SMALLPOX AMONG SHEEP IN WILTSHIRE. 737 
flocks little doubt can also be entertained, if wbat we have 
advanced be correct. There is, indeed, but one which offers 
absolute safety to the flock, or which gives a sure promise of 
mitigating the loss and anxiety of the farmer, to wit, inocu¬ 
lation. But the practice of inoculation is liable to be attended 
by evils of so grave a character that it is not to be adopted 
without serious consideration. It is not, indeed, to be won¬ 
dered at that at the first outbreak a difference of opinion 
should have been manifested upon the propriety of its adoption 
by the chief authorities consulted on the question. Professors 
Simonds and Gamgee. 
The question is one of immense moment both to the farmer 
and the public. It very seriously involves the substance of 
the farmer, and a staple article of food of the latter, as well as 
certain important manufactures. The value of the flocks in 
this country is estimated at no less than ^100,000,000.* 
But the loss to the farmer is not to be estimated solely by 
the numerical diminution of his flocks from the mortality 
occasioned by the disease. In this loss must be estimated 
the losses occasioned by the death of sheep fat and fitted for 
the butcher, of sheep selected and set apart for the improve¬ 
ment of breed, the dropping of lambs, the loss of lambs de¬ 
prived of their dams, from the difficulties experienced in 
rearing them, the deterioration in the flock which recover from 
the sickness and the impossibility of fattening them for a 
season, the loss of the wool, one of the most important losses, 
and, finally, the occasional destruction of the eyesight of the 
animal. Add the expenses occasioned by the most ordinary 
care and attendance required during an outbreak of the 
disease, and some conception may, perhaps, be formed of the 
loss a sheep-farmer may be subjected to whose flocks have the 
misfortune to be attacked with smallpox. 
The mortality among sheep affected by epizootic smallpox 
ranges from 12 per cent, in the milder to 50 per cent, in the 
graver outbreaks among different flocks. Occasionally the 
mortality reaches even a higher rate, as much, indeed, as 60 
or 70 per cent., as was observed in several flocks in this 
country in the outbreak of 1817-50. Generally an outbreak 
of epizootic smallpox involves a loss of at least one fifth of 
a flock. When the disease has become established among 
the flocks of a country, and is an annual visitant, or re¬ 
curs at frequent intervals, the mortality may not exceed 7 
per cent. 
The mortality is affected both by atmospheric conditions 
and the state of the animal at the time of attack. It is found 
to be augmented either by great heat or by cold, by a low, 
* ‘ Times/ letter from a correspondent. 
XXXV. 
47 
