ADDRESS. 
577 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
ADDRESS* 
% I / 
TO THE UNITED STATES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
By Dr. W. L. Williams, V.S. 
Gentlemen : — It is highly gratifying to all to meet so 
large a number here to-day, which is surely the largest 
attendance in the history of our Association, and the largest 
gathering of veterinarians ever held in America. 
We meet to-day for the fourth time under a new departure 
in the customs of our Association, the initial step having 
been taken by holding our twenty-seventh annual meeting 
in this city three years ago. 
Prior to that date the membership and meetings were 
practically confined to the Atlantic States, and although 
bearing a national, name had few of the characteristics of a 
national organization. 
The meetings were poorly attended, the papers presented 
were few, and the interest taken in the organization was 
entirely too weak. 
When, however, our Association broke from its old 
moorings, and held part of its meetings in the West, great 
changes came, new interest was awakened, and substantial 
progress made. Our meetings have been attended by more 
than double the number of members previous to the new 
era, and instead of one-day sessions we began three years 
ago with a two-day meeting, increasing last year to three 
days, and this year, under special conditions, to four days, and 
yet we have not had at any of these meetings sufficient time 
for the proper consideration of highly interesting and 
instructive papers and reports presented. 
It seems doubtful now if our meetings in future will be of 
less than four days’ duration. 
Our membership has increased during this era from 
nearly two hundred to three hundred and fifty-five, an 
increase of 75 per cent., and to-day you are asked to consider 
♦Delivered before the First Veterinary Congress of America. 
