734 
EDITORIAL. 
done, not because it is done against one individual, but to the 
profession to which he belongs. Proofs of this are not wanting, 
and to take one of more recent date, the reader has only to re¬ 
member the protests which found their way into the veterinary 
journals on the late shameful treatment of Dr. Hnidekoper, 
because he was a Veterinarian. 
But, outside of this professional sentiment, there is one, 
among others of a more selfish nature, which, it seems to us, 
has escaped the attention of the philanthropists among us. It 
is one which has manifested itself in the medical profession of 
the United States and also among veterinarians in France ; of 
other parts of Europe we are unable to speak. 
This feeling is that which is expressed by the support and 
assistance that members of a profession at large can render to 
each other, to each individual and his family ; and which, as we 
said before, is so well manifested in the United States among 
physicians by the now old “ Physicians’ Mutual Benefit Asso¬ 
ciation,” and in France by the “ Association Centrale des Vet- 
erinaires ” ; associations which in given circumstances permit 
of pecuniary assistance to the family of a disabled or dead 
member. 
We all know that, with the numerous difficulties that one 
meets in entering the veterinary profession, with all the knowl¬ 
edge demanded of him,'with all the hardships that he meets in 
the performance of his duties, that the veterinarian, after many 
years of laborious life, seldom retires from business with more 
than the strict means necessary for comfortable existence. 
Wealth is never reached by veterinary practice alone. But let 
him, as it is unfortunately and not uncommonly the case, be¬ 
come disabled in early life and be unable to practice and provide 
for his family, what will become of him and of them ? Let him 
die suddenly. What will become of his wife, of his children? 
The societies which we have named have been organized to 
meet such emergencies. In the American association a certain 
sum is given to the family of each member at his death. After 
many years of existence, to-day that organization is able to 
