SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
757 
Dr. R. A. McLean : I amend to include legislative com¬ 
mittee. Seconded and carried unanimously. 
Dr. Morris: Committee on by-laws please report. 
Dr. Hinkley : Would advise revision of by-laws, to be re¬ 
ported at next meeting. Would also advise that a committee 
on by-laws be appointed ; all members of this committee be 
residents of same county, or portion of the State, that they 
may be able to meet and act at any time without being 
obliged to travel a long distance. 
Dr. R. A. McLean : I think an applicant for membership 
should be made acquainted with the by-laws before paying 
fees and dues, as called for in Sec. 8. 
President Morris : Will the Secretary please read his re¬ 
port. The Secretary submitted the following : 
Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
The past year of 1891, I am pleased to tell you, has been one of prosperity, 
success and encouragement to every qualified veterinary surgeon in the State of 
New York, and especially to the members of this Society. 
We meet again to-day with new life, new blood, and strong reinforcements 
to our ranks of the best and most active workers in the veterinary profession. 
Veterinarians in the past have been somewhat averse to becoming mem¬ 
bers, or co-workers in any society pertaining to veterinary science, because 
through some hook or crook the non-qualified or quack would creep in, one by 
one, until they were in the majority, with always the same result: Oil and 
water, acid and alkali, will not mix without considerable effervescence, and the 
same can be said of the qualified and the quack. And usually the society has 
become extinct. 
When this Society was first organized only two years ago in the city of 
Rochester, a mere handful of men, twenty-seven in all, from all parts of the 
State, were present. We were few in number, but earnest in our cause and 
willing to work and wait for our aims and ambitious desires for the better pro¬ 
tection of the qualified veterinary surgeons of the Empire State, and have a line 
of demarcation between the graduated surgeon and the charlatan. 
To-day we have fifty-seven members in good standing, who are active and 
persevering in this good work, and numerous more who are knocking at our 
door for entrance, who are sincere in their workings for the profession. 
Surely you will agree with me when I say that this is a sure sign of prosper¬ 
ity, and of a healthy and successful society. 
Should the present ratio of new members continue during the next five years 
you will have a membership roll of nearly five hundred members. Why should 
we not feel proud of this, the Empire State of the Union ? 
Will our brothers in the profession not compete with any in the United 
States, either in ability or professional learning ? 
