ADVANTAGES OF ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP. 
b67 
the asserted cause of the disease is erroneous. Two or more of 
you may have tried the same remedy and have been very suc¬ 
cessful with it, saving all your cases. One will present the sub¬ 
ject in the form of a paper before the association. By the dis¬ 
cussion of this paper I will be able to discover that my method 
was faulty and hence my failures and my erroneous opinion. 
He who attends the associations and who takes an active part 
in the proceedings is the one who grows with his profession and 
helps to place his profession on a higher plane ; who lives up 
to his opportunities and best serves his community ; who en¬ 
larges his capacity for relieving the ills of animals entrusted to 
his care and correspondingly increases his revenues. 
The veterinarian who says to himself, I will open an office 
in this place; I will post my sign and let the people know that 
I am prepared to look after their sick animals better than others 
are doing; I will not rob them of unearned fees like others are 
reported to have done; I will not resort to such unscrupulous 
methods it is said others do; I will attend strictly to my own 
affairs, the getting of clients and dollars, and will have nothing 
to do with other veterinarians, as they doubtless are quacks ; 
this veterinarian will probably find that business does not has¬ 
tily seek out the self-announced honest practitioner; that com¬ 
petitors continue to have clients and apparently do a thriving 
business, and if he will but study himself he will find a krge 
development of sordid selfishness with a tendency to contribute 
to the malignant reports concerning his competitors, and that he 
is even resorting to methods which he at first condemned. If 
this veterinarian but takes the opposite course and courts the 
acquaintance of neighboring veterinarians and associates with 
them for the discussion of professional topics and mutual inter¬ 
ests, he will find they are not such illiterate and professional 
monsters that irresponsible and misguided persons have pictured 
them to be. He will doubtless find they are applying their pro¬ 
fessional knowledge with the hope of best results, and are 
endeavoring to obtain an honest living, as that term is usually 
understood. If they have come short of maintaining the highest 
