304 
EDITORIAL. 
National Veterinary Congress of the professors and practition¬ 
ers of beautiful sunny Italy the prospect before them of such 
a season of combined profit and enjoyment as that which 
awaits them. 
New York State Veterinary Medical Society.— 
On the 12th of August, pursuant to a notice received from 
Dr. Hinckley, we reported ourselves at reception-room No- 
217, of the Grand Union Hotel, in this city, as a delegate to a 
meeting of the New York State Veterinary Medical Associa- 
ion, which, we had been informed, was to be held there and 
then. 
For ourselves, and on behalf of the contingent of the pro¬ 
fession hailing from Eastern New York, we anticipated that 
the occasion would be a great one. The consolidation of the 
veterinarians of the Excelsior State was in our mind, and 
we tried to imagine what a strong scientific body that would 
be, how easy it would be to make it a glory and a benefaction 
to all in the State, and what noble institutions would 
be modeled after it, and what grand work would be under¬ 
taken and finished when all the States would be equally well 
equipped, and as ardent in the cause, etc., etc., etc.—and so 
we reveried on. 
Well, yes! the occasion was a good one. A sufficient 
number of notices had been mailed, letters of invitation had 
been addressed to every one reported to the Secretary or 
known by him—indeed, we were told that more than three 
hundred invitations, if we are not mistaken, had been issued. 
The programme was certainly interesting. Papers had been 
promised, and discussion had been invited, and so on. Behold 
our surprise and our regret to find scarcely a score of gentle¬ 
men present! not twenty from our big town of New York 
and its vicinity ! no—but twenty from the western part of the 
State. The great Head Centers of the East were “conspicu¬ 
ous by the absence ” of all their veterinarians, with the ex¬ 
ception of four. 
Such facts do not bear comment very well; indeed, com¬ 
ments are useless, if not worse. A grand occasion has been 
missed, and who will say when another will occur? 
