3G2 
ANALYSTS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
of it from without, I ajipeal here to one of the most important 
productions of Professor Garlach Thierarztliche Praxis'’), if 
we also bear in mind that this malady has not appeared in 
Silesia since 1810, notwithstanding the increasing number of 
sheep and flocks since that time, and that before 1853 it was 
unknown, though the number of sheep must have been con¬ 
siderable in the district, great doubts are thrown on the pos¬ 
sibility of a spontaneous origin. Although the author says, 
I have had for many years my eyes on this, for the sani¬ 
tary police, most important object, I have never met with an 
instance that could possibly be considered as of spontaneous 
origin. On the contrary, in every case, when as practical 
veterinary surgeon I was consulted, I always found that in¬ 
fection was a much more probable cause than spontaneity of 
origin/^ 
Finally, when the malady has firmly established itself in 
a district, no fair or well-grounded opinion could be formed. 
The author is persuaded that the spontaneous origin in 
Pomerania never occurs, that the malady is always imported 
from Prussia, and that the infection is kept up by the annual 
inoculation of the lambs, thus constantly renewing the 
contagion. 
There are, however, some veterinary surgeons who not 
only hold the spontaneous origin of the sheep-pox in East 
Prussia for certain, but even assign as causes of its develop¬ 
ment the state in which the sheep of the small proprietors 
and the labouring classes are kept,* the condition of the soil, 
the manuring, mode of cultivation, &c. But the same would 
hold good for Pomerania, where all these conditions of small 
proprietors and labourers who have a number of sheep which 
are sent to pasture with other large flocks, as is the custom 
in East Prussia, obtain. 
The summary of the author^’s conclusion is that in the 
districts of Rummelsburg and Stolp, the sheep-pox appears 
to have been unknown up to 1853, and that it now prevails 
in permanency in the latter districts as well as in East 
Prussia. That the malady is not of spontaneous origin in 
these districts. That its permanency is to be attributed to the 
injudicious annual inoculation of the lambs. That when 
the disease breaks out, inoculation of the whole flock is the 
best remedy. In the absence of proper lymph that from the 
natural pox or even the blood may be used with impunity for 
the purpose of inoculation; by this means the course of the 
malady is cut short. That the best place for the inoculation 
is the ear. That when the operation is properly performed, 
* Almost every one owns a few sheep in the country. 
