add to the efficiency of the sanitary measures for the protection of the
people, and at the same time prevent unnecessary restriction of
commerce. I concur in his recommendation.

In further effort to prevent the invasion of the United States by yellow
fever, the importance of the discovery of the exact cause of the
disease, which up to the present time has been undetermined, is obvious,
and to this end a systematic bacteriological investigation should be
made. I therefore recommend that Congress authorize the appointment of a
commission by the President, to consist of four expert bacteriologists,
one to be selected from the medical officers of the Marine Hospital
Service, one to be appointed from civil life, one to be detailed from
the medical officers of the Army, and one from the medical officers of
the Navy.

The Union Pacific Railway, Main Line, was sold under the decree of the
United States Court for the District of Nebraska, on the 1st and 2d of
November of this year. The amount due the Government consisted of the
principal of the subsidy bonds, $27,236,512, and the accrued interest
thereon, $31,211,711.75, making the total indebtedness, $58,448,223.75.
The bid at the sale covered the first mortgage lien and the entire
mortgage claim of the Government, principal and interest.

The sale of the subsidized portion of the Kansas Pacific Line, upon
which the Government holds a second mortgage lien, has been postponed at
the instance of the Government to December 16, 1897. The debt of this
division of the Union Pacific Railway to the Government on November 1,
1897, was the principal of the subsidy bonds, $6,303,000, and the unpaid
and accrued interest thereon, $6,626,690.33, making a total of
$12,929,690.33.