348 
THE VETERINARIAN, MAY 1, 1879. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.—C iceeo. 
CAN PLEURO-PNEUMONIA BE COMMUNICATED BY 
MEDIATE CONTAGION? 
In the recent issue of the Journal of the Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society an interesting report is published relative to 
the inquiries which have been undertaken by Dr. Burdon 
Sanderson, at the Brown Institute, for the purpose of elu¬ 
cidating certain obscure points in the pathology of pleuro¬ 
pneumonia. 
It will be within the recollection of our readers that at the 
time of the commencement of the investigation,which was con¬ 
ducted under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
we pointed out that the main point in dispute was the com¬ 
municability of pleuro-pneumonia otherwise than by associa¬ 
tion with a diseased animal. The literature of the disease, 
English and Continental, the former mainly a more or less 
exact transcript of the latter, contains many vague general 
allusions to the extension of the affection by the agency of 
various products of diseased animals, portions of lungs, hides, 
manure, urine, and fodder, which has been contaminated 
with the excreta from sick cattle. Failing to discover in 
these allegations anything more than the mere outcome of 
that system of repetition which appears to be a necessary 
part of the art of making books, we appealed to our obser¬ 
vations, which are coextensive with the existence of pleuro¬ 
pneumonia in this kingdom; and we did not on this basis 
hesitate to state our conviction that the disease differs from other 
known contagia, in the circumstance that it cannot be pro¬ 
pagated by means of the morbid products, as foot-and-mouth 
disease, sheep-pox, glanders, and farcy, for example, can be 
with absolute certainty. 
At the beginning of the inquiry it was proposed to obtain 
authority from the Privy Council to move diseased animals 
to the Brown Institute for observation ; we pointed out, how¬ 
ever, that this course would vitiate the results of the principal 
experiments, and it was agreed that a certain number of 
healthy animals should be kept sufficiently long to insure that 
they werefreefrompreviousinfection,and then an effort should 
be made to induce pleuro-pneumonia by any means short 
of contact with a diseased animal. We need not follow the 
course of the experiments which are described in detail by Mr. 
Duguid ; it is enough to say that the results were negative 
