502 
EDITOKIAL. 
brought the convivialists together, and become useful re¬ 
minders of the serious matters which had occupied their at¬ 
tention not long before, but had been partly displaced from 
their minds while enjoying the bodily pleasures of the festal 
board. The banquet which closed the twenty-seventh meet¬ 
ing of the United States Veterinary Medical Association in 
Chicago showed no departure from this usage, and included 
amongst the rest, three toasts which had an important bear¬ 
ing on the labors and objects of that great meeting. The first 
of these, “the Colleges,” offered by toast master C. B. Michener, 
was responded to by ourselves and Dr. Withers, of Chicago. 
In our remarks we brought forward some views and conclu¬ 
sions which, in our opinion, ought not to be overlooked by the 
profession, and for the repetition and insistance of which ,at this 
time, we trust we shall be pardoned by our readers. After pass¬ 
ing in review the attempts which had been made for the estab¬ 
lishment of colleges in this country, and considering the results 
which followed the operations of those which, after a more or 
less limited existence, had “ departed this life,” we proceeded 
to a reference to those which are at the present time engaged 
in active work, and continued with an examination of the re¬ 
sults obtained in the last twenty-five years, when from a class 
composed of one student for the whole of the American con¬ 
tinent, we had reached the present period, when over one 
thousand students may be counted in the various schools of 
North America, with the natural result of several hundred 
yearty graduates. We were thus brought to consider the 
prospect of the harmony which might be expected to prevail, 
at least amongst those of the graduates who are influenced 
by a truly American sentiment, and took the opportunity to 
compare the future condition of things in this respect to that 
which existed some years ago in England, when several ' 
schools, more or less private in character, as ours are to-day, 
and probably for that reason, had fallen into a state of greater 
or less mutual ill-feeling, which had developed into a spirit of 
antagonism amongst the graduates of the various schools, and 
which we thought must have been more or less detrimental 
to the well-being of the profession in England. Our English 
