Pi.A(:i:i) ON A NAiioN-wini-; Basis IS'i 



In 1SS9 the Bureau of Animal Industry published its historically 

 famous bulletin, " prcjxired,'" Smith said," "in great part by 

 Dr. Theobald Smith," on "Hog cholera. Its history, nature, and 

 treatment." For several years, bacteriological investigations had 

 been in progress with reference to this disease.'* Years later, in 

 1903, DeSchweinitz and Marion Dorset of the Bureau proved that 

 this animal disease, hitherto ascribed to bacteria, was, in fact, due 

 to a filterable virus.'" 



In the middle lS80"s swine plague had been differentiated from 

 hog cholera, and its specific organism discovered and described. 

 Proof of the infectiousness of these maladies and knowledge of 

 the conditions of 'their transmissions helped to bring about im- 

 portant preventive measures.'" During the next decade, serum 

 treatment would indicate as successful a "stamping out" of these 

 diseases as the eradication of contagious pleuropneumonia, one of 

 the work's great achievements. Before the end of the century, the 

 efficacy of a vaccine against "blackleg" or symptomatic anthrax 

 would promise to reduce to a minimum cattle losses from this 

 infection. Sheep suffering from scabies would have to be dipped 

 in prescribed mixtures and cured before or during shipment to 

 market.'^ Vigorous inspection, quarantine, disinfection, and 

 slaughter regulations were enforced against several diseases. For 

 instance, animal pens and freight cars were isolated, cleaned, and 

 disinfected to halt the spread of southern cattle fever. Subsequent 

 immunizing methods, moreover, proved effective.'^ Antitoxin, 

 serum, and vaccine therapy became a final goal in the experimental 

 study of animal diseases. 



Pierre Paul Emile Roux, French physician, bacteriologist, and 

 pathologist, began to publish in 1887 on immunity against symp- 



" Bacteria in relation to plant diseases, op. cit. 1: bibliog., 212. 



"See Reports of the Comm'er of Agric. for several previous years; Report for 



1887: 481-491. 



"E. F. Smith, Fifty years of pathology, op. cit., 31; T. Swann Harding, Two 

 blades of grass, A Hist, of Sci. Develop, in the U. S. Dep't of Agric, 153, Univ. 

 of Oklahoma Press, 1947; Gustav Seiffert (tr. by Marion Lee Taylor), Virus 

 diseases ;'// man, animal and plant, 180, N. Y., Philosophical Library, 19-14. 



'^ V. A. Moore, The influence of animal experimentation upon agriculture, Proc. 

 Soc. Prom. Agric. Sci., 22-34, 1896. 



^* G. F. Thompson, Administrative work of the Federal Government in relation 

 to the animal industry, Yearbook U. S. Dep't of Agric. for 1899: 452-455. 



^' D. E. Salmon, Some examples of the development of knowledge concerning 

 animal diseases, Yearbook U. S. Dep't of Agric. for 1899: 111-113, 124-134. 



