AKMY VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
341 
year, by appropriating about $12,000 with which to pay Alex¬ 
ander Dunbar for his services for one year instructing the Array 
Veterinary Surgeons and farriers in an “ alleged discovery of a 
mode of treatment of the diseases of horses’ feet.” 
I know this latter action of Congress has been severely criti¬ 
cised by the friends of our profession, not because of the gener¬ 
osity shown toward the profession, but because the confidence 
bestowed on Dunbar was misplaced, and he by ignorance, impo¬ 
sition and deceit, unjustly brought the good name of the profes¬ 
sion into disrepute; for the public believed him to be a Veterinary 
Surgeon, and consequently measured the whole profession by him. 
And inasmuch as he had been endorsed by Congress, who can 
wonder that the public believed him to be the representative 
veterinary surgeon of the country ? 
What an advantage for the profession would it have been, 
and for the Government also, had Congress heeded the injunction 
of the late Hon. Fernando Wood, when on that memorable occa¬ 
sion he arose and in his dignified manner opposed the appropria¬ 
tion of $25,000 with which to pay for Dunbar’s services. “ I 
am,” he said, “ advised by those who are judges of that subject, 
that the mau is totally ignorant, that he knows nothing about the 
diseases of horses’ feet, and that he rather perpetrates injury upon 
the poor animals than produces any benefit to them.” 
That this action of Congress was uninfluenced by recent 
events in the history of American veterinary medicine, would 
probably not be a logical inference, for during the interval from 
1863 to 1866, the United States Veterinary Medical Association 
and the Pennsylvania Veterinary College had come into exist¬ 
ence, and while the latter had not as yet accomplished any prac¬ 
tical work in the interest of the profession, its endeavors to obtain 
a charter from the Pennsylvania Legislature had incited some 
discussions in that body and in the press, and had secured for it 
a not inconsiderable acquaintance with the public. The New 
York College of Veterinary Surgeons, whose charter had been 
obtained in 1857, had gained very little notoriety during this 
interval of nine years, but she had done some earnest work dur¬ 
ing the winteis of 1864 and 1865 in giving full courses of lec- 
