The report of the conference at the New York State Veterinary College during the semi-centennial celebration of Cornell University, June, 1919.

  • New York State Veterinary College
Date:
1919
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The report of the conference at the New York State Veterinary College during the semi-centennial celebration of Cornell University, June, 1919. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I have also dealt with anthrax in grazing ¢attle, by sterilized serum from the infected. Others have failed with dairy cows. Perhaps the effect of milk and milking on the system robs the serum of its value. So with blackleg. ‘ These illustrate how different plagues require different fundamental treatment. The whole great field of parasites demands for each its own special treatment. In 1879 the New York legislature made an appropriation to stamp out lung plague, but after a year’s work, with a successful end well in sight, a change in party rule rendered it impossible to do more. In 1887 the plague, as I had pre- dicted, appeared in the Chicago Stock Yards. The lesson had now been learned. The Federal government supplied the means and Illinois the authority, and in three months I saw the last acute case of the disease destroyed. This was followed by equally vigorous work in the affected Eastern states, all quarantines were raised and the nation pronounced free from lung plague. The pest had prevailed for 49 years, with an uncounted mortality, had led to the closure of British trade in | our live beef cattle, and shut out the still more valuable American thoroughbreds from the English market. These experiences doubtless had their part in paving the way for the action of the New York State legislature when in 1894, on the recommendation of Governor Flower, acts were passed establishing at Cornell University the first State Veterinary College in America. Senator E. C. Stewart of Ithaca introduced and successfully carried through the various bills requisite for the establishing of the college, the appropriation of $150,000 for buildings, other appropriations for maintenance, and the vesting of the administration in Cornell University. In arranging the curriculum, the exist- ing scientific departments, laboratories, and libraries were all made use of, as far as possible, and eight men were appointed to the veterinary faculty proper. The writer was made director of the college and has ever counted himself most fortun- ate in his association with the seven distinguished men who began with him the work of the new college: Simon H. Gage, Veranus A. Moore, Pierre A. Fish, Walter L. Williams, Grant S. Hopkins, Benjamin F. Kingsbury, and Raymond C. Reed. Though better than the equipment for the pioneer work of the early days of Cornell, the as yet imperfect equipment of the newborn college at times sorely tried the earnestness and devotion of these loyal men. In the second year of the college, Governor Flower made possible the splendid library that bears hisname. This generous gift made available to us the records of the modern scientific world. In 1901 through the representation by Professor Gage of our need of endowment for the library, Mrs. Flower most promptly and generously gave $10,000 as an endowment fund, sufficient to secure for the library year by year and month by month much of the freshest prints of research in the different subjects on which the college is engaged and to constantly inspire its readers with the thought of active contemporary scientific work in all parts of the world. In 1905 to 1906 entrance requirements for the first time demanded four years of successful high school work. This change had been announced two years before, bringing a decided increase of entering students in 1903 and 1904 with an equal decrease in 1905. But the latter, being better prepared and more capable men, rendered possible a fuller and more profitable supervision, especially in labora- tories and clinics, the work of which was becoming more and more important. An extension of the college course from three to four years was still anxiously hoped for, but this was not secured until five years later and even then was only
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