REVIEW — VARIOLA OV1NA. 
437 
B. Weall, twenty died in the acute stage of the malady; twenty- 
seven more were sacrificed ; and the residue was disposed of at a 
low price, so that his loss probably amounted to about £50. The 
losses of Mr. J. Weall were, however, not so great.” 
The transmissibility of variola ovina by contagion, either as the 
result of inoculation or of contact or intercourse with diseased 
sheep, is a fact in the minds of all the best writers on the subject, in 
those foreign countries in which the disease has for a series of years 
been prevalent, established beyond any reason for question or 
doubt; still, we do not find fault with Mr. Simonds for searching 
for further proof of such facts, since it must be satisfactory to him, 
and will be to our readers likewise, to have ascertained that the 
sheep-pox is a highly contagious disease, and a disease that has its 
origin in contagion ; to which we may add, on excellent conti- 
nental authority, that it is infectious as well — by which we mean, 
transmissible through the medium of the air, without contact 
either mediate or immediate. Delafond declares the infection 
to be communicable — circumstances, we take it for granted, proving 
favourable — at a distance of two or three hundred yards. 
The ready communicability of the disease through inoculation 
being known, and at the same time it having been observed that, 
when “ caught ” or taken in the natural way, the disease was apt 
to prove malignant and dangerous, it was to be expected that, in 
countries where its ravages occasioned heavy losses, inoculation 
should be resorted to as a means of substituting a lesser for a 
greater evil, or by the direct infliction of the one staving off the 
other altogether. And we feel, in our own mind, from the nature 
and amount of the evidence, foreign though it be, bearing on this 
point, convinced of the great advantage of inoculation, notwith- 
standing Mr. Simonds’ “ too limited” experiments have not shewn 
the same result. 
“ Our experiments are too limited to suggest correct conclusions; 
and they have shewn a result so different, that, were we to found 
an opinion of the merits of ovination on them alone, it would not 
he in favour of the practice. The deaths have been at the rate of 
20 per cent. ; and even greater losses have attended Mr. Ceely’s 
experiments, as he informs us that four sheep died out of fifteen 
which he inoculated. Nevertheless, in the event of sheep-pox be- 
coming an established disease in this country, ovination must be 
