U. S. VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
357 
signed it (as it also provides that we shall), that we are 
“ stated and honorary members,” whose “ purposes and ob¬ 
jects ” are “ to contribute to the diffusion of true science and 
particularly the knowledge of veterinary medicine and sur¬ 
gery.” Do I not find upon our printed list of honorary mem¬ 
bers seven names? True, five are dead. Do I not find upon 
the Secretary’s roll two hundred and seven names ? It is 
again true that only about forty ever come to our meetings, 
and a vast number are so occupied with the diffusion of sci¬ 
entific knowledge and other duties that they have not time to 
obtain their certificates of membership and pay their dues. 
But, such a number of the most distinguished doctors of the 
land, bound by such a code of ethics as we also find in the 
constitution, must surely be “ wights of high renown,” and I 
again fell to day-dreaming of our celebrity, of our usefulness, 
not only as practitioners to the individual, but as health offi¬ 
cers for the common weal, as economists for the great agri¬ 
cultural community in their dealings in motors and food ani¬ 
mals, as experimental pathologists, who verify the work of 
and offer medical hypotheses for our sister profession, human 
medicine. 
I searched the lexicons for terms which would give us 
sufficient praise. The story of Solomon and the lily brought 
in an allusion to botany, to be sure, but was scarcely strictly 
veterinary. The one about the lion’s skin as another’s robe, 
certainly was a veterinary simile, and reminded me somewhat 
of certain discussions at medical society meetings, but still 
was not quite appropriate. At last I thought of the tale of 
the turtle and the hare, and was so well satisfied that I put 
down my pen, folded up my tents, and stole away to other 
occupations for a week, during which time this eventful 
meeting in Brooklyn did not enter my head. To my sur¬ 
prise, when I took up the subject again, I found that other 
people’s hares were arriving everywhere and my turtle had 
not finished an address to you for me, nor indeed had he ac¬ 
complished anything. I studied over the matter, convinced 
still that my turtle was a good simile, and I became more 
convinced of it the farther 1 went. Veterinary medicine, like 
