ON TIIE VARIOLA OR SMALL-POX OF SHEEP. 
623 
neous practices. As to my own opinions, I shall only say, that I 
have been for some months past silently watching for the manifes- 
tation of an exanthematous disease : there have been precursory 
symptoms sufficiently strong for those who looked to find. I have 
already publicly pointed in the general way to what my views are 
regarding prevalent diseases, and shall endeavour, as far as lies in 
my power, to point out the causes, and the deductions to be drawn 
therefrom, as speedily as so wide a field and so important a subject 
will permit. Whether I am right or wrong, time can alone shew ; 
but that much may and can be done is positive, but this desirable 
consummation is not to be arrived at by blinking a question or 
jumping at conclusions. 
I do regret to see such statements as those upon which I have 
here animadverted put forth by any one, and the more so by those 
towards whom, would they have permitted me, I felt and do still 
feel and wish, nothing but goodwill. The world is. wide : there is 
“ ample scope, and verge enough,” for each and all, to render it 
needless to tread on the u kibes” of one another. 
I am, Mr. Editor, 
Your obedient servant. 
October 11, 1847. 
ON THE VARIOLA, OR SMALL-POX OF SHEEP. 
By Thos. MAYER, Sen., M.R.C.V.S., Newcastle-under- Line. 
At a time when the flocks of the United Kingdom are threatened 
with the ravages of a disease not much less fatal than the pleuro- 
pneumonia amongst cattle, it needs no apology from me in troubling 
you with this paper, if it will only tend to fling the least degree of 
light upon the subject. The chief materials of it are derived from 
the Veterinary Medical and Surgical Dictionary of M. Hurtrel 
d’Arboval, a work which every English veterinary surgeon ought 
to have in his library. 
Our insular position has, till within this few years, secured our 
flocks and herds from those formidable diseases which con- 
tinental Europe has been familiar to for several centuries, viz. 
the vesicula epizootic of 1840, the pleuropneumonia, and now the 
small-pox of sheep. 
A new era of inter-communication has now dawned upon us, 
and the gigantic power of steam has concentrated the whole of 
