CORRESPONDENCE. 
183 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
LEGISLATION REGULATING VETERINARY PRACTICE IN NEW YORK 
STATE. 
Rochester, N. Y., May 14, 1882. 
Prof. Liautard: 
I send you the draft of a bill for regulating the practice of 
veterinary medicine and surgery in this State, which, if it meets 
your approval, and that of your veterinary friends, I think we 
can procure the passage of. I think it is the best we can get at 
present. The bill is prospective in its action in the main, though 
I think the knowledge required by section three to he verified by 
oath, will prove to many who are now practicing, to he nearly 
iron-clad. Many would hesitate to take it. It puts a stop to 
young men continuing practice who are under twenty-five years 
old, and compels them to qualify themselves by a collegiate course 
or by certificate from the New York State Society, and this will 
be a great step in advance. It in reality gives your college and 
your State Society future control of veterinary practice, with 
which organizations I think it most safe to trust it. If you will 
inquire into the matter, I think you will find that the legal fra¬ 
ternity, in making rules and regulations for the practice of law, 
make their rules prospective in their action and not retroactive ; 
so, too, you will observe that the laws that have been passed by 
different States regulating the medical practice, are prospective 
and not retroactive, and this accords with the spirit of our Gov¬ 
ernment. Illinois, which passed a law in 1877, exempted from 
its prohibitory sections all who had been practicing medicine ten 
years within the State. New Hampshire recently passed a law 
and exempted from its prohibitory clauses all who had been in 
practice in the town and city of their present residence during all 
the time since January 1, 1875. Pennsylvania exempted from 
her prohibitory clauses those who had been in continuous prac¬ 
tice of medicine and surgery or obstetrics for ten years in the 
commonwealth. The California law is much like that of Illinois. 
Texas exempted those who had been engaged in the general 
