1886.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



153 



expense. This can not be said of the 

 camera method. 



The method without the camera 

 has other advantages ; in short, in 

 every respect it is equal or superior 

 to the method with the camera, with 

 the possible exception of photography 

 of opaque objects, and I think that it 

 might be adapted to this work by 

 slight modifications. 



I think it would be an advantage to 

 dispense with the microscope stand, 

 and I have a plan for a complete pho- 

 to-micrographic apparatus to be used 

 in a dark room. 



C. E. Norton, M. D. 



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Vol. VI (1885), |r. 00. 



Report of the Bureau of Ani- 

 mal Industry. — The Second An- 

 nual Report of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, Department of Agriculture. 

 Washington, D. C, has recently 

 been issued, giving a record of the 

 work during the year 1885. While 

 there is much in the volume that is 

 more of practical than of strictly 

 scientific interest, there is also a great 

 deal that deserves full notice in this 

 place. Naturally the interest of mi- 

 croscopists and physicians centres 

 mainly upon the i-esearches into the 

 bacterial origin of disease, which 

 have been so ably conducted in the 



laboratory during the past few years 

 by the Chief of the Bureau, D. E. 

 Salmon, D. V. M., and more recently 

 by Dr. Theobald Smith, to whose 

 knowledge and skill as an investigator 

 some of the most important results in 

 this field are due. 



The impoi^tance of the work of 

 the Bureau may be indicated by the 

 single fact, stated by Dr. Salmon, 

 that pleuro-pneumonia which broke 

 out among the cattle in Ohio, in 1883, 

 has already, during the twenty 

 months required to control it, cost 

 the country millions of dollars, while 

 with proper laws, such as could be 

 formulated by the officers of the 

 Bureau, the plague could have been 

 eft'ectually extirpated for a sum not 

 greater than $100,000. But we must 

 turn to the laboratory work. 



The report begins with an extended 

 review of experiments made in differ- 

 ent countries to prevent pleuro- 

 pneumonia by inoculation. This is 

 a very useful compilation of results, 

 and tends to show that while in some 

 instances inoculation seems to confer 

 a degree of immunity, it is quite as 

 likely to introduce the disease among 

 healthy animals, and is therefore a 

 dangerous, and in practice a very 

 useless operation. The only course 

 of prevention advised is the killing 

 of infected animals, and thorough 

 disinfection of the premises. 



The results of mvestigations of the 

 Swine-plague possess especial interest 

 at this time, not only from the conclu- 

 sions as to the cause of the disease, but 

 also because of the general and com- 

 prehensive review presented, which 

 shows the unusual difficulties of the 

 work, and the explanation of pre- 

 vious results which have demanded 

 reconsideration. It is well known 

 to the readers (jf these columns that 

 several distinct organisms have been 

 described by diftbrent observers as the 

 cause of this disease, but several cir- 

 cumstances have conspired to make 

 the investigation one of extreme diffi- 

 culty, and only those who have had 

 experience in such work can fully ap- 



