10 



iiiable proof of the pathogenic relations between the so-called "hog- 

 cholera" germ above mentioned and the disease of hog cholera was 

 first published in the animal report of the Department of Agriculture 

 for 1885, and in the second annual report of the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry of the same year, hence was not antedated with respect to epi- 

 demic diseases of swine existing in the United States. The discovery 

 of the disease called "swine plague," and of the microbe to which itis^ 

 due, must be considered original on the part of the Bureau authorities, 

 at least as far as work in the United States is concerned. 



(3.) In the opinion of the Commission the epidemic disease of swine 

 investigated by Drs. Billings and Roberts, in Nebraska, however seem- 

 ingly different in the published descriptions, is identical in its clinical 

 features, pathological lesions, and specific cause with the disease in- 

 vestigated by the Bureau of Animal Industry at Washington, and 

 called by the latter " hog-cholera "j and, furthermore, that the patho- 

 genic microbe which is the specific cause of this disease is identical in 

 both instances. It is also their opinion that the descriptions of this 

 germ published by each of these investigators are in the main correct. 

 The two chief points in these descriptions upon which the above-men- 

 tioned investigators have differed more or less widely are as to some 

 minor points of morphology and variations of the behavior of the microbe 

 under various methods of staining. 



(4.) It is the opinion of the Commission that the microbe that Dr. 

 Detmers at present regards as the specific cause of "hog cholera" is 

 probably the same microbe which is considered by the Bureau authori- 

 ties as the specific cause of hog cholera 5 but, according to present re- 

 quirements of bacterial research and interpretation, it is impossible to 

 declare that the organism as described by him in his reports published 

 by the Department of Agriculture was the same thing. 



In their observation of the methods of bacteriological research pur- 

 sued by the Bureau of Animal Industry at Washington the Commis- 

 sion are of the opinion that as to carefulness and "precision they are up 

 to the standard of modern requirements concerning bacteriological 

 investigations. They are essentiallj^ the same as those pursued at 

 Berlin in the pathological laboratory of the Imperial Board of Health, 

 and in the Hygienic Institute, of which Professor Koch is the head. 



From their observation of the methods of bacteriological research 

 pursued by Dr. Billings in Nebraska, the Commission are of the opin- 

 ion that it was difficult, if not impossible, for that distinguished inves- 

 tigator by his usual method to discover and isolate a germ associated 

 with " the hogcholera germ " in the tissues of the body of the pig, and 

 this is particularly true of the so-called " swine-plague" germ, claimed 

 by the Bureau authorities to be the specific cause of the epidemic 

 disease latterly named by them " swine plague." In the opinion of 

 the Commission, therefore, the failure of Dr. Billings in his researches 

 to find the so-called " swine-plague " germ in the tissues of the spleen 



