The San Francisco call., 1898-01-17
Successful Tests of the Anti-TOXine for Hog
 Cholera.
pr. Salmon Submits an EncOur- aging Report to Secretary
 Wilson.
Congress Will Be Asked to Appropri. ate Money for the Distribution
 of Serum.
Special Dispatch to The Call.
Call Office. Riggs House.
Washington. Ian. IS

w aSnlngtOn, Jan. lb.
 The Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, pr. D. E. Salmon, has sub mitted to Secretary Wilson a report upon the experiments made in the treatment Of hogs for hog cholera with anti-tOXine serum. This serum is made upon the same principle as the anti toXine of diphtheria. Good serum has been obtained from both horses and cattle, a horse or COW being inoculated with the hog cholera virus in small quantities at first, and with larger doses after suitable intervals of time. The resistance of the animal is thus raised to the highest practicable point. The blood of such an animal when in- jected under the skin of swine has been found to possess both a preventive and curative action.
 This serum was first tested upon small animals in the laboratory, and, being found efficacious, was last fall tested in Page County, Iowa, on sev- eral herds of swine, containing alto- gether PTS animals. Leaving out one herd, from which definite returns as to cause of death could not be obtained, only 39 died out of PA animals treat ed, of which 86 were sick. Consequent ly S2.S per cent of the animals of these herds were saved Of untreated hogs kept under observation during the pe- riod referred to, about S5 per cent of the animals died.
 Dr. Salmon believes that with experi- ence better quality of serum can be prepared, and he has no doubt that this percentage can be maintained hereafter
 Referring to this report, Secretary Wilson remarked that undoubtedly the results reported by pr. Salmon were most encouraging to hog raisers. The cost of the serum now. said the Secre- tary, was but 10 cents per head of ami mals treated, only one dCse being re- quired, and doubtless in course of time this light cost may still be further re- duced.
 Tt is, in my opinion" said the Secretary, "of the utmost importance that this serum, for the next year at least, be made by the bureau under our own supervision and distributed in large quantities in order to demon- strate its efficacy upon a more extend ed scale. It is absolutely essential that during the experimental stage serum of undoubted quality be used. Unless the hog growers can obtain it from this department they will be forced to de- pend upon what can be obtained from private sources, and, owing to the nov city of this product, not only will dis couragingly exorbitant prices be charg- ed for it, but in many cases inferior products may be offered. This would preclude the possibility of making a satisfactory test on a widely extended scale.
 'I propse to ask. Congress to provide an appropriation necessary to enable this department to furnish 2,000,0 900 doses of serum during the next year and to make a considerable portion of the appropriation immediately avail able It seems from Dr. Salmon's re- port that 1t takes three or four months to put a horse or COW into condition to supply the serum: consequently the work upon an extended scale must be undertaken at once.
 "The losses from hog cholera are so enormous and have weighed so heav- fly for years upon our farmers that l cannot imagine that Congress will for a moment hesitate to make the appro- priations necessary to carry Cn this work thoroughly. Indeed, apart from the great stake the farmers have in this matter, to refuse to provide for a thorough test of this remedy now would be indeed, penny wise and pound fool 1 ish': fer the discovery of this serum has 1 involved already many years of work and a very large sum of money. Ii l would be great mistake now that SC