The medical and veterinary professions have had to combat many diseases known to be common to man and animals since Koch obtained a pure culture of the anthrax bacillus in 1876. Researches during the past few years have brought to light an additional one, Malta or undulant fever, which promises to be of considerable significance and may become as important as bovine tuberculosis. Hundreds of cases in humans apparently of animal origin are already on record.

Even after the scientific knowledge to eradicate a disease is available, public support is frequently insufficient to accomplish that end. This is the case, for example, in the instance of rabies. The public is satisfied with the insurance provided by a preventive, which does not lead to eradication. This is shown by the extensive use made of antihog-cholera serum which is applied purely as insurance against heavy losses and not to eradicate the disease. In other words, the veterinary profession will continue to "vaccinate " swine by the millions every year instead of attacking the problem of eradicating the disease. The attitude of the public does not encourage eradication measures; hence the annual "job" of the veteri nary profession is to keep the losses as low as possible. The whole tendency is in the direction of requiring more service and consequently more veterinarians instead of decreasing the problems and reducing the service needed.

The field of education is the most pressing need to-day. Most of the veterinary colleges are undermanned, some seriously so. The additions should be men with better training than those now on the staff. The problem lies in where such men can be secured. Evidently it is the business of the veterinary colleges to produce them or to see to it that they are produced. One factor which would be of great assistance has already been discussed; that is, the combination of veterinary colleges with veterinary research and graduate work. More training in fundamental sciences and in the field of human medicine is essential. It is not clear that the present tendency to regard the Ph.D. degree as a prerequisite to appointment on a teaching or research staff should be recommended to the veterinary schools. Veterinary colleges do not so much need men on their staffs who are narrowly specialized as they do men who have been well grounded in the general sciences before taking up the study of the medical sciences. After receiving a veterinary degree specialization is in order. This should be done at a medical or veterinary school. Highly specialized knowledge of the etiological factor can not be substituted for knowledge of the host, which is often 50 per cent or more of the research problem.

The question naturally arises whether the present veterinary faculties can train men who will demonstrate greater ability than they themselves have. This is entirely possible and is occurring continuously but presents greater difficulties for the student doing postgraduate work. Ability to transmit knowledge is a valuable asset, but ability to inspire graduate students to labor on and on in search for facts is a still more valuable qualification. More men are needed with both these qualities in the veterinary colleges and it is one of the objectives of veterinary medicine to produce them.

There are a number of other objectives of the veterinary profession which should be mentioned in this connection. Among them is the training of young men for service in the United States Army. Since the World War and the combination of the Veterinary Corps with the Medical Corps, the Army positions have proved attractive to young men who have the ability to render good service and well represent the profession. The development of the profession in the European countries was centered around problems of national defense and service to the country. In the United States the same view was never held with reference to veterinary medicine and the teaching in the veterinary colleges of the United States has always been along the line of service to the animal industry and to public health instead of care and treatment of military animals. A change has been in progress in both Europe and America in that the Europeans are giving more attention to food-producing animals, and in the United States more attention is being given to veterinary training for the Army and to other phases of national defense previously neglected. The change has been in the right direction in both cases. Other industries developing from time to time require the assistance of the veterinary profession. A good illustration of this is the furfarming industry which has developed very rapidly during the past decade and like the livestock industry, is beset with many problems of disease which unless kept under control threaten ruin to the industry itself.

Chapter III.-Demand for Veterinary Education

The first question that must be considered with reference to the service that the profession should render is the number of men the veterinary colleges should graduate in order to maintain the personnel of the profession on an efficient basis. The first step in making an estimate of this kind is the determination of the average period of professional service rendered by all men graduating from veterinary colleges. This is variously estimated and probably about 25 years is near the correct period. The medical colleges have had an average annual enrollment for the 10-year period 1918-19 to 192728 of 16,376 students and the average number of graduates each year during the same period was 3,433. At this rate it would require about 432 years to replace the 149,500 physicians in the United States.

Veterinary medicine graduated during the same period an average of 139 veterinary students per year from the 11 veterinary institutions. At this rate the profession of 13,000 would be replaced in 9312 years. The 1920 census records 13,493 veterinarians in the United States and, accordingly, 13,500 veterinarians would need to be produced every 25 years by 11 institutions. On the basis of this calculation 540 veterinarians should be graduated each year, an average of 50 men per school. This does not make allowance for probable expansion of the activities of the profession.

Graph No. 9 on the veterinary situation in the Bureau of Animal Industry indicates that the Bureau of Animal Industry needs about 90 appointees annually. This would leave an average of fewer than 10 veterinarians per State for replacement. Naturally some States would not need that many while others would need many more.

A study of the needs for veterinary service shows that the problem is not merely one of maintaining the present status numerically but that increased numbers will be required. Mention has already been made of the fact that dairy cattle require much more veterinary service than the beef breeds. Census figures show that dairy cattle and poultry are the only domesticated animals that have increased consistently since 1850. From 1920-1925 when the number of all other animals decreased, dairy cattle were not similarly affected and they are from the standpoint of value now the most important class of

livestock on farms. There is one milk cow for each average family of five people. Dairy cattle increased 27 per cent from 1890 to 1920, while population increased 68 per cent; beef cattle decreased 22 per cent from 1894 to 1920 and have shown a sharp decline from 1920 to 1925.

The swine industry which is annually requiring and receiving more veterinary service reached its highest point, according to census reports, in 1900, although there are probably years falling between

census years when the figures were larger. Swine are quite largely an annual crop and the veterinary profession's problem is to see that the crop is not destroyed by the ravages of disease before it reaches the consumer. In 1916, 57 per cent of the meat consumed was pork and during 11 of the 15 years from 1907 to 1922 the per capita consumption of pork and lard has exceeded that of beef, veal, lamb, and mutton combined. A survey made in 1921 in the State of Iowa showed that 3.5 per cent of the total cost of producing hogs was for veterinary service.

Horses on farms are estimated to have decreased from 16,470,000 in 1925 to 14,029,000 in 1929. The decrease in the combined total of horses and mules was from about 25,000,000 to 22,000,000. Nevertheless all studies show that the decline of the horse industry has reduced the demand for veterinary service to a much less degree than it has been increased by service required for other species of foodproducing animals, pet animals, and the fur bearers. Another change is indicated by the rapid development of the poultry industry. Poultry in the United States increased from 280,341,000 in 1910 to 409,291,000 in 1925. The attention given by veterinarians to poultry previous to 1910 was very slight indeed, whereas to-day some veterinarians are devoting a considerable proportion of their time to poultry disease work. In veterinary research and diagnostic laboratories the poultry industry requires practically as much attention as does cattle and swine work. This attention to poultry has increased very rapidly since 1920. Poultry packing plants are being established and considerable veterinary inspection service is required.

The sections of the United States that will need the most extensive veterinary service in the future can not, of course, be determined exactly at the present time, but some study of this question is important in determining the best locations for the veterinary colleges. Since the real growth of the veterinary profession in the United States began (1860) the center of population has moved from southern Ohio, near Portsmouth, almost due west to a point a short distance east of the Illinois-Indiana line. The center of value of farm property in 1860 was at practically the same point as the center of population but moved westward much faster than the center of population and by 1920 had reached a point not far from Chillicothe, Mo. The center of veterinary population has shown a still more rapid movement. In 1860 it was near the Ohio-Pennsylvania line but by 1920 had moved to a point near the central part of northern Illinois.

111490°-30—VOL II- -23