302 EXPEKIMENT STATION" RECORD. 



America, which held sessions during the convention, has also been 

 a helpful influence during its briefer career. 



Another important factor in the advancement of veterinary science 

 has been the United States Department of Agriculture. It was Drs. 

 D. E. Salmon and Theobald Smith of this Department who, in 

 December, 1885, began a series of experiments which resulted in 

 clearly establishing that the injection of sterilized cultures of micro- 

 organisms confers an immunity to a subsequent infection with living 

 virulent organisms. Our present knowledge of vaccine therapy rests 

 upon this work, and it has found a large range of usefulness in 

 treating both human and animal diseases. Texas fever appeared 

 in the United States in 1868, causing gi*eat losses and much excite- 

 ment in the agricultural and live stock industries, but when Salmon, 

 Smith, and Kilborne had determined the cause of the disease and its 

 mode of transmission through the agency of the cattle tick, its ulti- 

 mate control became a matter for confident prediction. The demon- 

 stration that disease could be transmitted by insects was also of great 

 benefit to public health, especially by stimulating investigations of 

 the part played by the mosquito in spreading malaria and yellow 

 fever from man to man. 



In recent years as well, no small share of the success of veterinary 

 medicine, especially in controlling outbreaks and eradicating disease, 

 has been due to the activities of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and 

 many of the serological and immunity investigations and the results 

 obtained therefrom may be directly attributed to the stimulus fur- 

 nished by this Bureau. It has also been of great service through its 

 influence upon other institutions. In the opinion of Dr. Moliler, " no 

 one factor has been more successful in elevating the standard of 

 veterinary institutions in America than the investigation of their 

 curricula and equipment by the Bureau of Animal Industry in con- 

 junction with the United States Civil Service Commission. While 

 the primary object of such supervision was to make it possible for 

 the Government to obtain men better educated and better qualified 

 for its veterinary work, it nevertheless succeeded in raising the 

 standard of veterinary education in the United States and enabled 

 the students to obtain greater and better facilities for study." 



Obviously the full benefits of these advanced educational quali- 

 fications can not be directly estimated, but one striking result has 

 been the steady rise of the veterinary profession in dignity and dis- 

 tinction. Veterinary colleges as a class now have a well-recognized 

 educational status, and the public is learning to discriminate between 

 their graduates and the quacks and charlatans with whom " horse 

 doctoring" was once popularly associated. In most States com- 

 paratively stringent requirements now regulate the practice of vet- 

 erinary medicine and protect alike the public and the well-qualified 



