EDITORIAL. 
161 
tion extended over nine days (May 2 to May io, inclusive) and 
consisted of a physical examination by a board of medical offi¬ 
cers, and of written examinations in all professional medical 
branches, each day occupying from six to seven hours, and 
finally of a practical examination in equitation. 
The Board of Examiners consisted of Major Kingsbury and 
First Lieut. Philipps, 3d U. S. Cavalry, and Dr. Victor A. Nor- 
gaard, of the Bureau of Animal Industry. There can be no 
doubt that the Board had a hard task of selecting the candi¬ 
dates for examination out of a number of about one hundred 
and fifty applicants, 90 per cent, of whom were graduates from 
two-term schools and a number of them illiterates. As far as 
the examination itself is concerned, the professional questions 
were very fair and practical, but they covered so completely the 
whole range of veterinary medical knowledge, up to the latest 
theories and discoveries, that only a man of well-rounded educa¬ 
tion could face them with anything like success. If this is 
going to be the standard for future army veterinary examina¬ 
tions, as it evidently is, it will effectively bar out not only in¬ 
competent men, but also those of an incomplete and superficial 
education. Besides, it was very evident that the members of 
the Board were u sizing up ” each candidate as to his personal 
character, social manners and aptitude for military service, as is 
done at examinations for commissions in the army. 
If the army will now reciprocate by giving the future vet¬ 
erinarians a proper status, it will, in time and under prudent 
leadership, develop into a veterinary corps second to none of 
other countries. O. S. 
Elsewhere will be found the first installment of an excel¬ 
lent contribution to our literature on the subject of “ Dog Dis¬ 
temper,” by Dr. Coleman Nockolds, of Grand Rapids, Mich. 
The author, while presenting no new discovery in connection 
with this canine plague, has collaborated the subject in such a 
practical and faithful manner as to render his description of the 
disease the clearest and most comprehensive that we have seen. 
