SMALL-POX IN SHEEP 241 



inoculation of flocks in a number of districts, and for miles 

 around the seat of the first outbreak. The result may 

 readily be conceived ; a whole country is at once affected. 



It is somewhat remarkable that our flocks should have 

 escaped attacks of small-pox during the first five years which 

 succeeded our importations ; but my inquiries in London 

 amongst very well informed dealers, butchers, and others, 

 are satisfactory. The sheep imported were at that time very 

 inferior. They were not, like the cattle which communicated 

 pleuro-pneumonia, bought up for store purposes, but sold at 

 once and slaughtered. The London market was then not so 

 common a resort as at present for farmers who purchase 

 sheep to feed for a few months, and at most some butchers 

 might have kept a few over from one week to another, or a 

 little longer. Some of these kept sheep ofcen died, so much 

 so that those who bought them did not repeat the experi- 

 ment, and lean small sheep were dressed up as lamb, and sold 

 in the east end of London amongst the poor. Whilst lamb 

 was at a high price in the west end, it was at 4d. or 6d. a 

 pound where the lean, small, and pallid foreign sheep were 

 sold as such. 



But a very satisfactory explanation of the alarming intro- 

 duction of small-pox in 1847 is to be found in the extra- 

 ordinarily sudden increase in the importation of sheep. In 

 1847, 139,371 sheep were imported, whereas the total amount 

 for the five years previously was 111,222. The number was 

 as low as 210 in 1843, under 2000 so late as in 1844, under 

 16,000 in 1845, and 91,732 in 1846. The foreign dealers 

 were exerting themselves to increase the supply of sheep, and 

 it is not at all to be wondered at that small-pox spread west- 

 ward. It must not be forgotten that the countries with 

 which we immediately trade were as healthy as our own in 

 the early days of our importations, and it was only when 

 VOL. ii. 3 K 



