52 RINDERPEST. 



to establish his theory of the identity of the Pest with human 

 variola. 



" They are observed to have scabby eruptions come out in their 

 groins and axillae that itch much ; for a cow will stand still, hold out 

 her leg, and show great signs of pleasure when a man scratches these 

 pustules or scabs for her." 



After seeking in vain to satisfy his mind as to the distem- 

 per being propagated through certain kinds of food, green or 

 dry ; being in doubt whether its cause was in the air, or at- 

 tributable to the changes of the seasons, as to moisture and 

 cold, he affirms his clear conviction on one point : 



" This was certain, the viscera concerned in respiration are the parts 

 chiefly affected." 



In his third account he gives " an instance of the most sur- 

 prisingly quick progress of this distemper not come 



to the state of purging," the case of a cow, in which the in- 

 flammation in general was greater than in any he had before 

 seen ; which had, under the specific treatment then mostly 

 relied upon, not only as a curative but prophylactic, •been 

 bled about three weeks before she was taken, and once as 

 soon as taken. The autopsy was as follows : 



" The caul was greatly inflamed, the paunch inflamed, and the inner 

 coat peeled off, especially that of the (abomasum) faidle ; the guts 

 were all inflamed ; the liver was much inflamed in some parts, in others 

 was turned livid ; the gall bladder was very large, and the gall very 

 liquid ; the lungs adhered in many places to the pleura, were greatly 

 inflamed and turgid with blood, and were in many places quite black; 

 he did not find any of the watery bladders on the surfiice of these as 

 he did on all the others he had seen opened." 



If the examination we have given to Bates' autopsies, 

 Layard's Treatise, and Mortimer's papers, may seem to 

 have been unduly extended, we must seek our apology in the 

 conclusive evidence thus furnished, negativing the dictum of 

 the Eoyal Commission, that the Kinderpest had appeared in 

 England prior to its introduction in 18C5. 



Making due allowance for any attributable imperfection in 

 the accounts given by those who may not have possessed the 

 same accuracy of descriptive power attained by modern 



