REVIEWS. 
349 
to be invaded, or which, by timely precautions suggested by 
veterinary surgeons, were able to avert its desolating ravages. 
Holland, a country that suffered almost as severely as our 
own in 1865-67, and where veterinary medicine was held in 
as little esteem, quickly discovered that her severe misfortune 
was largely, if not altogether, due to her neglect of this 
science, and began to reform her veterinary school and im- 
prove the instruction afforded in it. Belgium, which also, 
by its contiguity to Holland, suffered heavily from the re- 
peated importations of the scourge, shared in the desire to 
aid comparative pathology, even beyond the excellent school 
and teaching staff she maintains, and decorations and pecu- 
niary rewards were unsparingly bestowed on those of our 
profession who had exerted themselves to extinguish the 
contagion. Medical men also took a lively interest in the 
study of the plague, and so far from defaming and abusing 
veterinary surgeons, as they did in England, they appear to 
have been prompt in recognising the necessity for active 
measures, and in applauding the success attending the stern 
suppression of the pestilence. Even with its final eradication 
their interest appears to have continued unabated; for so 
late as 1869, the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium 
offered handsome prizes for the best memoirs on the disease, 
with reference to its symptoms, causes, anatomical lesions, 
and nature, considered in the different species of animals 
capable of contracting it, and with regard to its diagnosis. 
The two works at the head of the above list were successful 
in obtaining awards, and much credit is due to their authors 
for having, in a clear and concise manner, summed up what 
was known of the malady at the time they commenced their 
task. The symptoms, necroscopic appearances, varying 
characteristics, and essential features of the malady are care- 
fully enumerated, and evidently no pains have been spared 
to indicate the peculiar morbid characters that have distin- 
guished it at different invasions. Although there is nothing 
absolutely new in either of the memoirs, yet they can both be 
confidently recommended as affording a trustworthy resume, of 
what is known of the disease at the present time, the latest 
researches having been alluded to and commented upon. 
With reference to the transmissibility of the contagion to 
other than bovine animals, it is worthy of remark that on 
the Continent, until 1859, it was generally believed that the 
latter alone were liable to its attacks ; and in this country, 
until 1865, when sheep became infected, the same belief was 
entertained. Yet for at least more than two centuries 
observers had reported sheep and goats as suffering from the 
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