REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES 'BOAUD, aT^'ffiQlliRY; CON- 

 CERNING EPIDEMIC DISEASES AMONG SWINE. 



Hod. J. M. Rusk, 



Secretary of Agriculture : 

 Sir : The above-named Commission received appointment from the 

 Department of Agriculture during the month of December last, and 

 their formal notification thereof was accompanied by a letter of instruc- 

 tions similar to the following: 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Commissioner's Office, 

 Washington, D. C, November 27, 1888. 

 Sir : I inclose with this an appointment for you as a member of a Board of Inquiry, 

 the other two members of which are Prof. William H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, and Prof. T. J. Burrill, of the University of Illinois. The Board will convene 

 at the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, on December 12, and decide upon 

 the plan of investigation and the methods to be employed. The details of this in- 

 vestigation will be left to the Board, without instructions or interference on the part 

 of the Department, but all the facilities of the Department will be placed at its dis- 

 posal. 



I desire that the investigations of the Board will determine the following points : 



(1) If the diseases of swine investigated by the Bureau of Animal Industry were 

 properly described in the reports for 1885, 1886, and 1887, and if they were caused by 

 the germs mentioned in connection with them, and if these germs were properly de- 

 scribed. 



(2) To what extent were these descriptions of the germs original, and to what 

 extent had they been antedated by other correct descriptions and by investigations 

 which would demonstrate their etiological relation to the diseases of swine, and par- 

 ticularly to the diseases as they exist in the United States. 



(3) Is the disease which has been investigated by Drs. Billings and Roberts, in 

 Nebraska, identical with one of the diseases described by the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry, or is it different from both of them ? Are their descriptions of the disease and 

 the germ correct ? Do their investigations show that the conclusions as given in the 

 Bureau report are incorrect ? Have any facts been established in regard to the swine 

 diseases of this country by these investigations which differ materially from the con- 

 clusions given in the reports of the Bureau of Animal Industry ? 



(4) To what extent is Dr. Detmers justified in his assertion that **Dr. Salmon's 

 Bacterium Suis, discovered by him in 1885, as a substitute for his micrococcus, has 

 nothing whatever to do with swine plague. It is a septic germ, readily kills rabbits 

 (c/. Bulletin of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station), and causes septicaemia, 

 but has no connection with the disease in question?" Has Dr. Detmers published 

 the details of any investigations which demonstrate the etiological connection of any 

 microbe with an infectious disease? If so, does the microbe he has discovered differ 



