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CHAPTER IV. 



Nature and Origin of Variola Ovina — Its Epizoo- 

 tic Character — Disease produced by Infection — 

 Experiment to test its Infectious Properties — 

 Susceptibility of different Sheep — Natural, 

 Inoculated, Distinct, and Confluent Variola — 

 Incubation — Papulation — Vesication — Suppu- 



» 



RATION — Ulceration — Desquamation — Constitu- 

 tional Symptoms — Per-centage of Deaths — 

 Treatment, Medical and Hygienic. 



Having, in the preceding portion of this treatise, made 

 mention in a general way of many of the peculiarities 

 of ovhie-pox, we intend, in the follo\\ing pages, to 

 describe its natm'e and symptoms, and also the changes 

 which take place in the tissues in consequence of its 

 attack. 



The disorder has so many points of similarity with 

 the small-pox of the human subject, that we are 

 enabled to adopt the definition of it which Mr. Erasmus 

 Wilson gives in his work on " Diseases of the Skin." 

 That gentleman has introduced a new and highly 

 scientific arrangement of these affections, in which 

 small-pox is classed among the specific and congestive 

 inflammations to which the dermoid covering is liable. 

 The lesions caused by the malady are not, however, 

 confined to the external parts of the frame ; and there- 

 fore Mr. Wilson says that " variola is an acute inflam- 

 mation of the tegumentary investment of the entire 

 body, both cutaneous and mucous, associated with 



