444 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING' 
for their work in our behalf. The report mentions the fact that 
the plan meets with opposition from members within the service. 
This must be expected where we have three men who are not 
graduates of veterinary colleges, and who upon the passage of a 
bill creating the corps, and compelling the members of the present 
force to pass an examination, would be thrown out of their employ¬ 
ment. Those three men are strongly opposed to any reform. I 
am sorry to say also that there is at least one other man who is a 
graduate of a very reputable veterinary college, graduating some 
ten years ago, and supposed to be a man well educated, yet who 
fears that in case of an examination he would not be able to pass. 
This man is exerting all his influence to obstruct progress of your 
committee on army legislation. There are only fourteen of us 
altogether in the service, and out of this number I believe there 
are about six who would fail in the examination, and those men 
of course oppose any bill that tends to reform the service. 
The inducements for entering the army are not great, which is 
the reason why we have such a poor class of men in it. This is 
the state of affairs and shows you where the opposition comes from. 
I think it is certain that the competent men in the service, who are 
not afraid of an examination, will lend all their aid in support of 
the action of your committee; and, as I remarked, it is on behalf 
of these men that I tendered the thanks of the majority for the 
efforts of your committee in our behalf. 
READING OF PAPERS. 
President Huidekoper : We will now receive the paper of Dr. 
D. E. Salmon. 
Dr. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 
Washington, D. C., presented his paper on “ Some of the Last 
Studies on Bacteriology, as it refers to the Domesticated Animals 
and the Diseases in them.” 
SOME RECENT RESEARCHES IN THE DISEASES OF THE DOMES¬ 
TICATED ANIMALS. 
BY D. E. SALMON, D. V. M. 
It is not an easy thing to thoroughly investigate a germ disease, nor is it a 
task that can be accomplished even with the best facilities by a few weeks or a 
few months of work. It is fourteen years since Kcch gave bacteriology a place 
