170 
J. LAW. 
tious study, and who, in the hospitals for men and animals, has 
made himself thoroughly acquainted with the diagnosis and treat¬ 
ment of the maladies of man and beast. In many sparsely pop¬ 
ulated districts, a practitioner of this kind would be a most desir¬ 
able acquisition, while in the cities and densely peopled local¬ 
ities, specialists must continue to pursue human and veterinary 
medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, otology, gynaecology, dentistry, 
&c., &c. 
VETERINARY PRACTITIONERS NEEDED IN THE UNITED STATES. 
There is no means of ascertaining the number of educated 
veterinarians in the United States, but it may safely be affirmed, 
that nearly all such are confined to the large cities. In the coun¬ 
try districts, where the greatest and the most valuable part of our 
live stock is to be found, they are few and far between. In the 
absence of these data, we may estimate the number of live stock 
of our own and other countries, and deduce from this the requi¬ 
site number of veterinarians. Great Britain, which stands low 
in the European scale, as regards veterinarians, owns over forty- 
two millions head of live stock; and not much less than two 
thousand veterinarians. If, however, we cut off sheep and swine, 
for which the English veterinarian does little or nothing, we find 
but three millions nine hundred thousand head of horses and 
cattle, or more than four thousand for every veterinarian in the 
country. The ratio adopted in the calvary, of one veterinarian 
for each regiment of one thousand, would necessitate a four-fold 
increase of the profession. 
Turning to the United States, we find over one hundred mil¬ 
lion head of live stock, or if we cut off sheep and pigs, we have 
still left over thirty-nine millions horses and cattle, very nearly 
five times the number found in Great Britain. If, therefore, Great 
Britain requires two thousand veterinarians, we require no less 
than eight thousand, or if we were to estimate according to the 
number supplied to the British army, we would swell the number 
to thirty-nine thousand. 
The following tabular arrangement will present very forcibly 
the needs of the United States, as compared with Great Britain. 
