02 SMALI.-l'OX IN SIIKKT. 



in order that, in their turn, they may yield us food. 

 Our surprise, therefore, is at the great similarity met 

 with in the symptoms of an exanthematous disease 

 attacking animals, and not at any slight variation 

 observed in its development in different species. 



Investigators of medical science have attempted to 

 trace ovine pox to its origin ; but whether they have 

 succeeded in doing this in a satisfactory manner is very 

 questionable. The affection is supposed by many to 

 have arisen in Asia, and, like small-pox, to have ex- 

 tended thence to the continent of Europe. Hurtrel 

 d'Arboval says, " it may be that the clavelee sprung 

 from the same source as variola, there being so great 

 an analogy between them. The Arab physicians, more 

 especially Rhazes, were the first to give a complete 

 description of the small-pox ; but at the remote period 

 at which they wrote, there were no enlightened and 

 educated veterinary surgeons to observe and describe 

 the clavelee; and, consequently, this disease might 

 have committed extensive ravages among sheep long 

 before its existence was suspected ; this conjecture," he 

 adds, *' is somewhat supported by the opinion of M. 

 Odoardi, chief physician of Udine, who states that the 

 small-pox of man came from the small-pox in sheep. 

 A still more doubtful opinion has been advanced with 

 reference to the origin of the clavelee ; it being asserted 

 that it arose from an eruptive malady to which turkeys 

 are subject, and that when these birds are thus affected 

 it spreads from them to sheep. Some eminent medical 

 authorities have supposed that both variola and vac- 

 cinia sprung from a disease to which horses are liable, 

 called " waters in the legs " {eaux aux jamhes). This 

 hypothesis might lead us to suppose, as observed by 



