SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
623 
* 
Pease, Paul Paquin and S. H. Kingery were read, regrettina- 
their absence. 
Piesident S. S. Baker then gave his annual address, making 
comments on the past history of the Association, and suggest¬ 
ing new ideas for improvement in the future, as follows: 
Gentlemen (This Association has entered on the ninth 
year of its existence. We have held meetings during these 
nine years when we have had barely a working quorum, and 
at one meeting in particular 1 remember, held at Joliet in 
1885, there were but six members present—not enough for a 
quorum—but we did more business at that meeting than was 
ever done befoie or since^ We revised Constitution and By- 
Laws, etc., etc., only to have our work thrown out at the next 
meeting as illegal, but of late we have had no such trouble. 
We have gained in the number of our members, and the zeal 
with which they attend has grown with the increased mem¬ 
bership. (The meetings of this Association are not merely for 
the purpose of mutual admiration, but for a specific purpose, 
viz.. The cultivation of fraternal feelings among veterinary 
practitioners, the elevation of the veterinary science to an 
equal rank with other scientific branches of medicine, the 
mutual improvement of its members, by the exchange of ideas, 
the presentation of such cases of diseases, together with their 
treatment, as may be worthy of note, and to provide ways 
and means to secure legislation to regulate the practice of 
veterinary medicine and surgery in this State, the importance 
of which is patent to all, The importance of such legislation is 
not so much for the protection of the qualified practitioner 
as for the protection of the agriculturist against the ignorant 
empirical practitioner. 
Because we failed once in securing legislation is no reason 
we should give up in despair. The medical profession strove 
for ten years before they got a bill passed to regulate the 
practice of medicine; therefore I would urge upon you the 
appointment of a committee for that purpose and each of you 
get your representative interested in the work and keep at it 
till we get the desired legislation. 
(The advancement in the veterinary profession in 
