196 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
by the hands of the milker, and induces the eruption which 
is distinguished as cow-pox. Dr. Jenner himself was pro- 
bably a convert to this doctrine to some extent, but whether 
he held it or not is of no consequence, the idea has long 
since been dispelled. 
“ Grease” is a vulgar name for a local disease of the skin 
of the heels of the horse, due to exposure to dirt and mois- 
ture ; since working horses have been more carefully tended 
the malady has decreased in frequency, but it is still common 
in large establishments where the nature of the work is 
favorable to its occurrence. The disease goes on for years 
without interfering with the animal's general health, and, 
with all respect to the medical writer on vaccination whose 
pamphlet fell into our hands a year or two ago, “ grease” 
of the horse's heels has no connection whatever with tuber- 
culous disease of the animal’s lungs. 
Cow-pox is an eruptive disease which has not appeared 
in the cow, unless it has been produced by inoculation or 
exposure, in our experience for very many years. 
Reports of an outbreak of cow-pox among cattle have reached 
us from time to time, but on inquiry they have turned out 
to be either quite unfounded or cases of spurious eruption 
on the teats of cows, and, notwithstanding the fact that 
horses with greasy heels exist on many farmsteads now as 
they did in Jenner's time, cows do not manifest any sus- 
ceptibility to the influence of that kind of virus. 
Ear more significant in its bearing upon the origin of 
cow-pox is the fact that at the time of the prevalence of 
that disease among cattle smallpox was also rife among 
men. Of the identity of the two diseases there can exist 
no doubt. Mr. Ceely, of Aylesbury, Mr. Badcock, of 
Brighton, and others, have, on different occasions, produced 
distinct vaccine vesicles in the cow by inoculating the animal 
with the matter of human smallpox, and there are instances 
on record of cows having taken the disease by mere contact 
with the linen of smallpox patients. 
Cow-pox we are strongly inclined to believe to be a 
disease which is not natural to the bovine species, 
but one artificially induced by the introduction of the 
virus of human smallpox into the system of an animal 
