ADVANTAGES OF ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP. 
665 
ADVANTAGES OF ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP IN A VET¬ 
ERINARY ASSOCIATION. 
By Dr. S. Stewart, Kansas City, Kansas. 
Read before the Missouri Valley Veterinary Medical Association, Oct. 5, 1898. 
A veterinarian naturally communicates liis thoughts con¬ 
cerning his professional labors to some one or more persons with 
whom he mingles, detailing his successes, discoveries and diffi¬ 
culties ; also accepts and applies suggestions from such persons. 
If a layman rather than a veterinarian be such confidant, it is 
doubtful that he will be greatly benefited by such communica¬ 
tions, not having the needful professional training to compre¬ 
hend it, nor are his suggestions likely to have much professional 
value. Quite different must be the results if this converse be 
with veterinarians. Association supplies the opportunities for 
giving and receiving that knowledge which makes one strong 
in his chosen profession. 
It is rarely indeed that a man is found who rightly estimates 
his own talents. If he be a pessimist he will mistrust that his 
capabilities are not sufficient to render good service, that he can¬ 
not perform a surgical operation as successfully and as deftly as 
another surgeon with whom he competes, that he cannot^ state 
his ideas as clearly and as intelligently as his colleague in an¬ 
other city. On the other hand, the optimist is wont to conclude 
that he has accomplished wondrous successes where others 
would probably have failed, and what he does not know concern¬ 
ing the medical or surgical art is not to be learned from his 
neighbor. By association for the discussion of professional 
topics veterinarians find opportunity to discover each his own 
abilities, as well as that of others. Each finds that his talents 
are neither so mean nor so great that he cannot both teach the 
most erudite and learn from those whose opportunities have not 
been all they may have desired. 
It is very helpful to most men to learn that they do not 
alone possess the sum total of veterinary wisdom in their com¬ 
munity, while the overniodest and timid are materially strength- 
