92 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



A SERUM SAVIOR OF SWINE 



30. During the last forty years the loss due to hog cholera 

 in the United States has averaged about fifty million dollars 

 annually, four percent interest on an investment of a billion 

 an4 a quarter dollars. During this period the total loss has 

 been nearly two billion dollars, or approximately twice as much 

 as the theoretical investment. In 1913, a year when the scourge 

 flourished, a toll of seventy-five million dollars was exacted, 

 while in 1918, it had been reduced sixty percent, or a total of 

 thirty-two million dollars. In Iowa in 1913, nearly three million 

 hogs died with the cholera, while in 1917 the loss was less than 

 a hundred and eighty-nine thousand. The man to whom this 

 phenomenal saving may be credited is Dr. Marion Dorset, dis- 

 coverer of the anti-hog cholera serum. 



Dr. Dorset was born in Columbia, Tennessee, December 14, 

 1872, and was graduated from the University of Tennessee with 

 a B. S. degree in 1893. He immediately proceeded to Columbian 

 (now George Washington) University at Georgetown, where 

 he received his M. D., and later took up veterinary studies at 

 the University of Pennsylvania. He specialized in bacteriology 

 and pathology, and from the first engaged in research work on 

 the bacterial toxins. In 1905 in collaboration with Dr. Niles 

 of Iowa he published his first bulletin on the method of pre- 

 paring anti-hog cholera serum. Of recent years he has par- 

 ticularly studied tuberculosis, but has given some attention to 

 the etiology and prevention of other animal diseases. He is 

 chief of the biochemic division, Bureau of Animal Industry, and 

 is a member of the American Public Health Association, Ameri- 



