DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 365 
I intended to make further experiments, by inoculating healthy animals with blood- 
serum or pulmonal exudations, freed from bacilli and bacillus-germs by repeated fil- 
trations and with cultivated bacilli, but the time left me (sixteen days) was not suffi- 
cient to obtain reliable results. Besides, it appeared to be desirable to use the pigs I 
had on hand for the purpose of testing the vitality of the infectious principle in such 
a way as would give the test a direct practical value. 
Iam, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
H. J. DETMERS, JV. S. 
CuicaGo, ILL., December 1, 1878. 
REPORT OF DR. JAMES LAW. 
Hon. Wm. G. LE Duc, 
Commissioner of Agriculture : 
Str: I have the honor to submit the following report of experiments 
and observations on the prevailing fever in hogs. 
As you are already aware, my attention has been directed mainly to 
the pathology of the disease, the nature and vitality of the virus, and 
its behavior when treated by different disinfectants. Distant as Ithaca 
was from all infected districts, and seeing it was impossible here to ex- 
periment on large herds of diseased and exposed swine, it seemed 
preferable to leave to others all essays of treatment and prevention of 
the illness by the use of disinfectants and other sanitary measures. This 
isolated and noninfected locality offered special advantages for conduct- 
ing that class of observations which I aimed at, as there was no danger 
of accidental infection from other sources than the experimental pens. 
At the same time the number of animals subjected to experiment was 
limited by the necessity for the most perfect isolation of the healthy and 
diseased, for thé eniployment of separate attendants for each, and for 
the disinfection of instruments used for scientific observations, and of 
the persons and clothes of those who conducted these. 
The experimental pens were constructed in a high open field, with 
nothing to impede the free circulation of air; they were large and roomy, 
with abundant ventilation from back and front, with perfectly close walls, 
floors, and roofs, and in cases where two or more existed in the same 
building the intervening walls were constructed of a double thickness of 
matched boards with building pasteboard between, so that no com- 
munication could possibly take place excepting through the open air of 
the field. When it seemed needful disinfectants were placed at the ven- 
tilating orifices. On the pigs showing the first signs of illness, infected 
pigs were promptly turned over to the care of attendants delegated for 
these alone, and the food utensils, &c., for the healthy and diseased were 
kept most carefully apart. When passing from one to the other for 
scientific observations, the healthy were first attended, and afterward the 
diseased, as far as possible in the order of severity. Then disinfection 
was resorted to, and no visit was paid to the healthy pigs until after the 
lapse of six or eight hours, with free exposure in the interval. In the 
pens the most scrupulous cleanliness was maintained and deodorizing 
agents used so as to keep them perfectly sweet. 
I may be allowed to add that I have received most valuable assistance 
from two of my students, Messrs. A. M. Farrington and A. G. Boyer, in 
conducting the daily observations, as well as in making post mortem 
examinations, and in the examination of diseased products, 
