8 



Towards the latter part of February the eighteen Nebraska pigs 

 reached Philadelphia in fair condition, and were, through the courtesy 

 of Dr. E. S. Huidekoper, dean of the veterinary department of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, placed on the grounds of that institution, where 

 they were kept for experimentation, together with a number of control 

 pigs purchased in the neighborhood of Philadelphia by the chairman of 

 the Commission, as determined upon by the Board. Subcutaneous in- 

 oculations and feeding experiments were at once begun with virus ob- 

 tained from Nebraska, Washington, Kentuck^^, and Illinois. The Com- 

 mission again convened at Philadelphia the last week in March in order 

 to confer concerning a report required by the 1st of April, as per letter 

 of instruction, and found themselves unable at the time to formulate 

 definite conclusions. The chairman reported this state of indefinite- 

 ness and requested the Secretary of Agriculture for extension of time. 

 This request was granted, two mouths longer being allowed. 



The Qom mission tben dispersed again to continue independent re- 

 searches at their own homes during the two additional months allowed, 

 but about the 20th of April a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture 

 was received by each commissioner, Instructing them that owing to ex- 

 haustion of appropriated funds, cessation of investigations at the end of 

 the first extra month was necessitated. 



The commissioners were consequently obliged to terminate their in- 

 vestigations before reaching conclusions which were entirely satisfac- 

 tory to themselves. Looking on their letter of appointment with ac- 

 comi^anying instructions as a direction, not only to examine the respect- 

 ive opinions and claims of Drs. Salmon, Billings, and Detmers, but 

 more especially to conduct a searching study by original and entirely 

 independent investigations of the nature, cause, and means of preven- 

 tion of the swine plagues of this country, the Commission cannot but 

 regret the necessity of terminating their work and reporting that they 

 themselves feel that they had proceeded sufficiently far in their inde- 

 pendent labors to satisfy the reasonable expectations of the scientists 

 on the one hand and of the swine- breeders on the other. Whether the 

 germs with which Dr. Salmon has been experimenting are genuine and 

 are' the real causes of the respective diseases for which they are claimed 

 to be pathogenic or not ; or whether the microbe with which Dr. Bil. 

 lings is working is or is not the sole and only peccant agent ; or whether 

 Dr. Detmers was the original discoverer of the real germ, are all ques- 

 tions of great interest from the scientific stand-point j but the only 

 question, in the opinion of the Commission, in which the farmers of this 

 country, who suffer annually the loss of $20,000,000 by these devastat- 

 ing swine plagues, are vitally interested, is, *^How can these enormous 

 losses be prevented?" 



It will be seen that we venture to offer no definite conclusions con- 

 cerning this exceedingly grave question. It is a problem into which 

 so many factors enter, and for the complete solution of which so many 



