EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 127 



tude toward the problem. Only by extensive trials can we expect to 

 ascertain the real situation in Michigan. 



BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MR. WM. S. SAYER. 



Mr. Wm. S. Sayer was born on a farm near Wayne, 111., Jan. 18, 

 1876. His education consisted of the common school training until 

 he entered the Academy in Elgin. All of this time, he made his home 

 on the farm. After finishing his Academy work, he entered Beloit 

 College from which he graduated. He then entered Chicago University 

 where he remained till he had completed all of his post graduate work 

 except his thesis. For a time, he was engaged in a study of the influence 

 of the Chicago sev\'age canal upon the waters of the Mississippi river. 

 After leaving the university, he was engaged as an expert scientist by 

 two commercial firms of Chicago. He came to this laboratory just two 

 years before his drowning. During this time, he had proved himself a 

 very careful, painstaking investigator. His drowning was a great loss 

 to the laboratory, and his agreeable presence will be difficult to replace. 

 To mourn his death are his parents and two sisters, whose aft'ections 

 and future centered in this only son and brother. Although this col- 

 lege cannot mourn as parents and sisters, yet it mourns deeply with 

 them and feels bitterly the loss which came so suddenly. His thoughts 

 were pure, his deeds were pure, his life ivas pure — tJie world mourns 

 the loss of such. 



WORK WITH HOG CHOLERA. 



Two years ago, investigations were begun in this laboratory upon 

 hog cholera. At that time, our attentions were centered in ah effort 

 to establish a connection between B. cholerae suis and hog cholera, 

 believing that, in reality, the etiological factor represents the key to the 

 situation, for until the cause of hog cholera can be isolated and handled 

 as a distinct entity, more or less indefiniteness must enshroud all 

 attempts in its satisfactory management. This work was carried as far 

 as it was possibe for that year. At the close of the year, the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry demonstrated the Dorset-Niles serum prepared by 

 the Turner-Kolle method applied to rinderpest. This treatment ap- 

 peared so promising that the preparation was undertaken at once. This 

 introduced many new and complex problems, because of the fact that its 

 use had been very limited. So numerous were these unsettled questions 

 that it became impossible to follow any exclusively; it was necessary 

 to serve the applied end, in order to keep the work under way. This 

 has resulted in a year of chaos, so far as hog cholera investigations are 

 concerned — much started and little settled. However, even in this chaos 

 of manufacture and undetermined question, Dr. Giltner has contributed 

 much additional work along the lines started two years ago. Some of 

 these results will be embodied in a short bulletin which is now in 

 manuscript form. Others will be published later. 



After the demonstration of the "Bureau" serum at Ames in May, 

 1908, several states undertook its manufacture. Michigan was the first 

 to put serum into the field. About the 20th of August, the laboratory 

 had serum ready for use. The results were so gratifying that we de- 

 cided to place it upon a commercial basis, and to charge sufiicient to 

 cover its cost. Its e^pensiveness precludes sending it out free of charge. 



