A CALL TO DUTY. 
157 
State, of New York and of Pennsylvania, realizing that in co¬ 
operation and union there is strength, banded together and 
formed a society which is in existence to-day, known as the 
United States Veterinary Medical Association. To this So¬ 
ciety the members were very loyal and its meetings were reg¬ 
ularly attended, being generally held alternately in Boston and 
New York. 
Its members comprised graduates and non-graduates. 
Among the latter were many men whom any school might 
well be proud to claim as alumni—workers and students 
they were without a doubt, as can be testified to by many of 
our own members. 
There seems to have been one purpose which from the 
outset pervaded these men, and for the accomplishment and ad¬ 
vancement of which they seem ever to have worked with an 
enthusiasm and interest which knew no such word as fail; they 
kept ever at work, their motto the advancement of the pro¬ 
fession. To these men, many of whom have laid down their 
scalpel for the last time and gone to their reward, the young 
members of the profession owe a debt of gratitude and appre¬ 
ciation, for it is to such men as these that we find that opening 
and chance for the veterinary profession which is only of re¬ 
cent date. To this parent society the young men, as they took 
up their chosen profession, attached themselves, until at least 
it became a society with members all over the Union. Its in¬ 
fluence has been good, its standing high, but it has not re¬ 
ceived the recognition which it should have received from the 
public. 
As the years have passed since its inception, schools and 
colleges have been established, and have borne their fruit, until 
the graduate practitioner is abroad in the land. 
Recognizing the fact that it is well for brothers to live to¬ 
gether in peace and harmony, the graduate members of the 
profession in Massachusetts were invited to meet and form a 
State society. To this invitation there was a generous re¬ 
sponse, and as a result of that gathering the Massachusetts 
Veterinary Association was formed—its object, the advance¬ 
ment of the profession and the best interest of its members. 
