548 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
meeting we were pleased to honor them and ourselves by plac¬ 
ing their names upon our roll of honorary membership. 
“ Under such brilliant auspices as these the tenth annual 
meeting of this society is inaugurated, and the doors are thrown 
open for the transaction of all business that may properly come 
before it. I trust it may be harmonious and one long to be 
remembered for the good it shall accomplish for veterinary 
science and in the awakening of an interest in our society that 
shall mark the birth of a new era in the history of associational 
work in the Empire State. 
\\ hen at our last annual meeting you conferred upon me 
the very high honor of making me your President for two years 
I at once felt that a great responsibility went with that election, 
and time has simply intensified that conviction. In consequence, 
I have watched with jealous eyes events that have been tran¬ 
spiring throughout the veterinary world, and especially have I 
endeavored to study the problems that have been presented in 
the nation and state, that I might at this time bring before this 
convention the facts and impressions that I have gathered, so 
that we might look upon the situation in a calm and careful 
manner, and by intelligent consideration gain something that 
will inure to the advantage and advancement of our calling. 
In the. first place, as a result of stimulated observation, I 
bring you tidings of general professional prosperity throughout 
the country.. The commercial and financial depression which 
held the nation in a firm grasp for the last seven years of the 
nineteenth century, dragging all industrial interests down with 
it, has given place to an era of good times, when all businesses 
are active,, with capital seeking and finding profitable employ¬ 
ment, anxiet) being dispelled, and a feeling of confidence every¬ 
where being established. As a consequence, purse strings are 
loosened, the people are beginning to seek pleasures and pas¬ 
times, and as a matter of history and of fact the horse enters 
more keenly into the pleasures and sports of people than any 
other.single object. It appears now, after tantalizing men with 
such illusive, expensive, and unsatisfactory side-shows as auto, 
loco, moto, and other fashions of cycles, that they approach the 
horse, with a stronger affection and renewed zest, for he is 
bringing moie solid dollars in the open market than ever was 
lecoided in the history of the world. When yearlings fetch 
$50,000 and adults $187,000 it may fairly be assumed that his 
decadence has not yet really begun, and if he is to exist only as 
an adornment of the museums of natural history, as has been 
