DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 185 



ID damp or cold weather. If the weather is severe, cows which 

 have been inoculated should have their bodies clothed, and straw 

 should be fastened on to the rafters of the byre. If suffering 

 from any illness, no animal should be inoculated. It is not 

 safe to inoculate cows, until at least sixteen days or more have 

 •elapsed since calving. Pregnant cows should not be inoculated 

 after the seventh month. Mr. Rutherford has arrested the 

 disease in over a hundred outbreaks, and the average mortality 

 is not over 2 per cent. Other observers have spoken highly of 

 inoculation, and among those who thought favourably of it was 

 the late Mr. D. Gresswell. 



Dr. Burdon Sanderson and others have recommended the in- 

 jection of the lymph into the venous system, e.g. the superficial 

 aural vein, by means of a small syringe. Professors Thiernesse 

 and Degive concluded that intravenous injection is not dangerous, 

 if care be taken that not a single particle fall into the cellular 

 •tissue, and they hold that the animal is by this means protected 

 from epizootic pleuro-pneumonia. The steel canula should be 

 plunged into a vein, and then the syringe adapted carefully ; and 

 •care must be taken that all the fluid is injected into the vein 

 before withdrawing first the syringe, then the canula. We 

 •certainly do not think that intravenous injection is more safe 

 than Mr. Rutherford's method, or that of Professor Williams 

 •and other authorities ; and it has the great disadvantage that, 

 if by any mischance gangrene should set in, death is inevitable; 

 whereas in the other case the tail can be amputated, if it is the 

 rseat of gangrene, or if there is great local disturbance liable to 

 be dangerous to the system. 



The conclusions of the Belgian Commission were, shortly, 

 'that the phenomena which follow inoculation are those of local 

 inflammation, which is slight in some cases, but may be exten- 

 sive and aff'ect the system, and may be complicated by gan- 

 grenous accidents, so that even death may result ; and that 

 the inoculation of the liquid from the lungs of an animal affected 

 •with pleuro-pneumonia protects the larger number of animals 

 from the malady for a certain period. The number of animals 

 •on which the operation was beneficent was 61'11 per cent., and 

 the recoveries amounted to 88-88 per cent. This average is 

 therefore even better than could be expected, if due allowance 

 be made for accidental factors. Perhaps investigators may ulti- 



