why pasteur’s vaccine fails to prevent hog cholera. 179 
t is that Dr. Gerth should come before an intelligent public and 
nake these preposterous claims with such material as he had to 
>ase them upon. 
The references to Prof. Bessey in the report under considera- 
ion seem to have been made without his desire or consent. This 
entleman is a scientist whose attainments and opinions are wor- 
hy of great respect; but he is a botauist, has never been en¬ 
gaged in swine-plague investigation, and makes no pretensions to 
eing an authority on animal diseases. The material in this 
ase was taken to him because he was the possessor of a good 
horoscope. He placed it under the instrument for examination, 
nd when he says that the germs revealed were micrococci I have 
onfidence that Ins statement is correct. 
That the general student of botany, or even of bacteriology, 
lould be puzzled to know what particular germ is the cause of 
anerican swine plague is not surprising. The whole science of 
isease germs is new, and is passing through a transition period, 
wo widely different germs have been lately described in Ger- 
lany as producing contagious swine diseases—one of these, the 
J erm of vothlauf , is identical with Pasteur’s bacillus ; the other 
1 entirely distinct, and is said to produce schweineseuche (swine 
lague). In France two or three different germs have been de¬ 
cked, but it is not yet certain whether more than one disease 
as been studied in these investigations. In the United States a 
umber of distinct germs have also been referred to by investi- 
ators as the cause of American swine plague. These different 
pinions have led to much confusion, and no one but those who 
lave been continually at work on this question can have an intel- 
gent opinion of its present condition. Probably more hard 
ork has been done in regard to this disease, and more experi- 
ents have been made by the Bureau of Animal Industry at 
Washington than anywhere else in the world, and we expect to 
ttle the contested questions in a short time by the presentation 
' evidence of the most convincing character. 
In the May number of the American Veterinary Be view Dr. 
iautard makes some additional remarks in regard to hog cholera 
Inch we find it convenient to take as texts for the different 
