424 DISEASES OF SWINE 



and by no means all the members of the profession care to engage 

 in it at all. 



On the other hand, I do not beheve that those who have not had 

 proper instruction in the correct methods of administering the treat- 

 ment should be allowed to handle either serum or virus, and, by 

 all means, that they should not be allowed to handle the virus. It 

 would seem to me a wise precaution to insist that a man who is to 

 receive for injection purposes hog-cholera virus should at least have 

 some scientific training. Many of the state serum plants have in a 

 way met this need by establishing what are classed as instruction 

 days, on which farmers and others are received and given a brief 

 course of instruction in the handling of serum and virus. 



I do not believe, however, that any man without previous sci- 

 entific education can acquire a sufficient knowledge of serum and 

 virus and the dangers of the virus in a one-day visit to a serum 

 plant. It is this use of virus by the man who does not fully ap- 

 preciate the danger of carelessness with it that has brought bad 

 results. Special training of at least one or two weeks would seem 

 Uttle enough to entitle a man to secure a virus permit, which would 

 entitle him to receive and handle the materials necessary for injec- 

 tion of the simultaneous or double treatment. 



Larger appropriations by both Federal and State Agricultural 

 Departments and provision for the organization of a thorough cam- 

 paign of eradication of the disease would be a mighty step in the 

 proper direction. This campaign could be put in charge of com- 

 petent veterinarians, and they could be assisted by a corps of 

 well-trained laymen. This would somewhat reduce the cost of the 

 work, and with competent direction from well-trained experts 

 these laymen would be able to satisfactorily carry out a large part 

 of the work. If success is to be achieved the treatment must be 

 handled by men that are qualified to use it properly. 



CLINICAL EVIDENCE OF VALUE OF SERUM 

 It has already been stated in this work that the great share of 

 the credit for the discovery and development of the serum method 

 of treatment for hog-cholera is due to Drs. Niles and Dorset of the 

 United States Bureau of Animal Industry. As an example of the 

 large amount of painstaking work which these men carried out, as 



