626 
VACCINATION OF SHEEP. 
THE QUESTION OF VACCINATION OF SHEEP. 
To the Editor of the Mark Lane Express. 
Sir,—M y attention has just been directed to a letter of 
Mr. Henry Overman, in your paper of this week, impugning 
the statements which I made in a recent lecture on the small¬ 
pox of sheep, relative to his late father's proceedings in the 
matter of the vaccination of sheep in the year 1848. 
Before replying generally to Mr. Overman's criticisms, I 
must state that nothing could be more foreign to my mind 
than the wish to call in question the integrity of his late 
father, or to cast any reflections on his character; and, in 
making the statements which I did, I entirely disclaim having 
done anything of the kind. The question of the protective 
power of vaccination in arresting the progress of sheeppox is 
one of national importance; and, as such, it became neces¬ 
sary, on the occasion in question, that I should give the plain 
facts of the case relative to the so-called “West Norfolk vac¬ 
cinations." This was made the more imperative in conse¬ 
quence of Mr. H. Overman himself having come publicly 
forward as the great advocate of vaccination during the late 
outbreak of sheeppox in Wiltshire. 
In quoting from my lecture, Mr. H. Overman remarks, 
that “ Mr. Simonds says he does not believe Mr. Overman's" 
•—that is, his late father's —“ sheep were ever vaccinated." 
Now*, I will put this stronger, and say distinctly that, with 
the exception of about a dozen, which were done with points 
charged with vaccine lymph, not a single sheep of the whole 
1260 were vaccinated; and I challenge Mr. H. Overman, or 
any one else, to prove that they were. That the whole 1260 
sheep were operated upon by a Mr. Wells, surgeon, residing, 
at that time, at Swaffham, I admit; but, that he vaccinated 
the animals, I deny. The truth is, that Mr. Wells imposed 
on the credulity of the late Mr. Overman and other large 
flock-masters, whose names I could give, by pretending to 
vaccinate their sheep. For this purpose he supplied himself 
with a “ sherry-coloured fluid," which he carried from farm 
to farm in small phials, nearly filled, for use on the sheep. 
In proof of this, I may say that some of the correspondents 
to the local papers, at the time, described it as probably con¬ 
sisting of an irritating agent mixed with “gum-water.'** 
Thus much in reply to that part of Mr. H. Overman's 
* See Mr. Edmund Oldfield’s letter to the Norwich Mercury , Nov. 29th, 
1848; and Mr. Wm. Smith’s letter to the Norfolk News , Dec. 7th. 1848. 
