SMALL-rOX IN SHEEP. 523 
never, perhaps, naturally contract ; and that thus it multiplies the 
fomes of contagion and the media of transmission. 
2dly. That at times inoculation breeds a disease as intractable 
and fatal as the natural pox. 
3dly. That it may turn out detrimental to the profits of graziers, 
by impairing the rearing, fattening, pasturing, shearing, and the 
vending of the sheep and their wool. 
It will be easy for me to shew that none of these objections are 
of great weight. 
20. First Objection : That inoculation must prove disad- 
vantageous , by giving animals the small-pox who otherwise 
would probably never have had it. Experience up to the present 
time has shewn that in the case of a flock being attacked by the 
pox, although but a small number may have it in the first instance, 
the remainder are certain to become infected, and in succession at 
twice or thrice to contract the disease. In this both authors and 
veterinarians agree. While, then, on the one hand, it is clearly 
the interest of an individual sheep-owner, whose flock is infected 
with the pox, whatever may be the number that have the disease 
or have already had it, to cause the rest to undergo inoculation with 
the view of staying further loss ; on the other hand, to limit the 
duration of the disease, to render it benignant when it would be 
fatal, or to continue its mild form should it have so set in, to lessen 
the fomes of transmission, to sequestrate, to fold for as short a time 
as possible the infected flock in order to diminish the media of pro- 
pagation ; — is this not consulting the individual as well as the 
general interests of all sheep-owners in the neighbourhood 1 Un- 
der these circumstances, it appears to me the objection in question 
cannot be considered of great weight. 
The inoculation of flocks up to that time free from small-pox, 
but now from their position at home, and the vicinity and relation 
of other flocks to them, exposed to it, so far as regards private and 
public interests, is another affair altogether, and one that requires 
close examination. 
Observation has shewn that, in every case in which one, two, or 
three isolated flocks are infected with the pox, if such flocks be not 
speedily and completely isolated by sequestration and folding, 
the disease soon spreads to the sheep in the neighbourhood. In 
localities where many sheep are bred, as well as in those where 
they are fatted, and particularly in places where sheep feed upon 
common pasturages, go along the high roads, and frequent the 
general watering-places, instances of contagion in the manner al- 
ready pointed out are occurring every year. Thus it is that small- 
pox, accidental and isolated at its origin, spreads from farm to 
farm, from village to village, from parish to parish, until at length 
