OF THE OX. 41 



seasons of calamity, instead of resting satisfied 

 with recommending remedies, betook them- 

 selves boldly to the work, and studied the 

 disease experimentally in respect to its pro- 

 pagation and prevention. 



Thus, for instance, certain Dutch physicians, 

 in 1754, wishing to know whether the morbid 

 matter would transmit the disease by inocula- 

 tion, made incisions in the necks of some oxen, 

 cows and calves, inserting in the wound a little 

 tow saturated with the morbid secretions dis- 

 charged from the eyes and nostrils. This 

 direct inoculation having been practised on 

 seventeen animals, transmitted the disease to 

 them all in the course of a few days. 



The English physicians having been made 

 acquainted with these experiments, applied 

 them to a more practical purpose, no longer 

 to discover whether the disease could thus be 

 transmitted (for that had been proved), but to 

 find out (what was far more important) whether 

 this fearful distemper could be prevented and 

 kept off. 



Malcolm Flemming, in 1755, merely sug- 

 gested the idea of inoculation as a preventive 

 means, without proceeding to a course of ex- 



