252 
VARIOLA EQUINA. 
to variola, but we refrain for the present from commenting on 
them. 
Horse-pox—(Variola Equina.) 
To the Editor of the ‘ Gazette! 
Sir, —My attention has been called to numerous paragraphs 
which have appeared in Canadian and American newspapers 
referring to the epizootic disease at present prevailing in the 
city and vicinity, containing statements which are incorrect 
and calculated to cause alarm among horse dealers, which is 
altogether unnecessary. The disease is unquestionably variola 
equina , or horse-pox ; it is similar in its nature to vaccinia or 
cow-pox ; it has no connection with smallpox of man, other 
than being a variolous disease, that is to say, when man is 
inoculated by the virus of horse-pox, smallpox is never pro¬ 
duced, its effects on man are exactly the same as vaccination, 
and has the same protective power against smallpox. 
Horse-pox and cow-pox differ from smallpox by the exan¬ 
themata being in nearly all cases purely local; instances of its 
involving the entire body are extremely rare in the horse; the 
eruptions are confined to the heels and pasterns, occasionally 
extending up the legs; seen also on the muzzle, mouth and 
nose, groin and perineum, and in a few instances diffused over 
the shoulders and loins. In cattle it is almost invariably 
confined to the udder. 
Jenner, the great discoverer of vaccination, one of the most 
important advances in medicine, was of the opinion that cow- 
pox was often due to the accidental transmission of the virus 
of the horse to the udder of the cow from the hands of a milker 
who had been taking care of horses suffering from variola. 
Cruschmann says: “ The horse-pox very probably can be 
inoculated upon the human subject with the same effect as 
vaccinia, and the practice is objected to merely because horses 
have other kinds of sores upon the foot print which might 
occasion disagreeable mistakes sometimes.” 
On this subject I might remark, that both during the epi¬ 
zootic of this disease in 1877 and the present winter, I have in¬ 
variably urged the grooms not to fear inoculation,as their being 
susceptible to it indicated their susceptibility to smallpox, and 
that if they became inoculated, it would in all probability pro¬ 
tect them as surely as vaccination would. From observation in 
half a dozen cases of inoculation of grooms, four on the hand 
and two on the face, I am convinced that the results are iden¬ 
tical with vaccination. Two or three days from the time of in¬ 
oculation the part becomes red and slightly swollen, a sympa¬ 
thetic swelling also extending up the arm to the axilla, when in 
the hand, accompanying which there is a slight fever. By the 
