CAUSKS OF KPIZOOTICS. 13 



and pigs ; even poultry were similarly affected. This 

 disease would appear to be like that which existed in 

 Saxony in 1730, and probably also in this country in 

 1711-12 : it is too well known to need any particular 

 description. We regret to say that it still continues in 

 the British Islands, and has produced great losses to 

 the owners of stock, although it is rarely now found to 

 prove iatal. That destructive malady pleuro-pnemnonia 

 followed closely upon it. 



The latest of these epizootics is the especial object 

 of this treatise, viz. the small-pox among sheep. 



Having thus given a condensed history of pestilen- 

 tial affections, which clearly shews that the " Clavalee" 

 has not been among those that have broken out 

 among our flocks and herds, we will now offer a few 

 remarks on the supposed causes of these maladies. 



Exposure to the changeable state of the weather, 

 the partaking of bad provender or stagnant water, are 

 viewed by many as the chief causes of epidemics, while 

 others trace them to a vitiated condition of the atmo- 

 sphere ; but whether such state consists of a mingling 

 of mephitic vapours or deleterious gases arising from 

 either animal or vegetable decomposition, or h'om an 

 excess of humidity or dryness affecting the electrical 

 condition of the air, they scarcely venture to conjecture. 

 That the gaseous compounds eliminated from decom- 

 posed animal substances are highly injurious to health, 

 cannot be doubted, although these may not singly ori- 

 ginate epidemics ; hence one reason of burning or bury- 

 insf the dead. It is, indeed, much to be wished, that all 

 putrescent matters were removed as far as possible from 

 places where they are likely to be injurious to public 

 health. 



