742 
SMALLPOX AMONG SHEEP IN WILTSHIRE. 
and diminution of anxiety and immediate expense as well as 
of ultimate loss to the farmer. 
We are fortunate in possessing an able monograph on 
variola ovina, containing an account of the first introduction 
of the disease into England, by Professor Simonds,* and we 
would refer such of our readers as are desirous to become 
fully acquainted with its character and progress to this * 
valuable book. We are glad to have to state also that Pro¬ 
fessor Simonds has been instructed by Government to investi¬ 
gate and report upon the origin and progress of the present 
outbreak of the malady. Principal Gamgee is also pursuing 
an inquiry on his own behalf in the infected district. We 
shall look forward, therefore, with considerable confidence to a 
solution of the doubts we have expressed at the commence¬ 
ment of tlvis article, and a complete history of this extra¬ 
ordinary outbreak, from the researches of these accomplished 
veterinary scholars and practitioners. 
POSTSCRIPT. 
The preceding observations were already in the press when 
we received more accurate information of the condition of the 
infected flocks and probable sources of the outbreak in 
Wiltshire. It would appear that Mr. Parry’s sheep-walk and 
neighbouring walks are traversed by so-called “ drifts,” or 
by-roads, frequently used by strange flocks and herds, to 
avoid certain tolls on the highway; that from the passage of 
strange flocks scab has been communicated to healthy flocks 
feeding on the sheep-walks traversed, and from the passage of 
infected herds vesicular murrain to herds feeding on the 
Downs; that the introduction of smallpox from a foreign 
source is, therefore, highly probable. Moreover, the mani¬ 
festation of the disease hitherto among the flocks in the 
neighbourhood of Allington may be accounted for without 
the assumption of any unusual or epizootic sensitiveness of 
the sheep to the malady; and it is most probable that, had 
the earliest cases among Mr. Parry’s flock been recognised, 
and the animals immediately killed, the extension of the 
disease would have been stayed. It would seem, also, to be 
highly probable that the further course of the disease among 
a flock, w'hen it has once shown itself, may be at once stayed 
or held in thorough check by active and complete pro¬ 
fessional inspection, and the separation and destruction of 
* ‘A Practical Treatise on Variola Ovina, or Smallpox in Sheep.’ 
Churchill, 1848. 
