SMALLPOX AMONG SHEEP IN WILTSHIRE. 
739 
folding and sequestration being difficult of execution, incessant and often 
impracticable surveillance are the only measures, and they sometimes fail in 
arresting the progress-of contagion. The persistence of sheep-pox in 1812, 
in the department of the Somme, together with its introduction into the 
Pas-de-Calais, and its propagation in fifty nine parishes ( communes ) ; the 
appearance of the malady in seventy-four parishes of the Marne, and its 
duration nine years in the district; its extension and continuance for two 
years, from 1820 to 1822, in the department of Aube and Herault, are, 
among other proofs which I could cite here, demonstrative examples that 
the sanitary measures prescribed according to the Acts of Parliament and 
regulations in force at the present day, particularly those of sequestration 
and folding, are insufficient iii a great number of instances to arrest or con¬ 
fine the propagation of epizootic smallpox.” 
These opinions, amply supported by other continental 
writers, very fairly indicate the circumstances under which 
sequestration may be expected to be of avail; at the same time 
they show under what circumstances its failure may be anti¬ 
cipated. It may be presumed from the opinions of Air. 
Gamgee, as recorded in the daily papers, that the infected 
flocks in the vicinity of Devizes are so situated as to render 
segregation and isolation practicable and, to some extent, 
successful measures. On the other hand, the general cha¬ 
racter of the outbreak and the malignancy of its first irrup¬ 
tion in Air. Parry’s flocks give a high degree of probability to 
the assumption that the disease is epizootic in nature, and 
that this outbreak is but the forerunner of a more wide-spread 
manifestation of the disease. If this be the case, knowing 
the usual course of epizootic smallpox among a flock, the 
gravest doubts may be entertained of the sufficiency of sepa¬ 
ration and isolation to save the flock in every instance or to 
restrain the extension of the disease. 
Separation and isolation failing, inoculation is our only 
resource. But before noting the value of this remedy, let us 
first see in what manner, and under what circumstances, Eng¬ 
lish veterinary surgeons advocate its use. We quote here 
from that standard work, Stephens’s f Book of the Farm,’ 
which, we believe, pretty accurately expresses the opinions 
most commonly held on this subject both at home and 
abroad : 
“ We decidedly object to the plan of inoculation simply as a means of 
precaution, whilst a flock is free from the disease, as by this means we pro¬ 
pagate an infectious disorder, though in a mild form. The plan we advise, 
after some experience and considerable reflection, is, as soon as the disease 
appears in a flock, to practise separation and examination as rigidly as pos¬ 
sible, but at the same time to inoculate one or two sheep. Then, if we find 
that the disease extends in spite of our daily examination, we shall have 
from these inoculated cases favorable lymph for the inoculation of the 
remainder. If some twelve or twenty cases of smallpox have really occurred, 
then, without any further delay, we advise inoculation to be practised on the 
