146 PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 
malignant disease of the genitals ; five English stallions and 
a hundred and fifty of his own produce (I expect this must 
include mares) died of it. It appears that covering too many 
mares does not influence the development of the disease, 
and that the reiterated awakening of the venereal organ, 
without satisfying it, induces inflammation of the testicles in 
stallions, and cerebral affection in mares. 
The Arabs and even French soldiers in Africa, have a 
bestial notion that if affected with syphilis connection with a 
female ass will cure them ; or what is more infamous still, 
that seducing a young virgin, is the most efficacious means 
to arrest its progress. I need not enumerate a whole list of 
diabolical crimes that disgrace the less civilized of our race, 
but have alluded to these facts as in a letter from General 
Daumas, Director-General of Affairs in Algeria, to Magne, 
Professor in the School of Alfort, the opinion is emitted as it 
has been entertained by several that the contagious disease 
of the generative organs, which has been the cause of a 
frightful mortality amongst the horses of some Arabian tribes, 
found its origin in the transmission of the syphilitic virus 
from man to animals. 
Leblanc strongly repudiated this notion before the Parisian 
Central Society, grounding his remarks on incontestible 
proof, he says to have obtained, that the syphilitic poison of 
man excites no disease if inoculated in the horse. 
I do not mean to defend the notion of any identity between 
the chancres of the genitals in animals and those in man, but 
thanks to Auzias-Turenne, it is positively demonstrated that 
from man to animals, and animals to man, syphilis may 
extend. 
The question is such an important one that I offer no 
apology for the translation here, of ashortchapterfrom Sperino’s 
work on syphilisation ; a work which, even if it ultimately 
proves, as we have no reason to expect it will, based on false 
views, and mistaken observation, must inevitably perpetuate 
its author’s name for the ardent love for inquiry displayed, 
the dispassionate research in quest of truth, and the noble, 
forbearing manner with which he supports the bitter oppo- 
sition from within and without the Sardinian frontiers. 
Is syphilis peculiar to the human species, or is it communi- 
cable to the lower animals? “Almost unanimous,” says 
Sperino,“ till lately, medical men admitted the non-transmissi- 
bility of syphilitic diseases to brutes. The unsuccessful 
inoculations of Hunter, of Turnbull, of Ricord, of Castelnau, 
had consolidated this ancient belief. Towards the close of 
1844, M. Auzias-Turenne read a memoir before the Academy 
