EDITORIAL. 
329 
member of any medical society, was severely handled by the attorney of 
the opposite side, who made it appear to the jury that the gentleman in 
question was not regular, and that his testimony should be taken with 
that allowance given to all suspicious witnesses. The result was what 
might have been anticipated There is no argument even in a court of 
law against respectable connection and high standing in the profession, 
while a suspicion of the contrary is always a handle for an adversary. 
The moral of all of which is, that it is safer to be respectable, even if it 
does incur the necessity of belonging to some recognized medical organ¬ 
ization.” 
This we extract from that most excellent paper, the Medical Record, 
and the weight of this editorial cannot escape the attention of our veter¬ 
inarians. There is in it an amount of truth which will not escape notice, 
and we feel that some of our colleagues will appreciate the value of the 
advice it gives. Veterinary societies are few in the United States, but 
we consider the duty of every member of the profession to belong to 
them—not a duty to himself, but to veterinary medicine, to which he 
belongs. The question is not whether he cares or not; nor whether or 
no his professional standing and connection will not suffer from his 
ignoring respectable bodies composed of the majority of well recognized 
practitioners ; but in the condition where veterinary medicine is as yet 
in the United States, we hold that every Veterinarian, no matter where 
his professional position places him, ought to work for the benefit and 
elevation of the profession ; and where can he better do it than in the 
centre of a scientific society ? 
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE AMERICAN VETERINARY 
COLLEGE. 
The graduates of the American Veterinary College took oppor¬ 
tunity of the meeting of the United States Veterinary Medical Asso¬ 
ciation, where many of them were present, to organize an Alumni Asso¬ 
ciation. Original students of the American Veterinary College and 
graduates of a then defunct institution—all students of the same faculty 
—came together and formed that association, which, we have no doubt, 
is called to become one of the most respectable bodies of the veterinary 
profession in America. The fact that the members of that alumni were 
graduates of the same faculty, though under different schools, gives a 
satisfactory proof that a college does not consist in a name, or in a 
building, but of the faculty of the body represented by those whose en- 
