544 
EDlTORiAt* 
readers will therefore be enable to perceive the drift of the 
remarks without embarrassment. 
Extract from Dr. Peters’ Report. 
In concluding this report, I believe that the Bureau of Animal Industry 
should receive a little of our attention. I thought of calling your attention to it 
a year ago, but my paper then seemed so long that I decided to defer what I had 
to say until a future occasion, and am now glad that I did so, as it has given me 
an opportunity to beard the lion in his den, so to speak, which I always prefer to 
do, if the opportunity permit. 
We have connected with the United States Department of Agriculture the 
Bureau of Animal Industry. Its chief is a veterinarian, and a large number of 
his assistants are also veterinarians. It is the only department in which the 
United States Government officially recognizes the veterinary profession in a 
manner that at all appeals to our self-respect, and as the great veterinary organ¬ 
ization of this country, we naturally take much interest in its work and useful¬ 
ness. We are better able, perhaps, than anyone else to criticise its actions and 
results, being, as we are, specially educated on the subjects with which it has to 
deal. We have the same right as the rest of the people to commend the action 
of our servants, or to find fault with the way in which they conduct their work, 
besides which, by our special training, we are in a position to feel that we have 
a peculiar right to show our approval, or our disapproval, as the case may be, of 
the labors of this Bureau. 
Of the practical work of the Bureau of Animal Industry I shall have little 
to say. It has almost eradicated contagious pleuro-pneumonia from this country, 
and in time will undoubtedly succeed in its complete extinction. For this service 
alone it deserves the thanks of the people, and has repaid many times over every 
cent that has ever been appropriated by Congress for its support, including all it 
has expended in other directions. These results could have been obtained by 
any good veterinarian possessed of tact and administrative ability. When we 
come, however, to a consideration of its scientific investigations, we cannot say 
a great deal for its efficiency. 
If we review as briefly as possible the work done in the scientific investiga¬ 
tions of swine diseases by the Bureau of Animal Industry, it will be quite suffi¬ 
cient to demonstrate to us the value of its bacteriological work and the credence 
to place upon any statements emanating from its officials. 
If an exhaustive report were written upon the researches in swine diseases 
in the United States during the past few years, together with all the controversy 
that they have brought forth, quite a large volume could be easily filled. A year 
ago, when I thought of referring to this matter in my report, I should have based 
what I had to say upon an article by J. Amory Jeffries, M.D., which appeared 
in the Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Archives , for December, 
1890, entitled “ Etiology of Two Outbreaks of Disease Among Hogs.” Although 
my report was written before the article appeared in print, I was fully cognizant 
of its contents, having assisted Dr. Jeffries with the work, and in fact done a 
portion of it myself. Material which I have since been able to avail myself of 
only confirms me in the views which I then held, without changing them in any 
important particular. 
