32 THE HISTOEY, NATURE, SYMPTOMS, AND 



THE HISTORY, NATURE, SYMPTOMS, AND TREATMENT 



OF SHEEP-POX. 



By Hugh Kidd, V.S., Hungerford, Berkd. 



[Fremium — Seven Sovereigns.'] 



Our domesticated aaimals as well as man have each their 

 peculiar form of variola or smallpox. It varies in severity of 

 attack in the different species, and like all other eruptive febrile 

 diseases, it affects in each of the different species much more 

 severely than it does others, varying according to the quantity of 

 the poison and the condition of the animal. The type of small- 

 pox under consideration. Variola Ovina, very much resembles 

 that of the smallpox in man, but they are nevertheless two 

 separate and perfectly distinct diseases, and cannot be com- 

 municated from the sheep to man, nor from man to the sheep, 

 either by contagion, infection, or inoculation. 



Whether the pestilential disease " murrain," spoken of in 

 scriptural history, which destroyed all the Egyptian cattle in 

 one night, on account of Pharaoh's disobedience, was a special 

 scourge sent by Providence for a special purpose, or whether we 

 are to consider that it w^as only the commencement of certain 

 plagues that were to visit the flocks and herds of all nations, are 

 problems not easily solved. We do not think, however, that the 

 '* murrain," though a virulent epizootic disease, partook of the 

 nature of the disease under consideration ; for although the 

 horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, were threatened with the 

 severe visitation, only the cattle died. Might not the plague 

 which immediately followed be fairly considered to possess the 

 nature and virus of variola ? " boils and blains," or '•' the botch," 

 which was a loathsome and painful disorder, which affected both 

 man and beast, and which even the magicians could not with- 

 stand. 



Ancient writers on the diseases which infected the flocks and 

 herds in their times furnish us with a very imperfect account of 

 the various disorders, most probably from ignorance of the 

 nature and causes ; but they soon observed that they were " full 

 of infection," and with remarkable skill and forethought, 

 separated the diseased from the healthy. 



In various parts of the Continent this disease has been well 

 known from a very early time. The notions as to its nature, 

 cause, and origin, were as varied and numerous as they were 

 novel ; but they were unanimous from observation that it was a 

 highly contagious and most fatal disease, almost decimating 

 the herds. About the beginning of the eighteenth century it 

 was observed in a part previously unknown (Lower Hungary), 

 and from the description given there can be no doubt of it 



