218 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



SERUM FOR HOG CHOLERA AND SWINE PLAGUE. 



The work of preparing serum for treating hog cholera and swine 

 I^lague lias been continued this year as last. The number of animals 

 which has been used for the preparation of the serum is about the same 

 as last year. A force of inspectors of the Bureau has been engaged 

 in treating a large number of animals in two counties in Iowa, two of 

 the same counties in wliich work was conducted during the last year. 

 The results in general, so far as can be determined at the present time, 

 are hardly such as to justify positive conclusions, though sufficiently 

 encouraging to justifj" continued experimentation. 



The preparation of the large quantities of antitoxic serum necessary 

 to conduct this work in the field has entailed a large amount of routine 

 work in the laboratory, and also at the experiment station, where the 

 animals for supplying the serum have been treated. Full reports are 

 being kept this year, as last, of the herds that are treated; cultures 

 are taken from the sick animals and are sent to the laboratorj^ for 

 further tests and identification, and care is taken not onlj' to demon- 

 strate the exact character of the disease so far as possible existing in 

 the animals wliich are treated in the field, but also to test the quan- 

 tity and character of the serum used for treatment. Important vari- 

 ations in cultures, cultural products, and their bearings which have 

 developed in this work are being carefully studied. 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES OF MEDICINE AND HYGIENE. 



These two important international congresses, which meet every 

 third 5' ear, held their sessions during the present summer. As the 

 investigations conducted in the laboratories of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry are of such far-reaching importance in the study both of 

 diseases of men and animals, it seemed proper that the Bureau should 

 be represented. Accordingly, Dr. E. A. de Schweinitz, chief of the 

 biochemic division, who was in England in connection with some 

 tuberculosis investigations, was instructed to represent the Bureau 

 and the Department of Agriculture at these meetings. Over 6,000 

 doctors were registered in connection with the International Medical 

 Congress. The work of this congress was divided into a number of 

 different sections, the section on bacteriology embracing the work 

 which w^as more directly connected with the work of the biochemic lab- 

 oratoiy. The sessions of this section were held at the Pasteur Institute 

 in the new chemical biologic (or biochemic) laboratoi-y, which has just 

 been completed at an expenditure of several million francs. This labo- 

 ratory and an excellent new hospital, which lias also just been com- 

 pleted, together Avith the old Pasteur Institute, are to be devoted 

 entirely to the study of bacteria, bacterial products, toxines, and anti- 

 toxines in relation to disease, and also to the study of bacteria and 

 bacterial products from an economical standpoint. If the laboratory 

 investigations of the Bureau of Animal Industry conducted in poorly 

 adapted buildings have given such useful results, the benefits which 

 would accrue from investigations conducted in so complete a labora- 

 tory as the one referred to, where every possible facility is provided, 

 would be untold. 



Dr. de Schweinitz presented to the congress a paper giving a review 

 of the most important experimental work in connection with tubercu- 

 losis in the United States during the past ten j^ears. The fact that this 

 section was attended by such men as Duclaux, Metschnikotf , Laveran, 



