INOCULATING SHEEP FOR THE SMALLPOX. 779 
worse than the disease, as the precautions had not had the 
least effect in exterminating the malady, and had given the 
greatest dissatisfaction. The disease itself was one of those 
epidemics which from the earliest ages had occasionally 
passed over Europe and after a time disappeared. There was 
already good reason to believe that this one would resemble 
its predecessors ; that it was of a milder type than when it 
first appeared, and would gradually die out. The whole of 
the recent inquiry had again taught the good old English 
lesson that individual effort was better than Government 
assistance, that Government could hardly ever interfere in the 
course of trade without doing mischief, and that more could 
be effected by attention, care, and skill, than by all the most 
stringent regulations of an Act of Parliament, or even an 
Order in Council. It certainly was very remarkable, and 
spoke volumes in favour of the good sense of the gentlemen 
who undertook the task of legislation, that, though they en¬ 
tered upon it with the view of enforcing regulations, much 
impressed with the necessity of doing something, and 
anxious to shape the crude proposal into a measure of some 
real utility, the only practical result was a recommendation 
to relax an Order in Council with reference to the examination 
and detention of foreign cattle .—North British Agriculturist. 
ON THE ADVANTAGE OF INOCULATING SHEEP POE THE 
SMALLPOX. 
By Jostah Deacon. 
Only lately returned to England after very many years 5 
residence in Russia, I was both surprised and gratified on 
reading Professor Simonds 5 able lecture on (i Smallpox in 
Sheep ; 55 surprised that the question had not been long since 
decided, gratified at his masterly and conclusive treatment 
of the subject. I venture now to add my humble testimony, 
derived from twenty-five years 5 experience in the steppe 
country of Mid and South Russia, where I have had landed 
estates under my administration with flocks of merino sheep 
varying from a few thousand head to upwards of twenty 
thousand. On these inoculation was systematically em¬ 
ployed with unfailing success. Although the sheep under 
my charge were perpetually exposed to contagion, from the 
existence in our immediate neighbourhood of flocks in which 
