TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 747 
is a contagious disease; this fact was established for the first 
time by the Veterinary Medical Association of Eure-et-Loir, 
in 1847/’ We agreed at that time to this opinion, having 
made researches and experiments jointly with Drs. Rai- 
bert and Authoine, with a view to elucidate this subject. 
Further on, M. Moisant asserts that the contagious character 
had, until 1847, escaped the notice of such men as Dau- 
benton, Tessier, Yvart, Huzard, Gasparin, Hurtrel d’Ar- 
boval, and Delafond, who had studied the malady. In the 
face of these facts it is not quite so evident that the contagious 
nature of the malady had escaped the observations of these 
great men. How has the Medical Association of Eure- 
et-Loire, and all those who have again made experiments, 
established the certainty of contagion ? By direct inocu¬ 
lation, and not otherwise. It is to be regretted that M. 
Moisant has neglected to mention under what condition 
this inoculation is to be performed, and the results which 
have been obtained. That by introducing the putrid 
matter of the sang de rate under the skin of a sheep in 
perfect health, the appearance of gangrenous or charbonous 
tumours might be produced, is not surprising to those w r ho 
have ascertained the putrid character of the blood in animals 
affected by this malady; but that direct inoculation has the 
power of reproducing in all its integrity the symptoms and 
lesions appertaining to this malady require to be proved to 
demonstration. M. Moisant continues —“A doubt existed, 
which it was not easy to remove in those districts where the 
malady developes itself spontaneously. The object was to 
determine whether the contagion could be effected at a dis¬ 
tance, either mediately or by volatile virus. The commission 
on splenic apoplexy of Eure-et Loir named by the Minister 
of Agriculture and Commerce, presided over by M. Yvart, 
veterinary inspector, considered it one of their first duties to 
solve this doubt; to this effect they instituted a series of 
experiments, which were as follows:—In 1858, the sang de 
rate committed great ravages in Beauce. The commission 
selected a farm, where, in the memory of living man, the 
malady had never prevailed, the sheep-pens of which they 
divided into two halves by a double partition of open lattice- 
work, about one metre in height, and one metre thirty centi¬ 
metres apart. In one compartment the flock of the farm, 
perfectlyfree from the malad} r , was confined ; in the otherwere, 
successively introduced, sheep affected with splenic apoplexy. 
The commissioners found that only three of the former died, 
and that in one only the lesions of this malady were dis¬ 
covered, during the space of three months and seven days. 
