INVESTIGATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF 
ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 539 
To remind you of the tone of the report made at the last 
meeting of this Association, I will quote only two sentences, 
which are taken from near the end ; they read as follows : 
“ Having taken the investigation of swine diseases as a 
fair sample of this Bureau’s scientific labors, are we to be ex¬ 
pected to place any dependence upon the accuracy of the 
statements emanating from its officers concerning such work, 
especially when they conflict with the results obtained b}' 
men like Paquin and Billings, unless the work of the former 
is confirmed by experiments conducted by independent and 
unprejudiced observers of recognized ability ? 
“ How can we as a profession feel anything but disgraced 
when we think of the opinions which must be held in Koch’s 
laboratory, the greatest bacteriological laboratory in the 
world, concerning our Bureau of Animal Industry, and its 
scientific work?” 
Is there any one here who can find in those two questions 
any favorable appreciation of the scientific investigations of 
the Bureau of Animal Industry, or any encouragement for 
the scientists of that Bureau, several of whom are members 
of this Association, to continue their labors in this their 
chosen field ? Quite the contrary. The entire field of scien¬ 
tific investigation in this country can be explored without 
finding an example of such rank injustice or of such uncalled- 
for defamation. It is for this reason that I piopose to take 
up the matter at this time and show how accurate have been 
the reports of the Bureau, and how untenable the positions 
of those who assailed them. 
Billings has published an abstract of the paper of Frosch, 
referred to so much in Peters’ report, under the title of “ Bil¬ 
lings’ Investigations Vindicated,” and Peters endeavors to 
give the impression that Frosch’s report endorsed the various 
positions which Billings has assumed, and shows that the 
Bureau reports have been incorrect and unreliable. It is 
true that he does not undertake to prove this by a citation of 
the facts, a course which would, no doubt, have been incon¬ 
veniently troublesome, but his whole argument gives this 
impression, as is sufficiently shown by the short quotation 
which I have made, 
