EDITORIAL. 165 
meeting of your organization in Chicago, with the result that you acceded to 
our request. 
The contents of the letters of other veterinarians addressed to you on this 
matter are unknown to me, but they were probably of a very similar tenor to 
mine, so that when it is spoken of the others may probably be included in the 
same category. 
In my letter your society, (which Dr. Huidekoper, Rep. 26th An. Meeting 
U. S. V. M. A. 1889, p. 3, as retiring President, dubbed the “Mud Turtle So¬ 
ciety,” on account of its laziness) was invited to come out from behind the 
Alleghany mountains, . hold a meeting in Chicago, permit and invite western 
veterinarians to attend and fraternize with you, let your body cease to be a 
society of the Atlantic States and become, in harmony with your name, a 
national organization. 
In reply to my letter you wrote: “I have decided to cast my vote for 
Chicago and to use my influence in having the meeting held there. Should 
Chicago win, the responsibility will then rest on you western veterinarians to 
make the meeting a success. * * * I feel compelled to defend the Asso¬ 
ciation in part for its infrequent pilgrimages to the west; first, because two- 
thirds of its members are east of the Alleghany mountains, (why?), and only 
once since I became a member was there any effort to hold a meeting in the 
west. I voted for it, and some twenty-five of us journeyed to Cincinnati, Ohio, 
with what result—the application of two members of the profession for mem¬ 
bership. I believe Drs. Meyers and Detmers almost completed the quota of 
western veterinarians present.” 
The only record of the Cincinnati meeting available to me (Dr. Huideko- 
per’s retiring address) does not show that the eastern veterinarians furnished any 
papers or other programme to induce western veterinarians to attend, nor that 
they were invited to supply or take part in any such programme, so that the 
only inducement held out to western veterinarians to attend the meeting of your 
society, which has a well-earned record for holding worthless meetings, con¬ 
sisted apparently in the opportunity of gazing upon your personnel, and the 
result was that few availed themselves of this rare opportunity. 
Again, in your note of February 18th, after stating that Chicago had been 
decided upon as the location for your next meeting, you say “ the responsibility 
of tlie position I took in so strongly favoring Chicago, will now largely rest 
upon you to furnish those who opposed our desire with such evidence of western 
interest and loyalty upon the move that shall prove the wisdom of the change. 
The Comitia Minora have placed the matters in the hands of a sub-committee of 
three, consisting of Drs. Huidekoper, Wray and myself, to whom you will com¬ 
municate your plans,” &c. 
After months of patient waiting for an outline of tbe responsible duties 
which we were expected to discharge, you have advised us under date of May 
9th that “ We are giving our untiring energies in the east here to the accom¬ 
plishment of a special train. * * * The veterinarians of the west can do us 
no greater honor than by their presence and amalgamation with us.” * * * 
Then, after an approval of a proposed circular letter to veterinarians in 
Illinois, designed to awaken interest in the Chicago meeting, you suggest that 
