CORRESPONDENCE. 
131 
they will realize what little chance they have to pass the ex¬ 
amination for license to practice in New York. In this regard 
the law is retroactive. Thus I believe that to these stu¬ 
dents is left only the other alternative to drill their brains up 
to 48 Regent counts. That this is expecting too much of any 
young man possessed of a clear mind and average will-power, I 
deny positively. While the four-year high school work re¬ 
quired constitutes a fair school education, nevertheless, as long 
as no classical studies are called for it remains essentially a 
common English education. Such is now more or less ex¬ 
pected of any young man entering life-work that presupposes a 
higher mental training than that conceded to be necessary for 
the practice of the common trades—and it would be an insult 
to the science of veterinary medicine to assume that it belongs 
to such company. Personally I am convinced that the flooding 
of veterinary schools with students during the flowering period 
has not been due to the low education ^hen required, nor that 
the present decline in students is solely due to the higher re¬ 
quirements. History repeats itself, and the roads of profes¬ 
sional evolution appear to be regulated by some eternal law, 
for it is a historical fact that a rise in educational requirements 
in the old schools has not been directlv beneficial to them as re- 
gards the number of matriculants, unless accompanied or shortly 
after followed by a rise in the standing of the veterinary schools 
and by a general betterment of the status of the veterinarian as 
regards higher rank and better pay in established official posi¬ 
tions and by opening up new channels of employment. But in 
our case the State has simply ruled to what degree veterinari¬ 
ans must be educated without regarding the condition of the 
veterinary schools, and without providing for educated labor and 
official employment. True, ours is a democratic country, where 
the scientific professions are not fostered by the State, but left to 
private enterprise. Nevertheless, the educated young man or his 
parents or advisers do not fail to observe what humble social 
position the average veterinarian commands, how small his re¬ 
munerations are for his hard and intelligent labor, and how few 
desirable positions are offered him after all the years of study 
in school and college. I believe, therefore, that as long as our 
veterinary schools retain the livery-stable type in their outward 
appearance and remain below a university teaching in spirit and 
as long as the general prosperity of the profession stagnates and 
stays as uninviting as it notably is at present, few students will 
be attracted to enter the profession. 
