386 
INOCULATION OF SHEEP FOR SMALL-POX. 
can be no great harm in furnishing our minds with such practical 
knowledge as is to be found in the present inquiry — one which 
comprises four objects : — 
1st. Whether small- pox is frequent or rare in France — its con- 
tagion — its ravages, &c. 
2d. Inoculation with sheep-pox, as a sanitary measure cal- 
culated to restrict or arrest the progress of contagion. 
3d. Objections raised against the practice of inoculation as a 
measure of sanitary police. 
4th. Regulations imposed on the sanitary police of animals, &c. 
In reference to the first inquiry, it may be stated, that, 
1. Sheep are afflicted with an eruptive contagious disease ana- 
logous to the small-pox or variola of man, which has received the 
name of variola, sheep-pox, &c. 
2. In certain parts of France, where sheep are bred and reared, 
such as Sologne, Berri, Gatinais, and Champagne, and all the south 
of France, sheep-pox returns in a manner every year. In the local- 
ities bordering on large towns or great centres of traffic, such as 
Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, Toulouse, &c., sheep-pox is still very pre- 
valent, and is more general in situations in which farmers are en- 
gaged in fattening sheep. Compelled to buy and sell no less than 
three or four flocks every year, they cannot avoid purchasing lots 
of sheep either coming out of infected flocks, or that themselves 
have been exposed to contagion. In 1801 the flocks of the 
Hautes- Pyrenees, in 1802 those of Crease, in 1803 those of 
Rhone, in 1805 those of Seine and Marne, and in 1808 those of 
Aube and Gers, were decimated by the sheep-pox, &c. &c. &c. 
Lastly, in 1846 it raged among many flocks of sheep in the 
department of the Somme. Notwithstanding all this, however, it 
is very rare nowadays for sheep-pox to assume an epizootic form 
and ravage numerous large flocks as formerly, thanks to the benign 
influence of inoculation. 
3. Nowadays, nobody questions the contagion of sheep-pox. 
Inoculation is a positive proof of it. Nor are we less convinced 
that emanations or morbid vapours, exhaled through cutaneous or 
pulmonary transpiration, or that mucous discharges from the nasal 
and intestinal canals, mingling with the atmosphere, may not 
equally as well transmit the contagion. Now, these contagious 
emanations become mingled with air, which, especially when 
the atmosphere is dry and warm, is found to communicate sheep- 
pox to flocks in good health feeding in the same places, following 
in the same tracks, and frequenting the same watering places as 
the diseased flocks. Impregnating the shepherd’s clothes, the 
dog’s hair, the sheep’s fleeces, these emanations render both man 
and animals in good health themselves propagators, mediately, of 
