354 Annual Report for 1913 of Royal Veterinary College. 
a mild non-fatal attack of swine fever, in consequence of 
which it will afterwards be immune. There are no statistics 
to prove that this is a better method than the one previously 
described, although it is the one which appears to be most 
favoured in the United States of America. 
The three countries in which the serum treatment has been 
most extensively practised are the two already mentioned — 
Hungary and the United States — and Holland. No information 
that is of any real value for enabling one to compare serum 
treatment with other methods of dealing with outbreaks is 
obtainable from Holland for the simple reason that swine fever 
in that country has never been made notifiable, and there are 
therefore no statistics to show either the past or the present 
prevalence of the disease. Since the disease is not notifiable it 
follows that there are no restrictions on the sale or movement 
of diseased or suspected pigs. 
The statistics that are of most value are those obtained from 
Hungary, and the figures already quoted make it plain that the 
serum treatment could never be expected to eradicate swine 
fever. A fair retort to this statement would be that there 
appears to be no likelihood that the measures now enforced in 
this country will ever stamp out the disease either, and that, 
as a means of holding it in check, serum treatment would be 
equally efficacious and less expensive both to the unfortunate 
owner and to the country at large. But the last is a claim 
which cannot be conceded, for no one can show that there is 
even a reasonable probability that the most extensive use of 
serum for diseased and suspected pigs could hold the disease in 
check if the existing restrictions on movement were swept away. 
No country has yet considered it safe to abandon such restric- 
tions while making use of serum as a means of dealing with 
actual outbreaks. This fact requires to be emphasised because 
serum treatment is erroneously being put forward as a method 
that will make it safe to sweep away all restrictions on 
movement. It is impossible to conceive that any owner of 
healthy pigs who is acquainted with the evidence could be in 
favour of such a proposal. 
But while thus maintaining that severe restrictions on 
movement will continue to be necessary to prevent swine fever 
from becoming still more prevalent, it may without any 
inconsistency be admitted that serum treatment might probably 
be employed with advantage in dealing with a proportion of 
the outbreaks in this country, viz,, those occurring in large 
stocks. Hitherto in such cases the practice has been either 
promptly to slaughter out the entire stock or to kill only the 
visibly diseased and impose a long period of quarantine on the 
premises. The first method is expensive for the State, and 
