CORRESPONDENCE. 
849 
continually stray from the desired conversation with his asso¬ 
ciates to the task set before him, of replying in a creditable 
manner to a toast, perhaps not relevant to his aptitude or train¬ 
ing, and if far down on the list, he cannot well prove a profita¬ 
ble listener to the responses of others for like reasons. As if this 
were not enough, the toastmaster usually feels called upon to 
spring some surprises toward the end by unexpectedly calling 
upon some member to respond to a toast wholly out of harmony 
with his position or attainments. This is at times construed as 
the toastmaster’s wit, at others it is suggestive of a deliberate 
attempt to put an enemy in an embarrassing position. 
The training, the daily life of most veterinarians does not 
fit them for creditable extemporaneous speaking. It is not nec¬ 
essary, nor even advisable, that members should appear with 
written responses to toasts, but if each respondent knew days 
or weeks in advance what would be expected of him, he could 
go to the banquet table mentally prepared and be left free to 
enjoy the pleasures sought, and when called could express his 
thoughts more concisely and render our banquets infinitely more 
enjoyable from an intellectual standpoint. If the speeches at 
our banquets could be made uniformly clean, concise, thought¬ 
ful and inspiring we could without fear of small attendance re¬ 
turn to the usual custom of placing it at the close of the meet¬ 
ing and letting it serve as a happy benediction after the more 
arduous labors of the convention. W. L. Williams. 
COMMITTEE OF DISEASES, A. V. M. A. 
Editors American Veterinary Review; • 
Dear Sirs :—The committee has had outlined for its work 
for the present year, the study of “anthrax” to determine ac¬ 
curately the prevalence of the disease, its differential diagnosis, 
bacteriological investigation, efficiency of, and dangers attend¬ 
ing, vaccination, modes of transmission, post-mortem appear¬ 
ances, and all data pertaining to this violeut scourge. 
It is the earnest desire of this committee to have reports from 
every reader of the Review in the hope of adding to the sum¬ 
marized report some phase of the problem and means of com¬ 
batting this disease. The authors of these reports will be given 
due mention in this report, which will be published in the pro¬ 
ceedings of the A. V. M. A. Answers to the following ques¬ 
tions will be welcomed by the chairman of this committee: 
1. To what extent is anthrax prevalent in your vicinity ? 
2. What has been your experience in treating this disease ? 
