EDITORIAL. 
881 
f France, besides the Association Centrale des Veterinaires, al- 
ready in existence, I read of the creation of another in the west¬ 
ern districts of France (E’Association Confraternelle de la 
Charente Inferneure) which is being formed, admitting mem¬ 
bers for a trifle ($4), demanding from each annual dues of $2 
I and an assessment of $2 at the death of each member, to go to 
his heirs. 
Those figures do not need to be so high if we compare them 
with those which are required from the New York Association, 
I viz., $10 on admission and $1 assessment. At present the yearly 
payment of a member is about $16 or $18. Should a society of 
veterinarians be formed, there is no doubt that 500 and perhaps 
1000 members could be enrolled, and the good that could be 
done is too evident to require more consideration. 
Many similar organizations exist all over the world for pro¬ 
fessional and working bodies. Why veterinarians could not 
1 organize one seems to me paradoxical. A. E. 
THF BANQUETS OF THE A. V. M. A. 
Dr. Tait Butler, late President of the National Association, 
and a frequent participant in the delightful social occasions re- - 
ferred to by the caption of this article, contributes an interest¬ 
ing addition to the discussion of this subject in the present 
number of the Review. While he in the main endorses all 
that our friend, Dr. Williams, had to say in the previous month’s 
Review, he incidentally finds fault with the sage of Ithaca for 
his frequent absence from the banquet-table, and, while he does 
not in so many words charge that this dereliction of his duty is 
owing to a fear of the pranks of the toastmaster, he intimates 
that so much is due to the veterinary hosts by virtue of his 
many desertions of the banquet function that he should be 
forced to stand up on the next stated occasion and talk for an 
hour. In defense of the late chairman of the Committee on 
Publication we have certain knowledge that his abstinence from 
the delights of the banquet were solely in response to duty, for 
on several occasions we have found him when the dinner was 
