388 
INOCULATION OF SHEEP FOR SMALL-POX. 
extracts of estimates published on this head by French veterina- 
rians. From these it appears, that natural enzootic sheep-pox, 
prevailing at different seasons in the year among three, four, or 
five flocks in the same locality {commune), and those flocks being 
either of indigenous or exotic breed, habiting the north or the 
south, the east or the west of France, a fertile or barren part of the 
country, — I say, from these calculations the result is, that the scale 
of ascertained mortality from sheep-pox runs about twenty per 
cent., in the more fortunate instances it being but fifteen per cent., 
while in the most unfortunate it rises to thirty and even forty per 
cent. 
In Berri, where natural sheep-pox is in a manner enzootic and 
annual, according to the statistic accounts of M. Guillame, veteri- 
narian at Issoadan, the mortality does not exceed ten per cent. ; 
and I know positively that this mortality is about that of Sologne. 
Nevertheless, along the valley of the Loire the mortality rises, 
reaching from twelve to fourteen per cent. ; and here cultivation is 
at its highest, and the breed rather less native. 
Tn Prussia, according to an estimate made on the occasion of the 
prevalence of a natural pox in 1823, about the environs of Franc- 
fort, among different flocks forming altogether in number amount- 
ing to 51,981 head, the mortality did not exceed seven per cent. ; 
and this is the lowest average I have met with in all my investi- 
gations 
We ought, however, to add to these estimates such infirmities as 
have supervened upon recoveries, such as the loss of one or both 
eyes, lamenesses, chronic diseases of the lungs and intestinal tube, 
which amount at least to three or four per cent. 
8. When sheep-pox appears as an epizootic, the losses are very 
variable : generally, they amount to the fifth of a flock ; rarely to 
less. At other times — and, unfortunately, such instances are not so 
very rare — the mortality reaches a quarter, a third, and even the half 
of a flock. So, on a calculation of 21,825 animals attacked with 
epizootic sheep-pox in the north, the south, the east, and the west 
of France, 5087 sheep have died, making the mortality twenty-seven 
per cent., or more than a quarter. In the epizootic pox, which very 
often is confluent, the number of infirm, of blind, &c., becomes 
likewise increased, and probably may be estimated, on an average, 
at five or six per cent, at least. 
9. The death of sheep of greater or less value, set apart for the 
improvement of the breed ; — of sheep fat and fit for the butcher ; — 
the supervention of blindness ; — the difficulties thrown in the way 
of rearing lambs ; — the death of lambs, and the casualties result- 
ing from it to the dams, already in ill health from sudden suppres- 
sion of their milk ; — the expenses of measures of sanitary police ; 
