TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 247 
pected. We have iiot^ however, accepted it without distrust, 
and if we dare confess it, begging the discoverer^s pardon, we 
have made the researches, one by one, of the causes of illusion 
which we were enabled to imagine. We have asked ourselves 
these questions, firstly, if by chance the lancet which was used 
for the inoculation might not have been used for some previous 
vaccination ? This was hardly possible in a school of com¬ 
parative medicine; nevertheless, we wrote to M. Lafosse, who 
auswered that the lancets of the school were never used for 
any such purpose. But, to speak the truth, we needed not 
this assurance, for we had vaccinated twelve cows or heifers 
and produced the cowpox in all. It is useless to recal here 
the object of these experiments; it suffices to state that the 
cows reproduced the pox the same as they had received it, 
neither more nor less active; instead of which the virus taken 
from the pastern of the mare by M. Corail produced pustules 
much larger and better developed, and superior to those of 
the ordinary vaccine. 
2ndly. Could it be supposed that the cow inoculated was on 
the eve of contracting the cowpox spontaneously ? This has 
been suggested, or else we should not have imagined it. Again, 
is the cowpox all at once become so common that it may be 
reasonably expected at any time ? It ' must be borne in 
mind that the pustules corresponded exactly with the 
punctures, and that in all their evolutions they have preserved 
their degrees of development, corresponding with the date of 
the inoculation. Does all this order and regularity agree 
with a spontaneous outbreak of the cowpox in the animal ? 
These two objections disposed of, there remains a third, and 
this is, perhaps, the most important one, although not a new 
one. Brom the days of the cowpox, 1799, Curmer contended 
against Jenner that the cowpox was nothing more nor less 
than the smallpox itself, transmitted fortuitously to the cow 
by the hands of the persons who milked them. Might not 
the epizootic of Riennes also have been smallpox ? Here a 
previous question is presented to our mind, viz., are horses 
liable to contract smallpox ? The most learned professors of 
the veterinary art do not mention it; nevertheless, we re¬ 
member that M. Lafosse conceived the idea and tried the 
experiment. When the smallpox had invaded the Veterinary 
School of Toulouse, he profited by this opportunity to 
inoculate some horses, but without any result. But if the 
epizootic of Riennes, if the cowpox, if the vaccine, are not 
identically the same thing as the smallpox, they have, never¬ 
theless, the greatest analogies to it, and these analogies 
explain all the mystery. Is it to be wondered at that analogies 
