499 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
everyday sacrifices of our calling, I am thrice proud to say, are borne by the rank and file 
of our profession throughout the land in a manner worthy of the cause. I have found in 
the profession a long list of colleagues and friends whose devotion to their work • whose 
sincere friendship of much worth, and whose earnest lives, well lived, have thus added a 
deal of pleasure to my own, that I would not have missed in this busy, rushing world for 
aught that I know. I am not unmindful of the heavy burdens of the hour, or the toil and 
sacrifices that have been yours for many months. I am not oblivious of the trying ordeal 
you have and are passing through the length and breadth of our land, but the darkest 
night has its daybieak, and the sunshine of prosperity will pierce this period of adversitv 
and when like the opening petals of the morning flowers, will come to you sweetened by 
the trials that have been yours to bear ; and to cheer you with a fullness of joy greater than 
one can conceive of now. Already we note the changed sky, already we see the promised 
day breaking, when higher and better than ever before will rise the column of American 
veterinary science to enlighten not alone ourselves but the whole world. I have only pity 
for those who in this period of trial have taken false steps and so far forgotten their duty 
and the higher purposes of our calling, to bend their energies and strain their consciences 
in entering upon questionable methods of practice and resorting to the usages of charlatans 
and knaves in the preparation of nostrums and remedies of little value, to impose upon an 
ignorant and gulhble public, and which brings unjust censure upon our profession and 
brands him who perpetrates the fraud as a knave. I am filled with regret and I sorrow 
for those who have so far forgotten themselves to take this first false step, for it leads only 
to danger and disaster, and to continue, means to them one and all the loss of every true 
aim of the profession, and in the end brings only a sad and disappointing career. 
These hours of deep concern have brought forth better than we planned and hoped 
for It has shown the way to broader fields of labor and opened full wide a domain of 
usefulness in sanitary work of unlimited scope and where may be rendered to all mankind 
the greatest benefits and command from him the highest meed of praise and admiration. 
. 0ur schools to-day are on the highest basis they have ever been, and the future prom¬ 
ises that they will become bulwarks of strength and power to shed lustre upon your efforts 
or higher education, that must fill you with joy as you look upon these results as a part of 
the work you have so much contributed to. 
In this direction permit me to quote from a recent annual report of one of our uni- 
versities, in reference to its veterinary department. The conception of the aims and pos¬ 
sibilities of a veterinary school is, I fear, very limited in our commun ty. 1 he aim ot 
this school is not alone that of training men to minister to the ailments of the lower ani¬ 
mals ; while this is an essential and worthy object, the school has a higher purpose, that 
of demonstrating the relations in which such diseases stand to the welfare of the human 
family.. Certain it is that this object is worthy the support and assistance of the State, the 
university and those private persons whose munificence and philanthropy are directed to 
the alleviation of suffering and the improvement of education. And I would add that the 
day is not far hence when this must be the aim and purpose of every veterinary school in 
our land. 
Our positions of honor and trust, national, state and local, are all tending toward the 
merit system of election, and thus there will be given to them a higher character, a 
greater security, and this alone will bring to these places our best men and thus add to the 
general advancement. 
Our associations are stronger than ever, and the work they are doing as missionaries ot 
our cause has already been such as to win the approval and support of whole communi¬ 
ties and commonwealths and thus add to the worth and need of our part of the world’s 
work. 
Our commissions and State boards of veterinary sanitary police have already done such 
good service as to attract the attention of the people of our own country, as well as that 
of the old world, a tribute of no little worth to add to our pleasure and joy. Tried and true 
men have in most instances found places on these commissions and boards, and the cam¬ 
paign of education has gone on in a manner that surely has brought joy to one and all, 
and which promises much for our future growth and development. 
What shall 1 say in commendation of the grand work done in the Bay State ? Planned 
on such a scale and with ends so well determined and fixed in advance of the times that 
their scopes and well-defined purposes startled us at the seeming boldness of the under- 
