176 
EDITORIAL. 
.Regular graduates may have, and again try by years of labor 
to elevate the profession from its low standing. Private veteri¬ 
nary schools may by degrees and with time have succeeded in 
throwing through the country enough educated men to chase the 
ignorant from the place they now occupy—bujt how many long 
years would it have taken ? Illinois has done it at her conven¬ 
tion—and we believe it can be done all over the country. And 
the essential factor, iu fact the one without which it probably 
would not have taken place is—that is, if we are correctly in¬ 
formed—that the majority of these men were self made men; 
men who had made their way by hard work and honorable labor; 
men who, deprived of the opportunity of veterinary instruc¬ 
tion, have themselves felt the duty they owed to the profession of 
their choice, and have paid it by organizing an association whose 
respectability cannot be ignored, and whose honor shall oblige 
to reject from its membership any undeserving applicants. They 
formed that association, organized it, and now are coming well 
prepared before their Legislature with an act to regulate the prac¬ 
tice of veterinary medicine and surgery, which we sincerely hope 
will pass. 
In the action of the Veterinary Society of Illinois, in that 
which will follow from other Western States, and which we shall 
probably see taking place all over the country, we feel that em¬ 
piricism will receive its most terrible blow by the brotherly union 
of all practitioners of veterinary medicine all over the country. 
By all means let us have nothing but State Veterinary Con¬ 
ventions until the great association is formed. 
BILLS REGULATING THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY. MEDICINE 
AND SURGERY. 
We reprint in this issue the bill which was presented to the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania, and that which is to be sent to that 
of Illinois. The first was killed through the efforts of Keystone 
Veterinary Association. A careful reading of the two bills show 
how much more progress and truthful advancement there is in 
the Western than in the Pennsylvania document. It was a good 
thing the bill failed to pass. 
