Small-Pox in Sheep. 
559 
two shcop, after being pressed to do so, to tho farm of a neighbour, in 
wboso flock tho small-pox existed ; and theso two sheep were inocu- 
lated on that farm ; one of them by Mr. Cooke, of Litcham — a farmer 
who, I do not hesitate to say, at that time performed tho operation 
far better than many so-called veterinary practitioners — and the 
other by Mr. Baldwin, a veterinary surgeon of Fakenham. Both 
sheep took tho disease, and passed through its several stages ; the 
result being in no way different from that which is observed in hundreds 
of other sheep that are unprotected. Mr. Overman, however, denied 
that these sheep did take the disease. Subsequently I proposed to 
Mr. Overman, that he should send five lambs to this farm where they 
would be exposed to the disease ; and five other lambs to the Veterinary 
College ; himself selecting his most successftd cases of vaccination. 
This arrangement, although agreed to at first on his part, was not 
carried out. On the same farm to which the two sheep, inoculated 
the one by Mr. Cook, the other by Mr. Baldwin, had been sent, the 
gentleman who had vaccinated (?) sheep for Mr. Overman, Mr. Hudson, 
and others, was asked, not to vaccinate, but to inoculate the sheep. 
I do not know how he proceeded, but three weeks after his inoculation 
of the sheep, I myself saw the animals, and found many of them in 
the earlier stages of the disease ; whereas, if they had been properly 
inoculated, they would have been in the third stage, and recovering.* 
The circumstance of these sheep having the natural disease at that 
time, was communicated to Mr. Overman, who made it the ground of 
his objecting to carry out his agreement with me. 
There were, however, a few sheep properly vaccinated in Norfolk ; 
some by Mr. Bose, a surgeon ; seven or eight by Mr. Joy, another 
surgeon ; and also some by a veterinary surgeon, Mr. Smith, of Norwich. 
In these cases proper lymph was used, and every care taken ; and 
the unanimous opinion of these gentlemen was, that vaccination was 
of no avail, because it was found that both by exposure and by 
inoculation the vaccinated sheep took the small pox. The number 
of sheep really vaccinated in Norfolk in 1848, was only about five- 
and-thirty — not three or four thousand, as some persons have stated — 
and as I have just shown in the instances in which it was tried, it 
did not protect the animals against the natural infection. 
I now come to the proceedings of Mr. Bamsay, surgeon, of Shel- 
ford, Cambridgeshire, who wrote to the ' Times,' in 1848, setting forth 
the great value of vaccination; and again in 1862 to the ' Standard,' 
which letter afterwards appeared in other newspapers. He says, in 
his communication to the ' Standard,' that in 1848 he vaccinated a 
large number of sheep for Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr. Samuel Jonas, 
Mr. Hurrell, and other gentlemen in his locality ; and he leads his 
readers to infer that these sheep were perfectly protected against .the 
infection of sheep-pox, and that vaccination, therefore, ought to be 
had recourse to in order to stay the progress of the pest in Wiltshire. 
Mr. Bamsay was backed up in this statement by Mr. Sprague, surgeon, 
* The whole of these facts are stated at length in the Eeport to the Govern- 
ment, which has been sent in by Mr. Marsou and myself. 
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