378 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
a very restful night , reached the great city where for the two fol¬ 
lowing days we were to attend the meeting which was to consum¬ 
mate the consolidation of the United States Veterinary Medical 
Association, or, to quote the very expressive words of Dr. Wil¬ 
liams, “ to witness the birthday of the true National Association 
of the United States.” 
The meeting, which was hurriedly reported in our last number, 
was characterized by a pervading harmony, and a general and 
genuine feeling of friendliness throughout, with practically, 
Agreement and Co-operation for its motto and pass-word. The 
discussions of the scientific questions which were in order were 
instructive and able, and the serious work of the occasion was 
faithfully attended to, though intermixed now and then with 
social relaxation and intervals of rest, and pleasant visits and 
drives through and about the great metropolis of the West, the 
whole being, at length, fitly crowned by one of the nicest enter¬ 
tainments ever enjoyed by the members of the profession and of 
the Association. And then came the final u Au revoir ” with the 
inevitable hour of separation. The meeting was over; long dis¬ 
tances separated us from our homes; an editor’s duty to his 
friends and readers began to urge itself upon us with a voice 
which could not be silenced. While in Chicago we had mentally 
formulated a plan of arrangement for our work, or at least thought 
we had done so, and flattered ourselves that our ideas required 
nothing more than the labor of putting them in type against our 
regular time to put the Deview to press. But where is the editor 
that can depend upon making all the joints of his time fit together 
in the execution of the purposes he has formed ? 
Lots of papers were read, and a large amount of labor was 
performed at the meeting, and the reports of the committees be¬ 
ing lengthy, and the stenographers more or less embarrassed by 
technicalities with which they were unfamiliar, the reporters’ 
work was rather tardily performed, and much time was conse¬ 
quently consumed in necessary corrections and emendations, the 
material for our work thus failing to come to time, causing, alto¬ 
gether, not a little anxiety and embarrassment on our part; and as 
if there were not enough in all these obstacle to worry our 
