TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 301 
lating and^ by diluting it greatly, deprives it of its acrimony; 
since that, grease, which was so common, has become 
comparatively rare; so much so, that veterinary practitioners 
w'ho had from eighty to one hundred cases of grease in the year 
have hardly one now in the same space of time. At .all 
events, I have never known this affection invested with an 
epizootic character, not even in the most filthy and ill-con¬ 
ditioned localities. The malady described by M. Sarrans 
had, however, all the characteristics of an epizootic, and it is 
credible that its spontaneous appearance was not caused by 
the acridity of the mud and the wet of the streets of Rieumes, 
in the spring of the year in the south of France, and that 
it should have attacked so many horses at the same time. 
Again, the malady of Toulouse, w’hich by inoculation pro¬ 
duced the cowpox, was not the grease, but this I repeat 
does not in any way detract from the merit or the interest of 
the experience of M. Lafosse, or from the fact which w^as the 
motive of it. That perhaps even an error in the diagnosis at the 
first superficial examination might have been committed by 
that distinguished practitioner, adds greatly to that interest; 
since the cause of the difference of the results obtained, 
to this day, by the divers physicians or veterinary practi¬ 
tioners who have from the time of Jenner inoculated the 
matter taken from the grease of horses could be explained. It 
w^ould in fact be possible that the small number of experi¬ 
menters w'ho affirm having seen the vaccine or cowpox result 
under this manipulation, and before their eyes after the in¬ 
oculation, either accidental or experimental, of the matter of 
grease, have had to do with a pustulous affection similar to 
that of Toulouse ; w hile those who are in greater numbers 
have obtained no result from their inoculations having taken 
the real matter of grease, which w^as then of more frequent 
occurrence, for their experiments. 
To add to the probability of this supposition these 
inoculations, wffiich are given as efficacious in their result, 
w’ere made in the country, where the causes of grease are in 
general wanting. While on the other hand, those experi¬ 
menters w’ho failed in obtaining similar results, the matter 
with wffiich they inoculated w as taken from horses affected 
with grease in large towns, where genuine grease always 
prevails more or less. In resuming, I may say that the fact 
of Toulouse, besides its own and real value, wdiich I maintain 
it has, has another very important one, and that is, the 
publicity w’hich it has acquired, and which wdll be greatly 
increased by this discussion. Veterinary practitioners will 
thereby know that there is a disease the seat of which is on 
