REPORT OF PROF. B. MEADE BOLTON. 



Hon. Jeremiah M. Eusk, 



Secretary of Agriculture : 



Sir: I have the honor of submitting the folio wiug report as a mem- 

 ber of the United States Board of Inquiry concerning epizootic diseases 

 of swine. I regret having to report independently of my colleagues, 

 but am compelled to do so, as I shall not ha\^e time in the near future 

 to continue my investigations, and I believe that the conclusions I have 

 been able to reach do not differ essentially from those of the other mem- 

 bers of the Commission. 



Before receiving my appointment on the Commission, I had already 

 started investigations of epizootic diseases of swine in South Carolina 

 on behalf of the South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, in 

 conjunction with Dr. W. B. Niles, veterinarian to the experiment sta- 

 tion. State veterinarian, and professor of veterinary science in the Uni- 

 versity of South Carolina, and I am indebted to Dr. Niles for valuable 

 assistance in the whole course of my investigations. 



The letter of appointment from the Hon. Norman J. Colman, late 

 Secretary of Agriculture, is doubtless before you, and I have thought 

 the most satisfactory way in which to attempt the solution of the prob- 

 lems therein stated would be to make investigations independently 

 of any previous work of others. To this end I have visited, in com- 

 pany with my colleagues of the Commission, or with Dr. Niles, various 

 portions of this and other States, examining diseased animals wher- 

 ever opportunity offered, and collecting material for further investiga- 

 tions. But I also visited with the other members of the Commission 

 the various laboratories where the disease in question had been studied. 



The results of our investigations on behalf of the Experiment Station 

 will soon appear in the form of a bulletin, and will contain substan- 

 tially what I here have to report. 



(1) During my work as commissioner I have failed to meet with an epi- 

 zootic which I am satisfied was what is termed " swine plague " in the 

 Bureau reports, though previous to my appointment on the Board I 

 studied one such outbreak. In this case, however, I directed my atten- 

 tion to the bacteriological questions exclusively, and I am therefore un- 

 able to pronounce on the difference in the pathological lesions in the two 



13 



