TiMK OF giip:atest danger. 85 



to abort their young when only slight causes interfere 

 with their general health or condition. 



In the majority of fatal cases of sheep-pox, death 

 occurs during the first week of the eruption ; under 

 ordinary cucumstances, however, the chief danger has 

 passed, and the healtli of the animal begins to improve, 

 when the vessels of the skin have eliminated the vari- 

 olous poison from the system by the exudations thrown 

 out beneath the cuticle. Most of the continental autho- 

 rities agree in stating that the constitutional symptoms 

 diminish in severity when the eruption is complete, 

 especially if the disorder assumes the distinct type : 

 they also speak of a recurrence of the fever during the 

 suppurative stage. Sacco affirms " that this period is 

 the 7nost dangerous, and that during it the patients 

 abstain altogether from food, and utter tones expressive 

 of great pain ; they heave quickly at the flanks — the 

 eyelids and lips are tumefied — a viscid and fetid mucus 

 flows from the nostrils, and an augmented quantity of 

 saliva from the mouth — they never move from the 

 fold — the prostration of their strength is great, and 

 they lie principally on their sides — the tenderness of 

 the body is so extreme, that a simple touch will produce 

 convulsions — the alvine evacuations are copious and 

 offensive — and the deranged condition of the aliment- 

 ary canal speedily carries them off*." We can bear 

 testimony to the correctness of these observations, and 

 have in the second chapter recorded the fact, that the 

 pest was most destructive to Mr. Statham's sheep in 

 the first and third stages, i. e., during the periods of 

 papulation and approaching ulceration. 



* Trattato di Vaccinazione, p. 150. 



