EDITORIAL. 
445 
issue of official reports signed by “V.S.,” 1).V.M,”—or, perhaps 
half the balance of the alphabet—and urging the paramountimpor- 
tance of the owner of such a title being worthy of the right to 
use it, together with the danger that threatens the public if the 
education given at such private schools is imperfect. 
Especial emphasis is laid upon these points because of the fact 
that the writer had before him the catalogue of an institution 
which offers to graduate after one course of lectures ! “Heaven,” 
says he, “ save the country from the infliction of such veterin¬ 
arians !” We will add, “God save us from such representatives 
of our profession.” 
Thanks are due to Mr. G. W. Rust for his forcible and timely 
article and for the thorough manner in which he lays the evil 
before the agriculturists of the United States. We can only re¬ 
gret that a feeling of excessive delicacy has not allowed him to 
name the school (!) to which he refers, as we believe that places 
of such a character ought to be publicly known. 
There are organizations in some of our States that are known 
to deliver certificates of membership to men who are often un¬ 
worthy of it. Such certificates are exhibited to the unsuspecting 
public as evidence of a graduation, and they are often granted to 
parties who have never been inside of a veterinary or medical 
school. These are bad and worthless, and the people at large 
ought to be cautious in accepting them as an evidence of knowl¬ 
edge. But they are not worse than those engraved diplomas of 
an institution which offers to give, after one course of lectures, the 
certified acknowledgment—by a number of so-called professors— 
of an education which we all know requires years of hard study 
to obtain. 
The public exposure of such so-called colleges and similar or¬ 
ganizations is due to the veterinary profession, to those who intend 
to enter its ranks, and to the community at large. 
SANITARY VETERINARY STATEMENTS. 
1884 has passed by, and we can now, for the first time in the 
history of American veterinary medicine, compile yearly statistics 
of contagious diseases as correct and truthful as can be expected, 
