398 
EDITORIAL. 
New York veterinarians have not been the least active and 
insistent in such matters ; in fact, while the veterinarians of 
other States were equally clamorous in their efforts to place 
veterinary medicine upon the firmest legal foundation, it may 
be truthfully said that New York was ever the leader in all 
such movements. She it was who secured the first practice act, 
and, while it has been often assailed (principally by those who 
put forth the least exertion to secure any law) for the laxity of 
its provisions, it has been latterly so strengthened as to be 
practically without serious objection—if faithfully lived up to. 
The enforcement of the penalty clause of our law has ever been 
a difficult problem, on account of which offenders have become 
so numerous as to cause many to unthinkingly assert that the 
law itself is inadequate. Sober reflection, however, is quite suf¬ 
ficient to convince any intelligent person that there is not a law 
of the land which is not inert and useless unless the arm of 
justice intervenes to have its provisions fulfilled. If a burglar 
robs a bank it is admitted that he has violated a law ; but with 
no one to hunt him down and bring him before the bar of jus¬ 
tice for punishment the law is a dead letter. So with our law; 
when it is violated with impunity, it becomes of no value in a 
practical sense. It is true, a few individuals in different parts 
of the State have undertaken at various times to hale before the 
courts gross cases of violation of the statute, and whenever vig¬ 
orously pursued conviction has followed. But such instances 
have been so rare and unsystematic that offenders have become 
emboldened, until now they neither ask permission nor offer 
apologies. The editors of the Review have received many 
letters recently calling their attention to individuals practicing 
in various sections of the State without having the legal right 
to do so. In one instance it is a graduate of a two-year school 
who, ignoring the Regents’ requirements for registration, sim¬ 
ply puts up his sign and begins to practice ; in another, a per¬ 
son attends a legitimate school the required three sessions, but 
fails to pass the faculty examination, but starts into business 
just the same as though he had won their approval, as well as 
