INOCULATION OF SHEEP FOR SMALL-POX. 
389 
— all these losses are enough for the farmer to bear : but his 
troubles do not end here. Natural sheep-pox is attended with an 
eruption of pustules over the different parts of the body, occasion- 
ing shedding of the fleece in places, and altering the quality of the 
wool ; and this loss, when the wool is fine and valuable, is by no 
means inconsiderable. 
So that sheep-pox is ever to be regarded, be its nature what it 
may, as a malady which commonly proves destructive at the rate 
of a fifth of the flock, and which, in cases wherein the sheep do 
not succumb from it, engenders infirmities at the rate of four or 
five per cent., and which, moreover, more or less reduces the value 
of the fleeces. 
Another question awaits my examination, and it is a very im- 
portant one, being no less than the propagation of sheep-pox, and 
its duration in a single flock or in several flocks, as calling for the 
imperative exercise of sanitary measures, at all times very incon- 
venient, and sometimes very annoying to farmers. 
10. Whenever sheep-pox breaks out in one or several flocks, 
the sanitary measures it behoves the authorities to see put in ex- 
ecution, in accordance with the laws in force at the present day, 
are, inspection, sequestration to the pens, folding in the field, the 
slaughtering of such sheep as are deemed incurable, the interment 
of the carcasses ; lastly, the prohibition of vending or exposing for 
sale sheep either in a state of disease or contagion. 
All these measures, sequestration to the pens, folding, prohi- 
bition of sale, become additional inconveniences and annoyances 
to the proprietors. 
11. In winter, to be sure, sequestration to the pens is a measure 
attended neither with trouble nor expense. Providing the farm 
wherein the disease prevails is isolated, the flock can go out 
about the neighbourhood and visit their watering-places ; but in 
case the farm should border on other estates to which the flock, by 
going out, might convey the contagion, a measure like this becomes 
inconvenient. The sheep must be watered in their pens. They 
cannot be permitted to go abroad ; and constant residence in their 
habitations, often insalubrious by accumulations of dung, for at 
least three or four months, may occasion abortions, ulceration of 
the umbilicus in the lambs, and sometimes the mange or the rot in 
the flock. During the continuance of the fine weather season, and 
when the situation and condition of the pastures is such as not to 
admit of folding, sequestration in pens, at a time that the sheep 
ought to be getting their living in the fields, becomes a source of 
expense, a cause of their losing their fat, and a failure in crop to 
the farmer. 
VOL. XXI. 
3 G 
