A history of the Pathological Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, between 1891-1921.

As part of a continuing historical study of the evolution of the discipline of veterinary pathology in North America, this paper relates the role played by the Pathological Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), formerly a unit of the United States Department of Agriculture. The work of this division of the BAI during its first three decades is examined with respect to its leadership, activities and attainments, and these are compared with similar activities in veterinary colleges and state experiment stations in the United States and in foreign veterinary colleges and research establishments. The Pathological Division devoted a good deal of its efforts to the production of biologic prophylactic products, with resounding success in controlling blackleg and other diseases. Its other activities were in laboratory diagnostic work and in research into animal diseases. The picture that emerges in those spheres is of an organizational unit that despite its name, made little use of the approaches and methods of pathology, but rather availed itself of the tools of microbiology whether or not these were appropriate. In so doing, it lagged considerably behind the comparable institutions both in the United States and abroad.