CHAPTER XXI. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES— continued. 

 VAEIOLA OVIN^ (SHEEP-POX). 



Synonyms. — Clavcau or Clavelee (F.) ; Schafpocken, Scliaf- 

 pochenseicclie, and Schafhlattern (G.) 



Definition. — A contagious and infectious eruptive disease, 

 analogous to small-pox and cow-pox ; runs a definite course, and 

 occurs but once, as a rule, in the same animal. It is divided 

 into two forms : — 1st. A malignant, virulent, or confluent form ; 

 and 2d. A benign or discrete form. The malignant form never 

 produces vesicles ; the sheep lose their eyes ; their wool falls off, 

 the skin cracks in a zig-zag manner, and the nostrils become 

 filled with a fcetid discharge. In the benign form, genuine 

 vesicles appear, wdiich, after the scabs fall, leave pits in the 

 skin, on which the wool never grows again. According to Pro- 

 fessor Simonds the disease is not communicable to the cow or to 

 children. Saccho, however, states that ovination is protective 

 against small-pox. 



HISTORY. 



Sheep-pox is said by Mr. Fleming to have appeared as an 

 epizootic in England about a.d. 1277, but that it was well known 

 in Britain more than two hundred years previous to 1275, and 

 was called the Ftot. The term variola had, however, been made 

 use of in 5C9 {Animal Plagues, 1875). But in more modern 

 times sheep-pox was unknown in this country until 1847, w^hen 

 it broke out on a farm at Datchett, near Windsor, where it was 

 introduced by fifty-six merino sheep, brought to this country in 

 the ship " Trident," from Tonning, in Denmark. 



Professor Simonds, in his treatise on Variola Ovinae, says of 



