What does the future hold for the dairy departments? This question might well be supplemented with another. What should be the future purpose of dairy departments? It seems that the duties will be twofold, to train men for teaching and research work, and to train men to fill the demands of the commercial interests. In either case, the men, as indicated above, will have to be well trained not only in the applied subjects of dairying but in the sciences which are fundamental to it. Many of the students will not pursue graduate study but will enter commercial work immediately after completing their undergraduate studies. Therefore, they must get their scientific training during the time they are in college, and our curriculums should be built up accordingly.

The curriculum for the men who intend to follow teaching and research in dairying should be such that they can pursue graduate study without "going back" to make up the undergraduate work which is prerequisite for the line of graduate study which they intend to follow. However, care should be taken to see that this class of students receive proper training in the applied courses in dairying, and also that this is supplemented with adequate practical experience, so that they will have the vision which is necessary for research and for the training of future students.

All departments should cultivate a close contact with the dairy interests in the State. This relationship is extremely valuable. It keeps both students and faculty in touch with the progress of dairying in the State, and provides means for placing students where they can get the necessary practical experience during their summer vacations and permanent positions upon the completion of their college course.

Chapter XI

VETERINARY EDUCATION

By V. A. MOORE

Dean, New York State Veterinary College, at Cornell University

Veterinary education began in the United States about 1857 in private schools. Their apparent purpose was the instruction of students in the available knowledge of animal diseases and in the treatment of sick and injured horses. They were not concerned with research. With the development of animal husbandry the losses from diseases among food-producing animals became a matter of much economic significance and the veterinarians were not prepared to treat successfully sick cattle, sheep, and swine. There was,

therefore, a very practical and pressing need for information on the nature of animal diseases and for schools that would prepare more adequately veterinary practitioners.

The opportunity for taking up such research came with the establishment of the land-grant colleges. In several of them a veterinarian of high attainment was secured to direct the study of animal diseases. Courses of instruction in comparative anatomy, physiology, animal parasites, and practical medicine and surgery were given for the benefit of the students in agriculture. Strong "departments of veterinary science" were developed in a number of these institutions. The work was so thorough that a veterinary degree was given to a few graduates. It is of interest to note that Dr. Daniel E. Salmon, who later was instrumental in the organization of the Bureau of Animal Industry in the United States Department of Agriculture, received in 1872 a veterinary degree from a land-grant university where, as a student, he specialized in veterinary subjects. A few others received a similar degree, but the practice was soon discontinued until separate veterinary faculties were organized.

The appearance in this country of such destructive diseases as contagious pleuropneumonia in cattle, epizootics of foot-and-mouth disease, and the steadily increasing annual losses from various maladies, especially among dairy cattle and swine, were convincing evidence that there should be veterinary schools with adequate equipment for teaching and research. The demand for practitioners in the rapidly growing cities likewise gave occasion for the opening of numerous proprietary schools. The animal husbandry of the country, however, required men trained in the diseases of food-producing animals. In the absence of endowments for this purpose, satisfactory schools could not be equipped and maintained from the fees the students alone could pay. In Europe veterinary education, from its beginning in 1762, had been a state responsibility. With this as a precedent, and a desire to meet the requirements, a few of the veterinary departments in the land-grant colleges organized separate faculties to teach veterinary medicine. The first of these was in the Iowa State College where, in 1879, a definite course was outlined and a veterinary degree provided. About 1888 the veterinary department in the Ohio State University had developed into a school of veterinary medicine under the management of the president of the university, the head of the veterinary department, and two others. In 1895 the school was made a college with a dean and separate faculty.

In a few States special acts of the legislature created State-supported veterinary colleges and placed their management with the

trustees of the land-grant institutions. The New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University was the first to be established in this way. In the land-grant institutions it was arranged that the existing departments, such as animal husbandry, botany, and chemistry, should teach veterinary students these subjects. By such cooperation it was possible to provide comprehensive courses of instruction in veterinary medicine at the minimum cost. From the passage of the Morrill Act, in 1862 to 1910, veterinary faculties or separate veterinary schools were organized in connection with eight of the land-grant colleges, and one under the auspices of an endowed university."

Veterinary schools organized in connection with land-grant colleges prior

In addition to the State veterinary schools, there were, in 1910, twelve privately owned institutions for teaching veterinary medicine. Much credit is due to the pioneer private schools. They undertook a very necessary work and several of them tried earnestly to build up institutions that would be a credit to veterinary education. The organization of the Federal meat inspection service in the United States Bureau of Animal Industry, in 1891, stimulated the opening of several private schools to provide veterinarians for the Federal Government as well as for practice.

