 
the attention of its New York readers, and in October of the 
same year the writer presented the matter as vigorously as possi¬ 
ble to the New York State Society, making certain suggestions 
as to a means of thwarting the steady growth of these charla¬ 
tans by energetically prosecuting them. The law is very clear 
upon the offense, and it only needs the vigorous application of 
the penalty in a number of cases, and generous vigilance over 
suspects, to put an end to it. The State Society discussed the 
subject in a half-hearted manner and disposed of it by directing 
its Executive Committee to prosecute such offenses. This com¬ 
mittee is made up of private practitioners who have neither time 
nor disposition to travel over the State in search of violators, 
and the matter had just as well have been tabled as to make 
such a disposition of it. 
It is a standing menace to the integrity of our laws and to 
our much vaunted progress that men of this character are al¬ 
lowed to pursue their course with perfect freedom, and until it 
is taken hold of by the State Society in a spirit to accomplish 
something it will continue to increase. 
The Review will be glad to print the views of its readers 
