INOCULATION. 105 



speak favourably of the operation, notwithstanding the 

 weighty objections which can be urged against it. The 

 cliief of these are, that the inoculated is equally as con- 

 tagious as the natural ovine-pox, and that therefore 

 the disease will spread unless the greatest care is taken 

 to prevent even indirect contact between the infected 

 and healthy sheep. The confluent type of variola is 

 likewise found to follow ovination, and the serious con- 

 sequences of this have been frequently alluded to. 

 These are obvious defects in the system ; nevertheless 

 it has many warm supporters, from the fact of its being 

 less destmctive to life. 



Several wTiters affirm, that, when the natural small- 

 pox is allowed to run its course, the greater portion 

 of the flock will be sacrificed ; but if inoculation be 

 had recourse to, it is seldom that more than a twen- 

 tieth 'part is lost, while it often happens that the whole 

 will pass favourably through the disorder. The ex- 

 periments performed at the Alfort Veterinary School 

 shew that only one death in four hundred cases was 

 caused by ovination. In Hurtrel D'Arboval's treatise on 

 ClcweUe, it is recorded that 32,317 sheep were inocu- 

 lated, out of which 32,121 took the disease, and 196 

 escaped; that of the 32,121 infected animals, 31,851 

 recovered, and 270 died ; being at the rate of three in 

 every 400. The efficacy of the operation was Hu'ther 

 tested by exposing at different times 7,697 of the ino- 

 culated sheep to the influence of contagion, and not 

 one of them suffered therefi'om. 



Many other particulars of a similar kind might be 

 added, but no better proofs could be afforded of the 

 beneficial effects of o\-ination. Our experiments are 



