446 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
the investigations so that each branch may be in the hands of a specialist. Thus 
it is the duty of one veterinarian in J;he Bureau to secure proper animals for ex¬ 
periment, to take charge of such animals during the experiments, take their 
temperature, observe their symptoms and see that there is no chance of con¬ 
tagion from lot to lot. Another man with from three to five assistants has gen¬ 
eral charge of the investigations, makes the cultures, prepares the material for 
inoculation, studies the germs and the pathology of the disease, and decides 
what experiments are necessary to elucidate these points. The chemical in¬ 
vestigations are carried out by a competent chemist, and an artist is always 
ready to make illustrations of the pathological appearances or of the germs, 
while still another person is prepared to photograph such specimens as must 
be delineated with absolute correctness. In addition to this we have men to 
collect material and observe outbreaks in the field, so that our experimental 
work will not suffer by constant interruption. If one man undertakes to 
carry on all of these duties his time is broken up, his experimental animals 
are neglected, and his experiments themselves interrupted. This accounts 
for much of the poor work that is being done, and shows the necessity of at 
least one place in the country where investigations are carried on with every 
facility in the way of experimental grounds, laboratories, men and money to 
give reliable results. 
In working for the development of such an institution as this at Washington 
my chief object has been to show what services the veterinary profession can 
render to the country and to the world, and in doing this to incidentally 
furnish the means for protecting our animals from disease, and the facts for 
a more substantial, complete and scientific foundation for veterinary practice. 
In carrying out this plan I have had the cordial cooperation and assistance 
of the profession, and I take the opportunity to return thanks for this un¬ 
faltering support and to express the hope that our labors may be so performed 
as to merit a continuance of a like good will in the future. 
The chief part of our scientific work has been for so long a time devoted to 
swine diseases that it is impossible to omit a consideration of them in a paper of 
this kind. You are aware that we have described two disease's caused by two 
distinct germs. These germs can be easily distinguished from each other, but 
we are now satisfied that the diseases can only be safely diagnosed by determin¬ 
ing which germ is present. Different outbreaks of swine plague differ greatly 
in the lesions presented. Sometimes these are confined to the lungs, as in the 
first cases we studied; often, however the intestines are affected, and the ap¬ 
pearances presented may then so closely resemble those seen in hog cholera that 
the most practiced eye cannot decide which germ is responsible for the mischief. 
It is then only by a bacteriological examination that an accurate diagnosis can 
be made. 
These diseases, though frequently both are present in the same herd, are 
often found each by itself producing ravages without the aid of the other. In a 
very destructive outbreak studied during the present summer in New Jersey, 
the most careful bacteriological examination revealed only the swine-plague 
germ. Some of the animals from this outbreak were taken to our experiment 
station and placed in an enclosure with other pigs, and the disease was commu- 
