12 
OLOF SCHWARZKOPF. 
I have not “ avoided placing 1 my views in form or place 
where it would come within proper range of scientific criti¬ 
cism,” as I have had no fears to cross swords with Dr. Wil¬ 
liams on scientific questions. The fact is that our American 
veterinary journals paid no attention to actinomycosis, but 
this was done by the better agricultural press. The Breeders 
Gazette, in commenting upon the pamphlet No. i of the Illinois 
Live-Stock Commisioners, in their issue of March 5, 1890, 
called forth several articles of Prof. James Law, who strongly 
advocated the contagiousness of actinomycosis, and it was 
not until he rejected—in a somewhat left-hand way—the 
statements of my former chief, Dr. Hertwig of Berlin, that I 
participated in the discussion in the Breeders Gazette , defend¬ 
ing Hertwig’s position. This was public writing and could be 
followed by any veterinarian who keeps acquainted with our 
agricultural press. 
My theoretical studies and practical work at the great 
abattoirs of Berlin have naturally shaped mv opinion of actin¬ 
omycosis. Dr. Williams seems not to be aware that the Berlin 
abattoir has a bacteriological laboratory, which, superintend¬ 
ed by Director Hertwig, its energetic chief veterinarian, is in 
charge of Dr. Dunker, a well known microscopist, who dis¬ 
covered the actinomyces of the muscles in hogs. From 1883- 
1885, while being employed there, numerous fruitless attempts 
were made to cultivate the actinomycosis in ordinary ways, 
together with inoculation experiments, which likewise failed 
to throw any light on the peculiarities of the fungus. He 
naturally gained the impression from these experiments, and 
by the information gathered from rural districts from which 
the affected animals arrived, that the disease could not be 
pronounced contagious. 
The practical conclusion from what I have tried to ex¬ 
plain in the foregoing pages certainly warrants the necessity 
of changing the modus operandi of some of our sanitary in¬ 
spectors. I am strongly of the opinion that it is the duty of 
the sanitary veterinarian to rather preserve meat than destroy 
it. Sentimentalism such as the arguments of the abhorrence 
of the American for meat from animals not strictly sound, is 
