372 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
sistence among those pathologists who, after having pro¬ 
claimed the contagiousness of pleuro-pneumonia, afterwards 
declare that this malady spares the greatest number of the 
animals in an invaded shed. This question p esents many 
difficulties. The author, without entering into any further 
details, thinks that this malady is either contagious or not, 
according to the circumstances, more or less favorable to its 
development, under which the animals are placed. The im¬ 
portant question of the contagion of pleuro-pneumonia has 
been the object of many researches, and continues to occupy 
in every country the minds of men of science. Veterinary 
surgeons, whose object has been principally to combat the 
malady, have recommended certain remedies which appear to 
them efficacious, but which, when emplo 3 7 ed by others, have 
proved to be unavailing. Hence the discredit into which these 
remedies have fallen, after having been considered almost as 
specifics. Others have occupied themselves with prophylactics. 
Dr. Willems, after having tried experiments on his father’s 
stock, announced to the world that cattle could be preserved 
from pleuro-pneumonia by inoculation with the liquor ex¬ 
pressed from the diseased lungs of those which had died or 
been sacrificed. This system has been experimented on in 
divers other countries as well as in Belgium, where experi¬ 
ments are still being carried on, which, it is to be hoped, will 
lead to a correct solution of the question. If the commission 
established in the communes of East Flanders, where pleuro¬ 
pneumonia reigns, should show that the animals after 
inoculation resist*the epizootic in this hotbed of the disease, 
there would be no longer any doubt as to the efficacy of this 
preservative of Dr. Willems. It would then only be neces¬ 
sary to determine how long the preservative power of inocu¬ 
lation would last, and whether the effect is different from 
other means of prevention, such as the use of a seton, ren¬ 
dered very active by the bichloride of mercury, the root of 
the black hellebore, &c. 
As before stated, the result of the modifications introduced 
into the system of feeding, not only on well-managed farms, 
but also in distilleries where they have ceased to feed their 
fattening stock exclusively on the refuse matters, substituting 
in part good meadow hay, clover, and mangold-wurtzel, is most 
satisfactory. 
It is also to be remarked, that the longer the malady pre¬ 
vails in a district the less will be the number of individuals 
attacked. The weaker, and those which are predisposed, first 
fall a sacrifice ; consequently those which remain, being of a 
stronger constitution, procreate more healthy individuals, 
which are better able to resist the disease. 
