September 



1884." 



SCIENCE. 



305 



divides the time of the director, and distracts his at- 

 tention; but we are endeavoring to overcome these 

 difficulties by a division of labor; and when the new 

 bureau is fairly organized, arid running smoothly, we 

 hope, if not to satisfy all, at least to keep adding to 

 our knowledge of animal contagia until we are able 

 to combat them successfully. 



A few weeks ago, in a review of the last report of 

 the department of agriculture {Science, iii. pp. 689, 

 690), you took occasion, while speaking very kindly of 

 the work that had been done, to intimate that the 

 proposed investigations for the discovery and supply 

 of vaccine to be used in preventing contagious dis- 

 eases were uncalled for and useless; the argument 

 being that the profession could be relied upon to pre- 

 pare and apply such vaccines if they were of sufficient 

 value. 



In reaching this conclusion, you evidently left out 

 of consideration the most important elements of the 

 problem. In the first place, we have but a mere 

 handful of veterinarians in the whole country, and 

 these mostly located in cities where they are of little 

 use in treating the diseases of meat-producing ani- 

 mals : in other words, the stock-raisers of the country 

 are practically beyond private veterinary assistance, 

 and will remain so for years to come. In the second 

 place, there are not more than two or three veterina- 

 rians in the country who have had the training, or, 

 indeed, who have any conception of the processes, 

 necessary for the study and cultivation of the group 

 of organisms to which the disease-germs belong. 

 You admit more than this in the editorial to which I 

 referred in the first part of this communication. In 

 the third place, there is nowhere in this world a single 

 man who can tell the exact conditions under which 

 the germs of the diseases that are most dangerous in 

 this country must be cultivated so that they will be 

 safe as vaccines, and at the same time capable of con- 

 ferring a certain immunity. This must be worked 

 out by long and costly experiments; and surely no 

 individual is likely to be found who will attempt so 

 difficult and dangerous a service at his own* expense. 

 In the fourth place, you will observe that even those 

 medicines of which the processes of manufacture are 

 tolerably well known (such as quinia and nitrite of 

 amyl, for instance) are produced by chemists, — spe- 

 cialists, — and not by the medical profession. How 

 much more necessary would it be, then, for specialists 

 to control such delicate manipulations and compli- 

 cated apparatus as are required in the reproduction of 

 uncontaminated germs, especially when these are to 

 be held at a given point in the scale of virulence. But 

 how can you ask our people to depend upon such 

 specialists in one number, and within a month or two 

 assure them that there is no one in the country who is 

 doing work of value in this direction ? If you turn 

 your eyes to Germany, you will see Koch, as a govern- 

 ment official, using national appropriations to study 

 the organisms which produce the diseases of men and 

 animals. Turn to France, and you see Pasteur, also 

 by the help of the government, endeavoring to dis- 

 cover methods for the production of vaccines that 

 may be used to prevent animal diseases. Do you see 

 the unassisted veterinary profession in either country 

 accomplishing any thing in this direction, though 

 they vastly excel ours both in numbers and education? 

 Why, then, should not the officials of our government 

 do the same kind of work, and strive to attain the 

 same ends ? And, if supplying vaccines to our farm- 

 ers should prove the most economical and satisfac- 

 tory means of fighting certain contagious diseases, 

 why should not the agricultural department furnish 

 such vaccines ? 



Finally, if you are right in your supposition that 

 "there must be some misconception lurking in the 

 minds of the department officials, if they really sup- 

 pose that the veterinary profession is necessarily in- 

 competent to deal with a problem because, forsooth, 

 the known methods of solving it happen to be delicate 

 and expensive," I would like to ask how it happens 

 that the animal plagues of this country are increasing 

 their ravages from year to year without an effort, on 

 the part of the veterinary profession, to hold them in 

 check? If 'an ordinary citizen' supposes that our 

 future is likely to be different from our past in this 

 respect, he certainly shows a surprising ignorance of 

 the methods that have been found necessary in every 

 country where any success has been achieved. 



Is it not our duty to accept great national prob- 

 lems as they actually exist, rather than in the shape 

 they are pictured by the distorted imagination of the 

 editorial philosopher, who comes in contact with germ- 

 diseases in books and periodicals, but never sees 

 them on the farm and the ranch, where their ravages 

 amount to millions and tens of millions of dollars 

 annually ? 



In closing, permit me to express my personal dis- 

 appointment at the course which the editor of Science 

 has decided to adopt in regard to this branch of our 

 home work. It was expected that this periodical 

 would be a true representative of American science, 

 defending its conquests, and encouraging its workers 

 to renewed exertions. With certain departments it 

 has not failed to do this ; but with others, as I trust 

 I have shown in this communication, its only effect 

 has been to discourage and discredit when honest and 

 successful work was being accomplished ; and in say- 

 ing this, I know I am not alone in my opinion, for a 

 number of well-known scientific men have recently 

 expressed to me the same idea. 



If, Mr. Editor, this communication is open to the 

 charge of egotism and garrulousness, I hope it will not 

 be forgotten that the American investigator who is 

 overburdened with modesty stands but a poor chance 

 in the struggle for existence with the conditions of 

 environment so decidedly against him. 



D. E. Salmon. 



[We have but to repeat, that " work of value upon 

 the subject of micro-organisms is not done in this 

 country." If all work upon micro-organisms that 

 any observer chooses to publish — the result of un- 

 skilled labor — is of value, then we have doubtless cast 

 an unwarranted slur upon American investigators. 

 If, on the other hand, only that work is of value in 

 this field which is the result of untiring industry, 

 long training, and judicial criticism, then our remark 

 was just. To be of value, such work must be complete 

 in all its details ; and the relationship between a bac- 

 terium and a pathological process must be established 

 beyond a reasonable doubt, provided the methods are 

 correct, and there has been no error of observation. 

 It remains to be seen whether American work of 

 permanent value in this branch of research will not 

 receive the same hearty recognition from our co- 

 workers abroad as it has in all other branches where 

 our excellence has deserved acknowledgment. In 

 conclusion, we wish to state that we do not care for 

 controversy, nor did we intend to excite it. It was our 

 belief, that, on the whole, we have not yet thorough- 

 ly mastered all the requirements necessary for this 

 most delicate branch of investigation, and that a re- 

 minder of that fact would do no harm. We sympa- 

 thize with unrecognized merit, but would console it 

 with the reflection that Aucun cliemin de fleurs ne 

 conduit a la gloire. — Ed.] 



