ISO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



Treatment of intestinal disorders with B. acidophilus milk has been 

 continued with favoraible results. 



[ROBERT L. TWEED.] 



As indicated above, Mr. Ruehle has taken over the study of intestinal 

 bacteriology Avitli sjiecial reference to B. acidophiliis. Much needs to 

 be done, not only with tliis bacillus but with related species or even 

 unrelated species signiticant in determining the health of man in so 

 far as it is affected by microbial processes in the alimentary tube. Both 

 in the commercial field and in tlie realm of pure research much might 

 be done to advantage. Mr. Ruehle will have very limited opportunities 

 because of pressure of teaching and other experimental projects, pro- 

 gress on which is in the nature of things very slow. Furthermore the 

 greatest g(>o<l will fail to result from researcli in dairy bacferiology until 

 the applications can be made of pure bacteriological studies in dairy 

 operations themselves. This we can accomplish only by co-operation 

 with the Section of Dairy Husbandry Avhich has been repeatedly recom- 

 mended in ]»revious reports. 



in this connection a quotation from the presidential address of L. A. 

 Rogers, read before the Society of American Bacteriologists in Detroit, 

 December, 1922, is pertinent and its length pardonable. 



"Although the results of research are of no immediate value unless an 

 application can be shown, few laboratories outside of the industrial in- 

 stitutions have any organization for the specific purpose of applying 

 new facts and theories to practice. It does not necessarily follow that 

 results are lost because no S])ecial provision is made for their utiliza- 

 tion, but it is no doubt true that many valuable results are overlooked 

 and forgotten, because the investigation could not be carried to its 

 logical conclusion. 



If Mendel, instead of being an example of the highly individualistic 

 type of investigator, had been a part of a modern research organization, 

 the basic law which he discovered Avould not have been buried for years, 

 but would have been put into practice at once to the great advance- 

 ment of i)lant and animal bi-eeding. Some investigators do not con- 

 tinue their investigations when they reach the applied stage because 

 their tastes lead them to new paths in unexplored fields. In other cases 

 the necessary equipment may not be available, or the branch of human 

 activity to which the results may apply not at hand. The equipment 

 needed may be a factory, a farm, a water system, or a hospital. The ex- 

 pense and in some investigations the danger to human life may be so 

 great that it becomes advisable to follow the laboratory study with 

 larger but still limited controlled experiments. 



This is generally recognized in industrial laboratories where pro- 

 vision is usually made for carrjdng on investigation through the labora- 

 tory, through a miniature factory test and finally through a full scale 

 factory operation. 



In l)acteriological Avork the same course is frequently followed, al- 

 though the analogy may not be evident at first glance. The soil bacter- 

 iologist has his pots and experimental plots, the pathologist has his 

 animals and hospital wards. 



The efficiency of many other lines of investigation would be greatly 

 increased if definite provisions could be made for carrying investiga- 



