406 
CORRESPONDENCE 
made to answer all necessary purposes. The claims of another 
critic, that a national institute of veterinary medicine should 
alone teach the science and grant veterinary degrees, is probably 
true when viewed from his standpoint; but since his position is 
untenable under our present form of government, discussion of 
the advantages to be derived from such a condition of affairs is 
useless. If the dreams of this ideal critic, then, are not capsible 
of realization, must no veterinary schools be established until 
perfection, as he conceives it, is secured in State or individual 
efforts ? 
The fallacy of waiting for presumed perfection in any institu¬ 
tion must be apparent to all who are acquainted with our coun¬ 
try’s need of veterinary surgeons and the general quality of the 
material from which the supply must for many years to come 
be derived. It is not a wide conception of matters that imagines 
this country most in want of strictly scientific veterinarians, 
especially if these scientists are to follow unfortunate examples, 
and expend their time in a fruitless endeavor to work miracles, 
to belittle honest work done by their equals, and to object to 
everything that does not comport with their ideas of right and 
wrong in the matter of teaching. The class of surgeons needed 
by the United States at this time are men with thoroughly prac¬ 
tical educations founded upon a scientific basis that will guarantee 
continuous and unlimited growth—men who are capable of ren¬ 
dering aid in the cure as well as in the prevention of disease ; for 
the importance of the former precedes the latter in the estimation 
of the public and in the immediate welfare of the diseased. It 
is these men, with their efficient and conscientious work, who will 
lead us to something higher, by cultivating in the minds of the 
public a knowledge of the indispensible value of the veterinarian’s 
skill. “ Genius does not grow upon every pair of shoulders,” 
says one critic, and a practical application of this law is that all 
men are not capable of becoming scientists. But does that 
exclude them from becoming able veterinarians ? If so, then 
America will never be supplied with a sufficient number of 
veterinary surgeons, for it is not every genius that will enter the 
profession. Neither can we look for many geniuses to devote 
