SMALL- POX IN SIIEEP. 
525 
practised, whether upon such animals as remain free from disease 
in infected flocks, or on flocks threatened with or on the point of 
inevitable contagion, the operation has invariably, either in one 
case or the other, led to the happiest results ; and facts are not 
wanted to prove this assertion, should it be disputed. 
21. SECOND Objection: Inoculation may communicate a 
disease as intractable and fatal as the natural pox. — I know of no 
facts to prove that inoculation has occasioned mortality at all equal 
to natural pox. 
The most unfortunate result to be found among the subjects of 
inoculation is that related by Lapeyrouse in 1840. By this it 
appeared, that out of 190 sheep inoculated, 26 went through it 
with perfect success ; but 164 experienced gangrenous affections 
of the inoculated places, out of which number 25 died and 139 
recovered. So that the loss was from 13 to 14 per cent. ; a mor- 
tality about equal to the average consequent on epizootic natural 
pox. It is incumbent on me, however, to state, that this extraor- 
dinary mortality was the result of deep punctures made underneath 
the skin during a temperature of 26° and 27° of Reaumur (58° and 
59° of Fahr.), and the prevalence of a strong oppressive south wind. 
And, moreover, it is worthy of remark, that about the same time 
the natural pox was raging in other flocks of M. Lapeyrouse, 
among which his loss amounted to 20 per cent. So that a very 
unfavourable inoculation, made at a time very unfavourable to 
success, did not occasion the same mortality as the natural pox. 
There is no doubt but that the best inoculations may be followed 
by serious or gangrenous results ; but such accidents become more 
rare as we advance, and do not now, I have authority for saying, 
exceed 2 per cent. 
In the case of epizootic pox, the mortality is generally deter- 
mined, it may be observed, by a confluent and malignant disease, 
and very often we are necessitated to inoculate from this pox : 
the result is an ill-favoured disease, which, if it be not followed by 
death, produces, through the violence of the febrile re-action ac- 
companying it, abortion in pregnant ewes, suppression of the milk 
in those suckling, alteration in the wool, and diminution in the 
weight of the fleece ; and, lastly, wasting away of fat sheep. I 
grant that these observations are just; nevertheless it is my duty 
to remark, that, in case we should be necessitated to take lymph 
from malignant pox, which is but rarely the case, we must not be 
deterred from inoculation. From investigations I have made con- 
cerning such inoculations, under circumstances even where many 
of the animals from which the lymph has been taken have died, I 
find that out of 2544 sheep, reckoning in the number, young lambs, 
sheep of different ages, ewes heavy in lamb, and old sheep, 2464 
VOL. XXI. 4 B 
