CORRESPONDENCE. 
179 
quarters, there lias been a cry raised against the legality of the 
diploma given by the American Veterinary College, of which 
Mr. Liautard is Director. In the first place, that is a pretty noise 
to make in a land where there are fifty or more medical schools, 
most of which are nothing more or less than quack-producers. “I 
haint bin to no Harvard, I kim from Chikaga,” said one of these 
sprouts in my presence some time since. He remained two weeks 
in Berlin, paid for a series of lectures by Virchows, Laugenbeck, 
and others, went to Vienna and did likewise, and, by the way of 
Paris, was home in America in ten weeks. And had studied in 
Europe. It may not be known in America, but the fact is, our 
national reputation is being daily buried deeper and deeper by 
these “ sprouts of Americanism every hard-working medical 
student who is now or has been in Europe can testify to the mor¬ 
tification he too often has to bear, by being asked if he knew Dr. 
-. The truth is, all our medical schools are private schools, 
with this difference: If a father sends a son to a common private 
school to be educated , he ascertains if it be good; if he sends him 
to a medical school he wants him put through ; this is American. 
All medical schools in our country, whether organized under a 
general law or a special law, are dependent on the character of 
their teachers and their graduates for their reputation ; and tjie 
veterinary schools are no different. The “ no charter ” of the 
one is better, to my mind, than the “ so-called charter ” without 
State inspections or responsibility, of the other. The thing can 
very well be compared to the liquor laws ; on the one side we 
have a man selling liquor, giving good wares, doing the best he 
can, because he values his reputation ; he does business under a 
general law, which requires a man to be honest and do his duty. 
On the other side, we have persons doing business under a special 
law, but the law does not say how they shall do it, or guarantee 
to the public the quality of the article they shall receive. Such a 
law is self-evidently a dead law, and the charter far worse than no 
charter at all. The V. S. of the one is fully as good as of the 
other; the question of instruction remains for the aspirant to 
satisfy himself. 
Of the veterinary schools of France, I would say a few words. 
