48 SM.\M,-roX I\ SIIF.KI'. 



circumstance that sheep arc always congregated here 

 to sui)ply the markets of the city. 



Some efficient means to limit the extension of con- 

 tagion, in the event of variolous sheep being imported, 

 should innnediately be adopted, in order that we may 

 be prepared for any emergency. It appears that our 

 Government would have much difficulty in establishing 

 a prophylactic system on the continent, even if that 

 would give the required seciuity to the flocks of this 

 country, which, in the opinion of Captain Stanley 

 Can-, it would not ; for, writing from the Duchy of 

 Lauenburg, he says, that — 



" Precautionary measures on this side of the North Sea, for 

 ascertaining the soundness of sheep about to be shipped, could 

 scarcely be enforced, since incipient taint may exist, and yet no 

 symptom appear till drawn forth by the warmth of the hold. The 

 sunitory cordon must there/ore be drawn in England, if anywhere ; and 

 it might perhaps be advisable to appoint competent persons at all sea- 

 ports to which sheep are imported, to examine the animals on land- 

 ing, and empowered, when suspicious symptoms appear in any one 

 of a flock, to subject the whole to a week's quarantine, during which 

 the existence or non-existence of the sheep-pox among them must 

 be evidenced*." 



Vaiiola ovina differs so much from any other erup- 

 tive malady, that we cannot agree with this proposition 

 of putting suspicious cases under such restriction : some 

 of our objections are similar to those already advanced; 

 nay, a quarantine of this kind, and under such circum- 

 stances, would be useless. The author does not appear 

 to consider the system very beneficial, for at page 7 of 

 his treatise, speaking of an outbreak of the scourge, he 

 observes, that "the only hope of saving those less 



* "The Sheep Pox," by J. Stanley Carr, Esq. London, 1847. 



