THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 27 



and devoted physiologist. At the moment of writing this article, 

 intelligence has reached us, that inoculation for the mitigation 

 of pleuro-pneumonia is being practised in France, Holland, and 

 Prussia, and the respective governments of these countries have 

 appointed commissions of scientific men to inquire into the success 

 and value of the practice. The inoculations are made under 

 the conviction that pleuro-pneumonia is highly contagious, and 

 spreads itself from this cause, as well as from the special causes 

 of the extension of epizootic diseases. What takes place in the 

 system of cattle after inoculation is identical with that observed 

 in man when inoculated with virus. The operation in each case 

 engenders a peculiar state of the system, which, without impart- 

 ing the disease itself to the subject, gives immunity against the 

 several causes that produce it. If the experiments shall ulti- 

 mately prove successful, we may safely say that no discovery of 

 equal importance to the husbandman has ever dawned upon the 

 veterinary science. In the United States, however, this fearful 

 disease is not so prevalent as in various other countries. This 

 arises in consequence of our cattle and horses being scattered 

 over a much larger territory, and our cities being compara- 

 tively exempt from the causes which are said to produce it ; yet 

 enough losses occur here to arouse us to a sense of the danger. 



It may be proper, however, to inform the reader, that the 

 reports of the commission to the several governments are some- 

 what contradictory, and the novel enterprise has met with some 

 opposition ; but this is the history of many improvements of 

 the past ; therefore, we must not be hasty in forming our con- 

 clusions. 



The advocates of inoculation declare that it is of equal im- 

 portance to vaccination in the human subject. "Who knows but 

 in a short time that dreadful scourge in this country, known as 

 milk sickness, or trembles, may be disarmed of its terrors by the 

 same process ? Not only milk sickness, but many other con- 

 tagious diseases, may, perhaps, be made to assume a mild and 

 innoxious form. 



As the subject is a new one to the husbandmen of this country, 

 the author may be pardoned for introducing an illustration of 

 the benefits derived from inoculation. " The town of Hasselt, in 



