590 
SMALLPOX IN SHEEP. 
symptoms, Professor Simonds had no doubt about the fact; 
and his visit to Aliington on Friday last fully confirmed his 
previous persuasion. On examining the sheep he found 
them suffering in almost every stage of the disease. Some 
in which the pox had first shown itself exhibited a staggering 
gait, with slight fever and swelled eyelids ; in others, when 
it had become more fully developed, red spots (easily dis¬ 
cernible upon the bare parts on the inner surface of the 
legs) were found thickly studded over the body ; whilst in 
those where the complaint had still further advanced, pus¬ 
tules (in form like the heads of ordinary smallpox) and 
malignant ulcers, emitting a thin, stinking matter, were the 
distinguishing features of the malady. A more loathsome 
sight than the sheep exhibit in this advanced stage can 
hardly be imagined. Previous to the visit of Professor 
Simonds we had ourselves been to Aliington, and seen some 
scores of the worst cases in a large orchard which had been 
set apart as an hospital, and anything more wretched we never 
witnessed. Some uttering tones expressive of intense pain, 
some in the last throes of death, others dead; the animals lay 
scattered about the grass, sending forth a stench that seemed 
to poison the very air, and so diseased that the application of 
the slightest force separated the wool from the skin. 
That such a disease should be highly contagious will readily 
be imagined. An instance is related (when it was intro¬ 
duced into England by the Spaniards in 1847) of its having 
broken out in a flock penned some distance off, but in the 
same field, while feeding off rape, clearly showing that the 
infection was carried in the air from one flock to the other. 
Considerable danger has in the same way arisen on the Con¬ 
tinent (where the disease is well known), from the driving of 
a healthy flock on the same road or on the same down which 
had previously been travelled over by diseased sheep, or by 
the immediate transit of a sheep-dog or a shepherd from one 
fold to another. But whilst it is so highly infectious to 
sheep, it is by no means so to other animals or to human 
beings. Cases are recorded in which children of all ages 
have been inoculated over and over again without any 
specific disease resulting; and the like experiments upon the 
cow, and even upon the goat, have been equally unavailing. 
So far, it is satisfactory to know that the disease is not 
likely to affect those whose duty may bring them in imme¬ 
diate contact with it; and that it will, in the present instance, 
be confined to Mr. PanVs flock no person can more anxiously 
desire than Mr. Parry himself. Every precautionary means 
that could be adopted to prevent the spread of the malady 
