166 
EDITORIAL. 
we liberally advertise your programme consisting of an excursion train and 
two promised papers by veterinarians of the Atlantic States. 
You further add to our responsibilities by asking us to submit for your con¬ 
sideration three suitable halls for the meeting, and also ask that “the names, 
credentials, and vouchers of all applicants ” for membership be sent you as fast 
as possible, and suggest that you “have in contemplation a special plan of 
admission for such names, for this meeting, in order to avoid the loss of time of 
one year before becoming actual members.” 
In your favor of the 11th inst., you inform me that at a late meeting of your 
committee you “succeeded” in arranging that for the Chicago meeting you 
would “recommend” immediate action on suitable applications, your language 
being such as to lead to the conclusion that such action was not by unanimous 
consent, and hence liable to suffer at the hands of the minority of your com¬ 
mittee, or later when your recommendation should come before the Society, so 
that no western veterinarian, regardless of any attainments, can have any assur¬ 
ance that his application for membership will be acted upon at the coming meet¬ 
ing, although your constitution and by-laws make no such delay necessary; 
and yet you term this possible recommendation “a great concession to the west.” 
The thousand qualified veterinarians of the west have asked no “great conces¬ 
sions,” nor small ones, from the “Mud Turtle ” close corporation of the Atlantic 
States, we having existed for several years without your charity and apparently 
without your knowledge of our being, and we do not feel now like asking you 
to at all humble yourselves in our behalf. Several western veterinarians having 
suggested to you that the west should be represented on the programme, you 
reply that “lam informed by Pres. M. that Dr. T. B. will read; Dr. G., of the 
army, desires to occupy a place on the programme, and with Drs. P. and L. on 
very important committees, and the programme already mapped out, we are 
fully assured of rich material for food for thought.” 
As Dr. T. B., under a later date than yours, informs that he is undecided as 
to a topic for his paper, and somewhat apprehensive (owing to recent utterances 
of your committee) that a paper from him is really not desired, his participation 
in the programme as a western veterinarian is somewhat problematical, and 
since you have merely stated that Dr. G., of the army, “desired” to occupy a 
place on the programme, without saying that his wish had been granted, gives 
no rosy view of his prospects, besides which a veterinarian of the army can in 
no wise be considered a representative of veterinary science in the west; and so 
we are represented by Drs. P. and L., who hold inferior positions on important 
committees, which may or may not make reports, and with this representation 
of the west in the Chicago meeting, your programme has been “mapped out,” 
completed and sealed. 
Your communications are in full accord with the public utterances, through 
the Journal , of Dr. Huidekoper, of your sub-committee, who announces each 
issue that the programme of the Chicago meeting will be of great interest, con¬ 
sisting of an excursion train and two eastern papers. 
Western veterinarians have as yet received no assurance, either through you 
or the Journal , that they will be cordially welcomed to the Chicago meeting as 
professional brethren; they have no assurance of being permitted to take part in 
