VACCINATION AND EQUINE DISEASES. ' 765 
discharge from the diseased skin of horses' heels would, by 
inoculation, induce cow-pox in man or cow, as carefully 
conducted experiments have failed to produce it, particularly 
in the latter. And though recent observers, and more espe¬ 
cially the French veterinary professors, Lafosse and Bouley, 
have observed an eruptive disease in horses, which may be 
termed horse-pox," that is communicable to man and the 
cow, yet in this malady the lungs are unaffected. So that 
this phantom of consumption, which has been so carelessly 
raised, and so energetically paraded before the public as a 
reason why vaccination should not be practised, may be 
unhesitatingly exorcised to the realms of dark ignorance. 
With respect to the assertion that cows never have cow- 
pox naturally, or rather spontaneously, this also is incorrect, 
as already stated. It has been witnessed to occur in this 
form in India, Persia, South America, France, Germany, 
Norway, Holland, Italy, twice in Algiers, and also in this 
country; and it may be remarked that in some of the regions 
where it has been so observed, grease" in the horse is 
unknown. 
Thus far, then, Mr. Editor, I have ventured to trespass 
on your columns in laying before your readers what I believe 
to be a correct statement of facts relative to vaccination, as 
it bears on veterinary science. Beyond the grave public 
question involved in the discussion as to its utility in con¬ 
ferring immunity on our own species from a deadly and 
loathsome disease, it is one full of interest to the comparative 
pathologist; but, unfortunately, in all the creatures beneath 
man in the scale of intellect and organisation, vaccination is 
powerless to defend them from the terrible destructiveness of 
their variolae, as witness the small-pox of sheep. Mankind 
alone appears to be favoured in this respect.—I beg to 
remain yours, most obediently, 
G. FLEMING, Veterinary Surgeon, Royal 
Chatham, Sept. I. Engineers. 
