1803 • Oft inocutathig Sheep for the ScaL i5l97 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMER's -MAGAZINE. 



O/i Lioctdating Sheep for the Scab. 

 Sib, 



Analogy, the mod fertile fource of error in the theories of 

 metaphyficians, and the fpeculations of philofophers, has, on 

 t!ie contrary, led the way to the moft important difcoveries in 

 thofe departments of phyfiology which regard the ort;anization, 

 fun^llons, and phenomena of the animal body. Wliatever dif- 

 ference may exiil between man and the brutes in an intellec- 

 tual confideration, there can be no doubt that the laws, which 

 regulate the corporeal changes of the one, hold equal empire 

 over the operations of tlie other. Obfervations made on the lat- 

 ter, have been applied with fuccefs to the former ; and, in facSl, 

 mofl of thofe improvements, which have advanced the medical 

 art (in relation to the human body) to its prefent perfedion, 

 h'lve originated from an application of thofe principles, which 

 were deduced from an examination and explanation of the cor- 

 poreal phenomena exhibited by the lower animals. Morbid af- 

 feclions of a (imilar nature occur in each ; frequently proceeding 

 from the fame caufe, frequently attended by the fame circum- 

 ftances, and frequently obviated by the fame means. But, what 

 is more fingular, difeafes which appeared peculiar to the one 

 clafs, have been found tranfmilTible to the other, and have ac- 

 tually been employed in this way as- a mean of moderating or 

 even preventing the more virulent influence of fome more inve- 

 terate difeafe, annually fwept away thoufands of our fellow 

 creatures. Were it neceffhry to confine the foregoing obferva- 

 tions, an appeal might be made to the late happy introduclioii 

 of tlie Vaccine inoculation, which bids fair to extirpate the fe- 

 vered fcourge, and molt bitter enemy, that ever perhaps ravag- 

 ed numbers of mankind. If, therefore, we perceive fuch ad- 

 vantages refulting to the human fpecies from the tranfmiffion of 

 a difeafe, thought peculiar to the lower animals ; if, confequently, 

 (as we mufl be) we are convinced, that the principles upon whicli 

 the phyfical organization of both clafles depends, are analogous; 

 that the laws which regulate the corporeal changes in either are 

 the fame, and that conclufions drawn from the one fide may be 

 Jiifo applied to the other, and vice verfi^ indifcriminately ; why 

 hefitate to purfue a path, which expands to fuch unlimited 

 extent ? Not only the malignancy of fome of the difeafes of 

 man may be diminiflied by a tranfmiflion of thofe exhibited 

 by the lower animals ; but, upon the fame principles, the malig- 

 nant difeafes of the latter may in fome meafure be counteradled 



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