2i8 History of Animal Plagues. 



We may reasonably presume, thence, that others of them might take the 

 infection after the accounts were written, or under circumstances which 

 might prevent the writers from attaining to the knowledge of it. It 

 must likewise be considered, that among the beasts inoculated a part 

 must have been such as were not constitutionally susceptible at all of 

 the infection by casual means, and therefore did not take it afterwards 

 on that score. But, if we reason on the simple fact alone, that a con- 

 siderable proportion of the number of the beasts inoculated have had the 

 disease again, and with at least equal violence and mortality as those not 

 before inoculated, we must grant that this practice cannot any way 

 answer the end proposed, which is solely that of preserving them for the 

 future against the bad effects of the contagion. 



' In the second place, it is likewise evinced by the same testimony of 

 facts, that the infection communicated by inoculation is not attended 

 with less violent symptoms and mortality than when received by casual 

 means. The accounts of the practice of that operation fully justify this 

 assertion.^ Hence, therefore, as well as for the last-mentioned reason, 

 inoculation appears evidently to fail of its intended purpose. 



' There are many instances, in the relations given of the trials of inoculation for 

 the murrain, of the beasts dying in a great proportion to the number subjected to 

 it. Amongst them are the following : — Noseman and his Jtwo colleagues, as we 

 have before had occasion to mention, inoculated seventeen, of which fourteen then 

 died, and two of the others, which had recovered from that infection, took a fresh 

 one casually, which appeared stronger, and carried them off. So that only one 

 was saved out of the seventeen. Doctor Fountayne, Dean of York, had four 

 inoculated, and lost one of them. Doctor Layard inoculated eight beasts, of which 

 five died, and he killed another for inspection, which otherwise might have been 

 added to them for anything that appears. Four beasts were inoculated for the 

 murrain in the spring of the year, by order of the States of Utrecht, all of which 

 had the distemper with great violence and died, as appears in the report made to 

 the states of that province of the opinion of some eminent physicians they consulted, 

 and of the result of this experiment. The following numbers died from the inocu- 

 lation performed in consequence of the subscription mentioned in the preceding 

 note, made last year for that purpose in Friesland. Out of twenty-five head of 

 young cattle inoculated the 5th day of July, ten died, besides five others which, 

 though they recovered, took the disease again afterwards casually, and then died of 

 it, as before related. Out of twenty-five that were inoculated the 20th of July, 

 thirteen then died, besides the seven before-mentioned, which, having recovered, 

 caught the infection by accidental means afterwards, and were carried off by it. 

 Out of fifty-eight that were inoculated the 9th of August and took the infection, 

 twenty-five died of the disease then, and five more died soon after of a pulmonic 

 decay occasioned by it. Four other beasts were inoculated on tlie same 9th of 

 Auo-ust, in which the infection failed. They were again subjected to the operation, 

 the 18th and 19th, in a similar manner, and, taking the disease then, two died at 

 the time, and a third soon after, from pulmonic abscesses brought on by it. In 



