ITS INFKCTIOUS NATURK. . 65 



unknowingly conveyed, and pro])ably was, by tlie 

 butclier, the shepherd, the dog, the sheep merchant, 

 or the medical attendant. It spread by means of the 

 transport of the wool and the skins*." Mr. Mayer, sen., 

 veterinary surgeon, of Newcastle, in a paper published 

 in The Veterinarian, uses nearly the same words as 

 Mr. Youatt, and adds, that it is difficult to decide accu- 

 rately at what precise period an infected animal would 

 be incapable of propagating the disease, as it lurks so 

 long amongst the woolf ." In the month of October 

 we were consulted with reference to variola ovina 

 breaking out in a flock belonging to Mr. Wm. Barber, 

 of Nursling, Southampton ; and in reply to our inqui- 

 ries this gentleman said, that he could attribute its 

 appearance to no other cause than infection. Many 

 agriculturists whose sheep have suffered fi'om the 

 malady believe it to be communicable both by contagion 

 and infection. Mr. Fielder, of Sparsholt, affirms that 

 the latter cause produced it in some of his lambs ; and 

 as his communication to The Farmers Magaz'uie con- 

 tains many pointed remarks on the progress of the 

 disorder in his flock, we will here insert it. 



" On the 16th of August, 1847, being in Smithfield, I purchased 

 118 Spanish sheep. For nearly a month no sheep could go on better, 

 with the exception of one, which never appeared healthy, but no 

 cause for its illness shewed itself ; I did not examine it at the time 

 to see if any marks of the small-pox were on it, never having 

 heard of such a disease in sheep. At about the end of three weeks, 

 or nearly a month, it died ; and about that time I found some more 

 of the Spanish sheep falter, and half a dozen of the Southdown 

 lambs which were with them : the Spanish sheep having been put 

 into a flock of 300 lambs of that description. They continued to get 



* Sheep; their Breeds, Management, and Diseases, p. 541. Lon- 

 don : 1837. 



t The Veterinarian, p. G2o, vol. xx. 



K 



