THE FUTURE OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
183 
during such an attack. Should such identity be established it 
would not be hard to adopt more rational methods of prevention 
and cure. But I cannot particularize any further. If the compli¬ 
ment of an invitation to prepare this paper has emboldened me 
to proffer advice, to call attention to matters outside my limited 
sphere, or to presume to tell you “ what manner of men ” you 
ought to be, you may simply regard it as a blooming illustration 
of the saying: “ Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” 
THE FUTURE OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
By E. L. Volgenau, D. V. S., New York. 
One of the New York papers in a recent edition gives some 
startling figures as to the effect of the bicycle upon business in 
general and particularly its effect upon the horse and livery 
business. This journal puts the loss in horses and livery for the 
past year at $20,000,000. The loss to pleasure vehicles is 
estimated at $15,000,000, and in harnesses and saddles at 
$10,000,000. 
To the veterinarian these figures are significant. For the 
past three years the earnings of veterinarians have been steadily 
on the decline. Some have ascribed this to ‘‘ hard times,” others 
to the increase in trolley and cable cars, others again to the com¬ 
petition of younger practitioners. Each of these is undoubtedly 
a factor, but the main cause for the diminished earnings through¬ 
out the whole country has been the almost universal adoption 
of the bicycle. The main question is, has the bicycle come to 
stay ? If the answer is in the affirmative, veterinarians will soon 
have to seek new fields, and other methods of earning a liveli¬ 
hood. 
The number of horses, good, bad and indifferent that have 
been thrown upon the market since the arrival of the seductive 
wheel, has served to so lessen their valuation, that, leaving sen¬ 
timent aside, it hardly pays an owner to have a horse treated for 
any grave illness, and the lesser derangements, which can be rem¬ 
edied in one or two visits, and without the loss of much time 
