A NEW DISEASE IN ENGLAND? 3 



never till now existed here as an epizootic. To the best 

 of our knowledge, no British author has described such a 

 visitation, although several have handed down very fidl 

 particulars relating to these epidemics. Mr. Youatt, 

 in his work on Sheep (p. 541, 1837), speaking of Clav- 

 eUe, the French name for the affection, says " it never 

 reached Great Britain, although it has thinned the 

 sheep flocks in every district of France, opposite to 

 the English coast." Mr. James Hogg, " the Ettrick 

 Shepherd," makes no mention of sheep-pox from his 

 own experience, but gives an account of it in a trans- 

 lation from the French of M. Vitet ; and it appears 

 most probable that he was a stranger to the malady, 

 for in a short article which precedes the translation 

 alluded to, he observes, "that sundry of the diseases 

 here treated of are analogous to those in our own 

 country, consequently the cures must also be of use 

 here ; and though others of them have not yet appeared 

 in Britain, the introduction of foreign breeds may intro- 

 duce foreign diseases. This we can neither guard too 

 well against, nor be too well prepared for when it hap- 

 pens" (p. 191, Edinburgh, 1807). If, however, we 

 turn to the pages of earher authors on the disorders of 

 cattle, we find mention made of a malady called sheep- 

 pox ; but it must be borne in mind, that there is not 

 much originality in their writings, which are often 

 made up of translations from Italian and other Conti- 

 nental books. 



Leonard Mascal, in his work on cattle, in the third 

 book, where he treats of The Government of Sheep, 

 makes these remarks : " Sheepe wil haue a scab, which 

 shepheards call the pocks, and it wil appeare on the 

 skin, like red pimples or purples, and they wil be broad 



