624 ON THE VARIOLA OR SMALL- POX OF SHEEP. 
Europe into one great city ; and I hope I may add, into one great 
family and brotherhood; in fact, it has destroyed both time and 
space : we therefore cannot wonder, whilst its mighty influence 
rolls immeasurable wealth and knowledge into the country, that it 
should also drag along at its chariot- wheels dire disease and death. 
This disease was first observed in France in the sixteenth 
century, since which period it has ravaged the country more or 
less as an epidemic every ten or fifteen years, sweeping off from 
one-third to one-half and three-fourths of entire flocks. But it is 
found existing more or lessen demicaily in some of the departments 
of France all the year round ; more particularly in the environs 
of Paris, to which point it concentrates itself through the medium 
of the flocks sent to the metropolitan market; consequently, the 
environs are seldom free from it. 
In England it has not been publicly recognised till this year ; 
and I think, if.it had had a previous existence, it must ere this, by 
the ravages it makes wherever it occurs, have forced itself pro- 
minently to the notice of the agriculturists and veterinary sur- 
geons of the kingdom. 
On this occasion the present affection was imported from Den- 
mark and Hamburgh, and I fear, like the pleuro-pneumonia, will 
become indigenous to the country. 
The small-pox manifests itself by a cutaneous inflammation 
peculiar to the sheep, followed by a partial or general eruption of 
pocks, which inflame, secrete a peculiar kind of fluid, and dry up 
and fall off. These pocks are peculiar in being vesicular and pro- 
minent, occurring more particularly upon the exposed parts of 
the body which are free from wool; and it is not impossible in 
aggravated cases, from the continuous sympathetic affection ex- 
isting betwixt the skin and membranes of the stomachs, intestines, 
and bronchial tubes, for it to permeate those tissues, modified in its 
physical characters by the peculiarities belonging to mucous tissues. 
In cases where the eruption is more developed, the pocks extend 
over the whole of the body. Sheep can only have the disease once. 
It is highly contagious and infectious, making its attacks at all 
seasons upon the strong and the weak, but more particularly upon 
the younger portion of the flock ; and it is not unusual for nearly 
the whole to be swept away. Fortunately, it is not communicable to 
man. 
Although this disease is generally propagated by contagion or 
infection, yet there are times and seasons when it appears de- 
veloped in an epidemic form spontaneously, appearing dependent 
upon those extraordinary and inexplicable atmospheric influences 
inappreciable to our limited intellects and means, save by the 
effects witnessed. 
