727 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
THE OUTBREAK OE SMALLPOX AMONG SHEEP IN 
WILTSHIRE. 
The circumstances attending the recent outbreak of small¬ 
pox among sheep in Wiltshire are of unusual interest. The 
facts, so far as at present known, are as follows : 
In July last a fatal form of sickness broke out in the flocks 
of Mr. Joseph Parry, of Allington, near Devizes. At first 
scattered instances of the malady occurred in a flock contain¬ 
ing about 300 two-year-old ewes. In a few days, the sickness 
increasing, the lambs of this flock, which had up to this time 
been folded with their dams, were separated, put with others, 
and turned amongst the general breeding flock, making alto¬ 
gether above 1000 ewes and 700 lambs. In the course of a 
fortnight the sickness showed itself also among this flock, 
affecting the lambs as well as the ewes. It is not quite cer¬ 
tain from the accounts whether the time of outbreak in the 
general breeding flock is calculated from the first occurrence 
of sickness among the two-year-old ewes, or from the time of 
mixing the lambs of that flock with the larger flock. Pre¬ 
sently the sickness increased to so great an extent that Ci for 
days in succession as many as twenty and thirty of the ewes 
died in the most loathsome state of disease, their bodies 
covered with pustules, and a viscous matter running from the 
nose and from the eyes, rendering the sheep completely blind, 
and emitting the most foul stench.”* 
Alarmed with the rapid spread and malignancy of the 
disease, seeing that whatever he could do to check or alle¬ 
viate it was of no avail, ignorant of its nature, and, according 
to the authority just cited, “ finding that no one in the neigh¬ 
bourhood could give any satisfactory explanation as to the 
nature of the malady,” Mr. Parry sought the aid of Professor 
Simonds, of the Royal Veterinary College. This gentleman, 
on the symptoms of the disease from which the sheep were 
suffering being detailed to him, at once concluded that the 
malady was smallpox , a conclusion fully confirmed on a sub¬ 
sequent inspection of the ailing flock. But when the pro¬ 
fessor sought to trace the origin of the outbreak he w r as foiled. 
Hitherto it has been held of the smallpox of sheep as of the 
same disease in man, that it has never appeared (that is, within 
cognizable periods) except there was some traceable or pro¬ 
bable source of communication by contagion; that, indeed, 
* * Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette,’ quoted in the ‘Veterinarian* for Sep¬ 
tember. 
