242 SMALL-POX IN SHEEP. 



they had to import for our supplies that they suffered and 

 injured us. 



The outbreak of small-pox in 1847 continued until 1850, 

 and it interfered with the foreign trade. It was as late as 

 1850 that the importation of sheep again attained the 

 number of 1847; indeed, it exceeded that number by nearly 

 4000 sheep, and there was a rapid increase in our importa- 

 tions up to 1852. They then attained 217,649, and although 

 individual outbreaks of small-pox had occurred since 1849, 

 especially amongst the stocks of butchers, it was in this year 

 of extraordinary increase in the foreign trade that we began 

 bo suffer more severely. More severely still in 1853, and 

 then, thanks to the general practice of slaughtering foreign 

 sheep in or near London, we escaped until 1862. 



Merino sheep imported from Tonning, but most probably 

 reared in Mecklenburgh, were the first to communicate the 

 disease to British stock. Fifty-six of these sheep, purchased 

 on the 26th July 1847, led to an outbreak at Datchett, near 

 Windsor. They were imported from Tonning, on the coast 

 of Denmark. Another lot of 166 were brought into the port 

 of London from Hamburgh by the " Mountaineer," and one 

 of 80 by the " Princess Koyal." A part of a large cargo was 

 purchased on the 26th of July, of two salesmen, by Mr B. Weal 

 of Wooclhall, Pinner. " These lots," says Mr Simonds, " were 

 equally divided between himself and his brother, and in both 

 of them the disease has shown itself." A portion of the same 

 cargo of sheep by the "Princess Koyal" was sold to Mr 

 Goodchild of Kingsbury, and they are reported to have been 

 also affected with it. 



In 1847, 1848, 1849, and 1850 the disease committed 

 great ravages not only in Middlesex and Surrey, but parti- 

 cularly in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Hampshire. 



In 1858 Professor Gerlach stated that statistics indicated 



