272 
EDITORIAL. 
September, and now, for the first time, is sounded the alarm that the meeting 
is to be a failure. Whence comes the signal ? From within the Association’s 
body? No; it comes from one outside of its number—from one who, but a 
few years since, had his name dropped for non-payment of initiation fee and 
dues. Should this, I ask, deter us from continuing the effort, lessening our 
zeal to exhibit to others the desire we have to fraternize with them, to mingle 
with them and make stronger the common ties that bind us together; make 
broader and grander the common work we are welded together to perform? 
And why are we thus criticised because we have adopted a plan to go West in 
a body, and, to make as good a showing as possible, have offered such induce¬ 
ments as we could secure to draw not only those who were favorable to a 
Western meeting of the Association, but also those who were against the pro¬ 
ject? The manner in which we reach Chicago should be a matter of very little 
importance to any Westerner. We are not going there for a national show. 
We are visiting Chicago with only the interest of the whole profession at heart. 
We have chosen it for the place of our annual meeting for 1890 to prove 
unfounded the insinuation that we do not want Western veterinarians; to dis¬ 
pose of the argument that we do not join them because the distance to our 
meetings is too great, and that we never hold any accessible to the majority of 
our members. We have taken every method known to us to inform the entire 
West of the project, and have asked that the matter be brought before all your 
State Associations, so that no one could again flaunt the excuse that the time 
and date of the meeting were unknown. We have lost no opportunity to avail 
ourselves of every offer made to make our programme instructive and highly 
entertaining, and no more lucid and valuable writers exist on this continent 
than are assured by the names of Profs. Liautard, Salmon and Huidekoper. 
No names of members from the West were debarred, nor have any requests 
from Western members of the Association been denied. Our programme is not 
closed yet. and any new papers from any source will be announced. Surely, it 
was not expected that we, an Association beyond the Allegheny Mountains, 
should seek the kindness and courtesies of the West and prove so discourteous 
as to ask them not only to receive and entertain us, but also to provide the pro¬ 
gramme on which our minds and thoughts would feed. We may be lazy, but 
we are too gentlemanly to do this. 
Our programme is not made by drafting members, but it is by solicitation 
on the part of the sub-committee, together with the officers. In this way we 
have secured the names of those already announced, and past experience of 
one-day meetings proved them too short for the transaction of our business and 
the proper heariDg and discussion of one paper. It was for this reason, more 
than any other, that no further exertions have been made to enlarge the pro¬ 
gramme, as the long-continued sessions in the past, from 9 A. M. to 6, 7 or 8 P. 
M., have proved very tiresome, and thus adjournments without discussion or 
consideration of papers and reports of the utmost importance. This accounts 
largely to-day for the imperfect records of our Association. To avoid this we 
had decided this year to utilize the first day in the transaction of routine busi¬ 
ness and hearing of committee reports, and in this direction have urged the 
various committees to make the most comprehensive reports possible, on the 
grounds of their being assured a full bearing gbd due consideration. This 
