CORRESPONDENCE. 
859 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
veterinary legislation in new YORK. 
27 /•, y , . . Ithaca, N, Y., February 20, 1898. 
AiHsncciii y£t6J'‘i7iciTy Rcviczu ' 
Dear Sirs : The annual convening of the New York Legis¬ 
lature IS signalized by the usual attacks upon the veterinary 
education and practice laws of the State, which are, as is well 
known, in advance of veterinary laws in other States. 
One bill favors admitting- to practice a new batch of charla¬ 
tans who during the past three years have practiced contrary to 
law ; another is in the interest of students who entered veteri¬ 
nary colleges in 1896 without complying with the laws then in 
force as to matriculation, and judging from the editorial pages 
ot the Review we are next to see a determined effort to wipe 
out entrance requirements for veterinary education. 
Upon any one of these questions opinions may readily differ 
and the witer, viewing the question of entrance examination 
rom a 1 erent outlook, may be pardoned for holding opinions 
at variance with those of the editor of the Review, believing 
that the difficulties under which the New York City colleges 
laboring are not due chiefly to veterinary legislation, 
he late “boom ” in livestock had as a companion a similar 
flurry in pseudo-veterinary education, causing the upshot rather 
than growth of a number of alleged veterinary colleges beyond 
the real needs of the public. 
The most conspicuous character of many of these was a keen 
competition as to which institution could admit the most io-no- 
rant man, keep him the shortest time at the lowest price ^and 
graduate^ him with the least possible inconvenience. This 
pandemonium quickly filled the country with a class of veteri¬ 
narians (pardon the nomenclature) whose merits or rather de- 
recognized by an intelligent public. 
While It IS alleged that P. T. Barniim held that the American 
people like to be humbugged, it might have been added that 
they are to some degree choice as to how and by whom the 
process shall be applied. Then came the collapse of the live¬ 
stock boom and logically a pseudo-profession living upon a host 
as a parasite experiences ill health when the host dies. 
As a result many of these “ veterinarians ” forsook their “ pro¬ 
fession and turned their talents to the carpenter, barber or 
other trade for which their talents better fitted them, others led 
and are still leading an uncertain existence, and enjoying a 
