HOW DOUBLE TREATMENT IS GIVEN 399 



These animals did not get sick, and if the manure and other dis- 

 charges from the injected animals were really capable of causing 

 disease in the unprotected animals, it should have been shown in 

 these herds. 



Vims in Hands of Uneducated. — While I am decidedly in favor 

 of the adoption on a much wider scale of the double method of 

 treatment, I am not in favor of allowing this method of treatment 

 to be given by those who do not possess the proper knowledge as to 

 the character of the agents which they are handling. The man 

 who has no instruction along this line is not in a position to realize 

 what great possibilities for harm are carried by this virus blood, 

 and is liable to handle it improperly. Virus should not be supplied 

 to anyone, be he veterinarian, farmer, or stockman, unless it is 

 first shown that he possesses the proper knowledge of the nature 

 of this disease-producing blood, the dangers which follow any care- 

 lessness in handling same, and also that he understands how to 

 properly administer the double treatment. 



The development of the serum treatment of cholera is quite 

 recent, and, while I am opposed to the handling of virus, or even of 

 serum by the farmer unless he be specially instructed as to how to 

 use the same, I do not believe that every man who bears the title 

 of veterinary surgeon is capable of handling this serum- virus treat- 

 ment intelligently unless he has visited some college in the past 

 two years, or some reliable state serum plant, and received instruc- 

 tions in the handhng of the virus and serum. 



This is a duty which every practising veterinarian owes to his 

 patrons. Every man who is practising in a community where hogs 

 are raised should make it his business to take a few days and make 

 a trip to some first-class serum plant, and become famihar with the 

 process of manufacture of serum and with the methods for handling 

 serum and virus. It will be time well spent, and will put him in a 

 position to go out in the field and handle the agents with every 

 confidence in the correctness of his methods of doing the work, 

 and also with every confidence of obtaining the best results. 



Good results cannot be expected where the serum is not properly 

 used. Especially will this be the case where the double method of 

 treatment is made use of. A great amount of damage has been 

 done already, and public confidence, both among the profession 