There were in 1910 a total of 2,717 veterinary students in the United States, of whom 706 graduated in 1911. Of these 219 were in State schools and the remaining 487 in proprietary institutions. There was a decided difference in the entrance requirements and the length of the course between the State and the proprietary schools in 1910. The State colleges required a preliminary high-school education or its academic equivalent for admission and a professional course of either three of four full academic years. The proprietary

The veterinary college at the University of Pennsylvania is the only one of this class. It received State aid for the construction of its buildings, and it is supported in part from funds appropriated by the State legislature to the University of Pennsylvania, and in part from endowments.

7 Professional Schools, Bureau of Education, 1911 and 1912.

schools had only grade school entrance requirements and the length of the course was two or three years of from five to seven months each.

Since 1910, three veterinary schools have been established at State agricultural colleges, as follows: The Division of Veterinary Medicine, organized in the Michigan Agricultural College, East Lansing, Mich., with a dean and separate faculty in 1911; a School of Veterinary Medicine, established in the Agricultural College of Texas, College Station, Tex., in 1916; and, in the same year, the Division of Veterinary Medicine, in the University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. Veterinary education received important aid during the World War. The War Department and the Bureau of Animal Industry in the United States Department of Agriculture required that all veterinary colleges whose graduates would be eligible to employment by those departments of the Government must have entrance requirements equal to graduation from a recognized high school and a professional course of four academic years. These requirements were in harmony with those of the State schools, but the privately owned ones could not satisfy these demands, and consequently eight of them closed.

8

There are at present 12 State veterinary colleges, one of which gives but the first two years of the course and three privately owned schools. However, the entrance requirements and the length of the course are announced to be the same as those of the State schools. The equipment is inferior.

The total number of veterinary students in the United States decreased from 2,717 to 2,487 in 1914. There was, however, at this time a gradual increase in the number of students in the State colleges, which was in marked contrast with the tendency during the preceding decade when the number of veterinary students, largely in the proprietary schools, increased from 362 to 2,717. The growing demand for veterinarians in the country districts and the coming of the automobile, which reduced rapidly the number of horses in the cities, were the essential factors that turned the tide of student prosperity from the private schools and stimulated larger attendance in the State colleges.

In the period from 1910 to 1917 there was an earnest and persistent effort on the part of the State schools to raise the standard of veterinary education to a plane that would adequately prepare men for veterinary service. As the proprietary institutions had not required such educational preparation, the opinion became widespread that it was not necessary. It was a slow process, therefore, to convince the public that it was essential for practitioners to have

8 This includes the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

a cultural education and a thorough technical training to prepare them to diagnose, treat, and control animal diseases. This made progress educationally difficult and often discouraging. However, the State schools were united on an educational policy when, during the World War, the action of the Government relative to veterinary education brought about the desired advances.

At the close of the war, a condition of affairs was precipitated that tended to react against the veterinary profession. This is reflected chiefly in the pronounced reduction in the number of students that have matriculated. The registration of veterinary students since 1919 is given by years in the appended table.

1 This does not include the few students in the three remaining schools.

234 :

488

722

140

473

613

150

401

551

151

380

1 531

The foregoing table shows a registration of but 531 students at the present time and but 613 in 1920. This is nearly 400 per cent less than at the beginning of the World War in 1914, when the registration was 2,481. The effect on the animal husbandry of the country of this reduction in the number of veterinarians may be serious. The losses from sporadic diseases and injuries are heavy at best, but with restricted veterinary service they will be much greater. However, it is likely that as soon as the shortage is realized a sufficient number of men will be attracted to the work. The explanation for the great reduction in veterinary students may be found largely in three conditions.

The extensive use of motor cars has eliminated most of the equine practice from the cities. As a result a large number of veterinarians found themselves without sufficient clients and consequently they looked upon veterinary medicine as a profession that has outlived its usefulness. Their training had been for the most part in the treatment and care of horses, their homes had been in the cities, and they wished to stay there even if they were obliged to engage in other business. In these circumstances they did not encourage young men in the cities to study veterinary medicine as a profession.

The economic situation following the armistice has not made country practice especially attractive. The rapid drop in the price of livestock and dairy products and the slow decline in the cost of articles required by farmers tended to develop considerable indiffer