447 
Home Department. 
SECOND REPORT ON THE PREVENTION 
OF 
PLEURO-PNUEMONIA IN CATTLE BY INOCULATION. 
By Professor Simonds, Veterinary Inspector to the Royal 
Agricultural Society. 
In the former Report which we had the honour of submit- 
ting to the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society on the 
subject of the inoculation of cattle as a preventive of Pleuro- 
pneumonia, we drew attention to the proceedings which had 
been adopted on the Continent, and more particularly in 
Belgium, towards establishing this method of imparting 
security against that insidious and fatal disease. From the 
great interest wdiich this subject has excited both on the 
Continent and in England, it becomes necessary to repeat in 
this place that the plan of inoculation originated with a Dr. 
Willems, of Hasselt, who was induced to practise it after 
giving trial to various other measures ; all of which had failed 
to arrest the progress of Pleuro- pneumonia. Dr. Willems 5 
experiments date from December, 1850, but they were chiefly 
carried out during the years 1851 and 1852, and were at first 
made ort animals belonging to his father — a distiller and large 
proprietor of “ fatting cattle.’ 5 
With the introduction of inoculation the attacks of the 
disease rapidly diminished, and, it being considered that this 
beneficial change depended entirely on the employment of 
inoculation, Dr. Willems lost no time in calling the attention 
of the Belgian Government to the subject. The immediate 
effect of this step was, as stated in our former Report, the 
appointment of a Government Commission, consisting of both 
scientific and practical individuals, to investigate the merits 
of this new preventive system. This procedure on the part 
of the Belgian Government led, as was to be expected, to 
similar Commissions being instituted by other Governments, 
thereby giving a world-wide fame to the subject of cattle 
inoculation. 
Perhaps, of late years, few things connected with the dis- 
eases of cattle have excited so lively an interest or led to more 
numerous experiments than this supposed preventive of 
Pleuro-pneumonia. Under such circumstances it was not 
unreasonable to hope that, ere this, the question of the pro- 
priety of inoculation would have been both finally and satis - 
