34 
Extracts from Poreign Journals. 
The Recueil de Medicine Vet£rinaire for May 1847 
contains 
“ A Summary of some recent Observations on Inoculation with, 
and Preservation of, the Virus of Sheep-pox, by M. Lebel, V.S. at 
Brie-Compte-Robert (Seine-et-Maire),” from which we make the 
subjoined extracts: — 
In 1826, Hurtrel d’Arboval asked the question, “ whether the 
virus of sheep-pox, like that of cow-pox, was capable of being 
preserved for any length of time in capillary tubes” — adding, “that 
this was a point that could be cleared up in no other way than by 
accurate experiment.” M. Lebel comes prepared to answer this 
question, qualified by fifteen years’ experience in sheep-pox prac- 
tice, natural as well as inoculated, and by observations made, 
since 1829, on twenty thousand cases of inoculation. Speaking 
ON THE CHOICE OF VIRUS, M. Lebel cautions practitioners against 
using virus from the malignant confluent pox ; and at all times 
when circumstances prove favourable to collect virus from sheep 
slightly affected with the disease, and especially from such as ex- 
hibit a benignant kind of ,pox ; in which the pustules are small, 
far apart, few in number, and full of matter; and to elect such 
sheep as have taken the disease from inoculation in preference to 
any that have caught the natural pox. This is an affair of so much 
consequence in M. Lebel’s estimation, that, when he has had no 
choice but the natural pox, yet has he refused to take matter unless 
the disease shewed itself to be of the most decidedly benignant 
character : otherwise, and indeed in the majority of cases then even, 
he preferred using matter he had by him, preserved, with the qua- 
lities of which he was well acquainted. The magnitude of the 
pustule is not of so much importance as its being isolated, or far 
apart from one another : indeed, this is a requisite considered by M. 
Lebel as indispensable . He would prefer for virus large pustules, 
with rarity and isolation, to small pustules disposed after a con- 
fluent character. And an advantage possessed by the large pustule 
is, that it possesses a serosity in its centre, as well as a circumfe- 
rent subcutaneous secretion ; the latter being that to which all 
authors have ascribed the contagious property of the pox. 
Until the year 1831, M. Lebel had, under the counsel and 
guidance of other practitioners, shewn little care or choice about 
virus, when in the July of that year he was summoned to inocu- 
late 400 sheep belonging to a farmer ; and having no choice of 
