386 
VETERINARY SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 
to admit that Mr. Jennings has informed us of some very 
important ones, due to my limited sources of information, 
and to the fact that some of them are now for the first time 
placed on record by him. Thus, I was unaware that Mr. 
Robert Jennings, sen., was “ the first to publicly advocate 
the cause of veterinary science ” in America. I respect that 
gentleman all the more now I am informed of it, and admire 
his determined efforts in this direction, prolonged through 
many years, culminating in the planning and organization of 
the United States Veterinary Medical Association, which is 
now doing such good work. What I marvel at is that we 
have no more evidence of these efforts than those enumerated 
by your correspondent. My paper will have done some good 
if it has rescued this worthy name from even temporary 
oblivion. Also I am most happy to retract my remark that 
“ all Pennsylvanian diplomas are worthless” now I am 
informed that four winter couises of lectures were delivered 
by the Pennsylvania College of Veterinary Surgeons. Still, 
some of the graduates ought to let us know exactly what 
courses of lectures were attended by them at Philadelphia, 
to what examination they were subjected, and who were 
the staff of their alma mater. I ask this, for we should 
know the truth of the matter. We are not quite assured 
that attendance at free lectures delivered once a week during 
the winter months, and free clinics twice a week for four 
months, suffices as a professional education. Nor do we 
quite see that the fact of an agricultural society offering the 
use of its room (which could hardly have been required 
wffien a lecture-room, library, laboratory, dissecting-room, 
and infirmary were already available) and allowing the 
delivery of a “ course of lectures on Horseology under their* 
auspices ” is any proof that the institution thus honored 
turned out fully qualified veterinary practitioners. Still, 
taking into consideration the fact that everything must have 
a beginning, we are willing to allow that there are Phila¬ 
delphia graduates , and to hope that from these small 
beginnings may arise a professional body potent for scientific 
progress. But I have been misled in this matter “ by the 
unjust, unfair, and prejudicial statement of the Editor of 
the American Veterinary PeviewP This gentleman, there¬ 
fore, comes in for a share of abuse, and I am not always 
able to determine from Mr. Jennings’s paper who is the 
malicious ” and “ calumniating” person. I confessed my 
indebtedness to Professor Liautard’s writings, and they 
have been sufficiently long before the profession to warrant 
my doing so. If the statements of American veterinary 
