34 SMALL-POX L\ SIIKEP. 



Several ini})()rtant inferences may be drawn from 

 these two cases ; but these we reserve for the sequel, 

 and will only now remark that the experiments \\cre 

 undertaken with a view to ascertain, ^z-^^, whether the 

 disease could be propagated among sheep by inocula- 

 tion ; secoudhj, what the time of the incubation of the 

 malady woidd be, if thus induced ; thtrdbj, whether the 

 epidermis, having its cells charged with lymph, could, 

 when removed from the papulae, be depended on as a 

 vehicle for inoculation ; fourtJiIij, if the constitutional 

 derangement would be increased by a small quantiiy of 

 jnis, in addition to the lymph, beins; employed ; and 

 whether the danger to the animal would be rendered 

 greater thereby ; and, lastlij, if so rough a method of 

 operating could safely be adopted. The first three 

 queries will be best answered by the experiments sub- 

 sequently described ; but with regard to the two latter, 

 we may observe that it was important to arrive at a 

 correct conclusion with reference to them with as little 

 delay as possible; for, should the necessity arise for 

 inoculation to be generally adopted in this country, to 

 protect our sheep from the sad and often fatal conse- 

 quences of an attack of small-pox, it would, in all pro- 

 bability, be found that farmers, shepherds, and unedu- 

 cated cattle-doctors, would not hesitate to undertake 

 the performance of it, and to continue their practice 

 even though the lives of many valuable animals should 

 be sacrificed thereby. Few men who have had expe- 

 rience of the way in which operations are performed on 

 animals by such persons, will gainsay the assertion that 

 their proceedings are alien to both humanity and 

 science. We, therefore, hope we have proved, by the 

 progress and virulence of the affection in the cases 



