204 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Then the professional studies in three European veterinary 
schools extend in different cases, from three and one-half to five 
years, of at least nine months each, and it is a very common 
thing for the student to take an extra year because he cannot 
accomplish the work in the time prescribed. ^ c ^ 
If we are to learn anything from the experience of the Old 
World, and the demands of the New for scientific veterinary 
work, the lesson would seem to be unquestionably that our 
average American veterinary college has lagged behind and is 
failing to fulfill the demand of modern medicine and of our 
immense live stock industry. The domestic animals furnish as 
many different genera in America as in Europe. They suffer 
from the same diseases; or if we lack one or two that are com¬ 
mon in Europe, we can furnish at least a corresponding number 
that are peculiar to America. We yield to no European country 
in the numbers or values of our live stock. Why, then, should 
the o-uardians of their health and of the public health be one 
whit less accomplished or efficient than those entrusted with 
the same duties in Europe? ^ . 
Who is to benefited by condemning America to a low veteri¬ 
nary standard? Certainly not the owner of valuable live stock, 
who has the first right to consideration. Certainly not the 
public health, which will suffer in ratio with our neglect of the 
sanitation of our flocks and herds. Certainly not the New York 
veterinarians, who will be doomed to compete wuth the aliens 
coming from the schools outside, which continue to move on 
the old lower plane. ' n r 
The Turf, Field and Farm says the “ veterinary colleges ot 
this State are being strangled by the action of the Regents.” It 
is the schools alone, then, that are to obtain the benefit of this 
cramping and dwarfing of the veterinary education of the State. 
If this wre true, it might be fairly questioned whether a school 
has a right to profit at the expense of the great live stock 
industry, of the public health, and of the veterinary profession. 
But the dread of the schools is founded on a fallacy, and the 
sooner they can bring themselves into line with the full require¬ 
ments of the New York law, the sooner will they enjoy the return 
of a full tide of prosperity, which will know no ebb. 
The argument advanced for the lower class education would 
logically carry us very much further on the downward track. 
To obtain the existing New York law we had to recognize all 
existing practitioners, and thereby at once swelled the ranks of 
New York veterinarians to ten times their legitimate profes- 
