DISEASES OP THE OX AND SHEEP. 301 



districts in which rabies has shown itself. This is especially of 

 importance when days are hot ; and though we should be very 

 sorry to encourage any feelings of panic, we feel it incumbent 

 upon us again to point out the dreadful, painful, and fatal nature 

 of the malady, in order that all local authorities may be well on 

 their guard. 



VARIOLA, VACCINIA, AND VACCINATION. 



It is not the least strikiog fact about the disease " variola," 

 that it probably afflicts almost if not quite all those animals 

 which subserve the domestic purposes of mankind. Not only is 

 man himself liable to be the unfortunate prey of the ravages of 

 small-pox, but in addition the sheep, the horse, the cow, the 

 goat, the pig, the dog, and even fowls, are subject to a malady 

 which is in all essential points identical. In the present state 

 of our knowledge of the science of disease, but little can be said 

 definitely regarding the nature and degree of the connections 

 which evidently exist between the same or similar maladies 

 affecting different kinds of animals. As we have before pointed 

 out, these relationships are at the present time receiving a degree 

 of attention which is becoming very fruitful in its results. The 

 changed activities of human beings have, in common with their 

 more conspicuous consequences, also altered the maladies to 

 which they are subjected, in no small degree. Already much 

 valuable information has been gained ; but this is as nothing 

 compared with what yet remains unknown. It is, indeed, very 

 probable that there are not a few instances in which the new 

 conditions attendant upon civilisation have brought in their 

 train diseases not previously met with. One of the great needs 

 of the day is to decide in what manner and to what extent tiie 

 diseases of animals are connected with those which afflict the 

 different varieties of the human race. 



It will be clearly evident to the earnest investigator into the 

 field of pathology tiiat we must look to the causal relations 

 between the diseases of mankind and those of animals, in order 

 to understand completely the maladies which affect any individual 

 group, and at the same time to find out the methods whereby 

 thsy may be prevented, or alleviated, or cured. 



The virulently infectious fever known as variola presents 

 one of the best instances of the incalculable value which attaches 



