544 
VETERINARY SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 
Chair for the last time upon pledges already twice broken. 
His friends for the first time objected, and Wood and 
Jennings were the candidates. The ballot was decided a 
tie vote, the President, A. S. Copeman, was called upon to 
give the casting vote, which is rulable in all such assem¬ 
blages. He said he had already voted, and for Wood ; this 
acknowledgment gave the election to my father by one 
majority. Quick upon the floor a Boston member moves 
for another ballot, seconded by half-a-dozen. Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey members protest, but no new ballot was 
taken, and C. M. Wood, who had twice pledged himself to 
support my father, was counted in by one majority. 
These facts I can prove by members who were present. 
If these facts are disputed I challenge the production of the 
minute book. 
Permit me to go back to that Convention once more. A 
very worthy member of the Veterinary College of Phila¬ 
delphia, whose name was upon the roll with those who first 
assembled together in the interest of this Association, was 
not present on the first day of the Convention, but was 
there on the second, was refused admission to the Conven¬ 
tion unless he made a regular application as a new member; 
feeling aggrieved at such treatment, he returned home with 
unpleasant feelings towards the new organisation. 
Another party, whose name appeared upon the roll of the 
Convention, but was not present, was admitted as a member 
at the semi-annual meeting following, without the formality 
of new membership. 
These facts, I think, are sufficient to account for the 
absence of the originator of the U.S.V.M.A. as well as his 
friends. We now come to the “ bogus diploma ’’question, 
on which we are taxed with having lapsed into gossip or 
malice because we said “ Philadelphia has an unenviable 
notoriety in veterinary history in connection with the bogus 
degrees,” “ the fame of which extending to this side of the 
Atlantic, has rendered us suspicious of qualifications, even 
sometimes more searching than those to which we subject 
our own graduates.” The fact is, the “ unenviable notoriety 
in veterinary history,” is unknown in the City of Phila¬ 
delphia in connection with her Veterinary colleges, where 
it is claimed by perverted minds outside of that city to have 
originated. The bogus diploma reputation was made by 
parties representing human medical schools, five of which 
are now in the Courts, and will be for ever wiped out. 
This reputation, by the acts of a single individual, years 
after the colleges had ceased to exist, is imputed to the 
