REVIEW — VARIOLA OVINA. 
435 
an assertion in which he is borne out by no less authority than 
that of Youatt, whose words, in giving the history of the same 
disease, are, “ It never reached Great Britain, although it has 
thinned the sheep flocks in every district in France opposite the 
English coast.” In our immunity from it so long there really 
seems something surprising. Proximate as the French and Eng- 
lish coasts are, and free and frequent as has been the intercourse 
between them almost ever since the establishment of peace in 1815, 
and lax or laxly enforced as our laws touching the importation of 
cattle and sheep notoriously are, we can but marvel that variola 
ovina has not long ere now been as prevalent and destructive as 
pleuro-pneumonia has turned out to have been. At last, the un- 
welcome visitor has come among us, and we are sorely afraid may 
prolong his stay beyond either our calculations or our desires ; since 
“ accounts are frequentl} r reaching ” Mr. Simonds “ of its (the sheep- 
pox) having broken out in different and in new places in the king- 
dom.” And now, no doubt, our readers will become curious to 
know how the ovine plague at last contrived to make its entree , and 
when and whereabouts. Mr. Simonds shall inform him. 
“ On September 4th, 1847, I was consulted by Mr. Statham, 
farmer, of Datchett, near Windsor, with reference to a cutaneous 
disease of a destructive nature that had broken out among his 
sheep. I was informed by him that he had purchased fifty-six 
sheep of the Spanish breed in Smithfield market on the 26th of 
July. Before putting them with others, he placed them in a 
separate pasture, with a view to ascertain if they were free from 
Eczema Epizootica, which so frequently makes its appearance 
after sheep have been driven from one place to another. No 
symptom of this disease having shewn itself at the termination of 
a week, the sheep were allowed to mingle with a flock of about 
two hundred ‘ Downs/ which at that time appeared to be in per- 
fect health. 
“ A few days subsequently, while going over his grounds, Mr. 
Statham saw one of the ‘ Spanish sheep ’ standing apart from the 
others ; and, on examining it, he found the surface of its body 
covered with eruption, which he thought resulted only from the 
stings of wasps or hornets, and on that account the animal was not 
removed. 
“ On the following day several more of the 1 Merinos * were 
found to be similarly affected; and from this time the disorder 
continued to spread, and many of the sheep died. 
