22 



through the tail, placing their fiuger on one end of the thread, 

 and withdrawing the needle leaving the thread in the wound. This 

 is no doubt the handiest as well as the quickest mode of operating 

 with the thread ; but is by no means so exact or safe as that with 

 the elongated spaying needle ; for with it, and using the forefinger 

 as a guard, while he leaves only about a fourth of an inch of the 

 point of the needle extending beyond his fiuger, the operator can 

 make an incision at the exact depth he requires, and the tail is 

 seldom or never wounded deeper than it ought to be, even when 

 the animal — which not unfrequently happens — is very unsteady. 

 With the handled needle or instrument, again, no guard what- 

 ever can be applied, as its point must protrude for 3 or 4 inches 

 beyond the operator's hand ; and, if the beast is at all restless or 

 sometimes even when it is quite steady, he must make a much 

 deeper incision than he ought to do, and thus induce dangerous 

 swellings. Besides this instrument is comparatively thick and 

 broad, and must wound the tail to a much greater extent than 

 can be safely done in inoculating. 



It will be obvious that the tail of the animal is the proper place 

 to inoculate, not only from being the portion of the body with 

 which it can most easily dispense in case of any bad eff'ect follow- 

 ing the operation, but chiefly because it is the most remote from 

 the more vital organs of the animal. 



The operation should, like spaying, be steadily and carefully 

 performed, and not bustled or hurried over as cutting and brand- 

 ing generally are. 



To economize virus, only about three or four inches of the thread 

 should be saturated at a time, and it should be so for every head 

 of cattle. 



A spaying needle may be used when the proper inoculating 

 one cannot be obtained, but the longer is the better, both on 

 account of the operator being able to hold it more firmly and 

 steadily in his hand, and from its making a better opening, 

 whereby a healthy discharge of virus is encouraged. 



Making a slight incision in the tail and placing a drop of virus 

 in the wound, or using a grooved inoculating knife, is a more ex- 

 peditious mode than the needle and saturated thread, but it is not 

 nearly so certain, as the blood from the wound is apt to carry off 

 the virus before it has done its work ; nor is it so safe, for as 

 clean wounds in cattle are apt to close, the comparatively clean 

 wound thus made in inoculating with the knife not unfrequently 

 does so, and the discharge stopping, dangerous consequences ensue. 

 This the thread, by acting as a seton, to a great extent prevents. 



Dr. Willems' mode of inoculating is as follows : — " The opera- 

 tion is performed upon one of the front sides of the extremity of 

 the tail, by means of two punctures with a lancet, distant from 

 one another two or three fiuger widths. The operation is per- 



