INOCULATION FOR HOG- CHOLERA A FAILURE. 
31 
that by inoculation herds would receive perfect immunity from 
the ravages of the disease. Dr. Julius Gerth, formerly connected 
with the Bureau of Animal Industry and at present State Veter¬ 
inarian of Nebraska, determined to thoroughly test Pasteur’s 
method of prevention, and accordingly obtained directly from 
him attenuated or weakened virus, with full instructions for per¬ 
forming the operation of inoculation. The Agricultural College 
i Farm, near Lincoln, was chosen as the place for performing the 
experiment, the results of which, as obtained from Prof. H. H. 
Wing, Superintendent of the farm, are as follows: On Nov. 
ember 2, 1885, twenty-eight sound and healthy hogs were inocu¬ 
lated by Dr. Gerth with the attenuated virus, which operation 
was followed two weeks later by the second inoculation, according 
to the instructions of M. Pasteur. Symptoms of the disease 
soon developed, and a hog was immediately slaughtered and a 
post-mortem made, with the assistance of Prof. Charles E. Bessey, 
Dean of the Industrial College and Professor of Botany, who is 
an accomplished and experienced microscopist. With his power¬ 
ful microscope Prof. Bessey was able to discover in the fluids of 
the body of the slaughtered hog germs which he positively 
identified as the same as the germs in the virus obtained from 
Pasteur, thus demonstrating that by vaccination the hogs had 
been given a light attack of the “ hog cholera.” What is yet 
more interesting is the fact that post-mortems made of a number 
of hogs that had died near Lincoln of the swine plague revealed 
the presence of the same germs in large quantities. Examina¬ 
tions of the vaccinated hogs were made from time to time as the 
disease progressed, and the germs from the fluids of the bodies 
of the slaughtered hogs and the hogs that had died of disease in 
other parts of the country were clearly identified by Prof. Bessey 
with the germs found in the virus sent by Pasteur. No hogs 
died from the effects of the virus, and when all had fully 
recovered, on January 20, five sick pigs were introduced among 
the twenty-two which remained, to determine whether the inocu¬ 
lated hogs would contract the disease. Of the twenty-two which 
according to M. Pasteur’s theory should be thoroughly disease- 
proof, fifteen have died and the remaining seven are “ convales- 
