COW-POX AND SMALL-POX. 329 



concluded from experiments on animals and children that the serum 

 of a vaccinated calf from ten to fifty days after vaccination will give 

 immunity against inoculated cow-pox. They further stated that, 

 whereas the immunity given by vaccination in the ordinary way 

 is not complete until the eighth day, the immunity obtained by 

 injection of the immunising serum is immediate. The serum has 

 also been credited with therapeutic properties and has, it is said, 

 proved efficacious in cases of small-pox. 



Jenner believed that cow-pox did not protect against itself but 

 protected against small-pox, and for a century this has been a subject 

 of much controversy. The reader is referred to the Reports and 

 conclusions of the Royal Vaccination Commission. 



Stamping-out System. It would undoubtedly be an advan- 

 tage if cow-pox were scheduled under the Contagious Diseases Animals 

 Act. Cow-keepers and dairy-men, being anxious that their trade 

 should not be interfered with, very commonly conceal the existence 

 of the disease, and perhaps nothing is known about it, unless a milker 

 infected from the cows seeks for medical advice. The contamination 

 of the milk with lymph, pus, crusts, and sometimes blood, renders 

 it unwholesome, and therefore precautions ought to be taken to 

 prevent its occurrence. If the infected cows in a herd are the last 

 to be milked, and the milker washes his hands after the milking, the 

 disease will not spread. 



