472 
EDITORIAL REMARKS. 
to have a murrain among our sheep, to destroy our staple ani- 
mal food — mutton — likewise, we shall, indeed, soon have reason 
to despond. Let us, then, rouse ourselves in time. Let us, if the 
invader have not already blown his pestilential breath amongst our 
flocks, without another day’s delay, set about doing every thing in 
our power to stave off* the contagion. Sheep imported in a state 
of actual disease, must, on no account, be permitted to be landed ; 
or, if disembarked, must on no account be suffered to be sold, or 
be taken from the place of disembarkation, but then and there be 
put to death, and their carcasses, unfit for human food, be either 
forthwith burned or buried. 
But, who is to determine that the sheep are diseased ? — that they 
actually have that infectious as well as contagious and sadly fatal 
disease, the small-pox ? Inspectors must be appointed for this pur- 
pose at the several seaports wherein such importations are made ; 
and these inspectors ought to be men qualified for their duty, other- 
wise the dreaded malady, in some incipient or insidious form, may 
still escape notice, and so, after all, gain admission. It is said there 
are persons appointed as inspectors. A communication, however, 
has lately reached the Editor of the Mark Lane Express, “ in which 
the writer complains of the inefficiency of the parties appointed.” 
Are the inspectors veterinary surgeons ? because, if they are not 
professional, they most assuredly ought to be. No other descrip- 
tion of person can be so well fitted for the office : and in an affair 
of such vital importance as this, surely every nerve should be 
strained to give efficiency to the barricade which close and clever 
inspection opposes to the introduction of so grave an evil. 
And we wish, with all our heart, we could add, that inspection, 
circumspectly and scientifically conducted, were an effectual barri- 
cade. Unfortunately it is not — cannot, in fact, from the nature 
of things, at all times — prove so. The disease may exist in a 
latent — in an incubative form ; no symptom, no external mark 
of it, may be detectible : the sheep may exhibit every sign of 
health, and yet the seeds of small-pox may be floating in its 
blood, ready, in due season, or on receiving any provocative, to 
burst forth into pimple and pustule. Hence it is, that not merely 
inspection of the imported sheep is called for; but, would we act 
on the safe side, quarantine as well, at least of afry sheep that 
