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FRKI). TORRANCE. 
With regard to the contagious nature of variola equina there 
can be no two opinions. The rapid spread of the disease in the 
city, the frequent eases where it can he traced directly to inocu¬ 
lation, and especially the number of grooms and others who have 
taken the disease, prove this conclusively. Several cases of inocu¬ 
lation have occurred among the grooms in the city, and one of 
our own number is at present suffering from the malady ; but of 
these I will mention only one, which is interesting from the fact 
of its occurrence in a man who had previously had small-pox. 
This man, while grooming or dressing his horse, became inocu¬ 
lated through a slight abrasion of the skin on the back of his left 
hand. In a few days the usual symptoms of vaccination were 
seen in his hand, and a vesicle formed at the point of inoculation. 
By the eighth day this vesicle had become mature and showed 
the characteristic depressed centre in a red areola, exactly resemb¬ 
ling the pustule of vaccination. The arm at the same time was 
swollen and painful, the swelling extending into the axilla. The 
scab subsequently formed, and the swelling gradually disap¬ 
peared. It is curious that this man, whose face bore the unmis¬ 
takable scars of small-pox, should have been susceptible to equine 
variola, and, like cases of persons taking vaccinia after small-pox, 
or even of taking small-pox the second time, must be referred 
to the idiosyncrasy of the individual until we find some other 
cause. 
How the present outbreak in Montreal originated is a question 
of some interest, and unless we suppose it due to the introduction 
of an infected animal, we must admit its spontaneous origin. If 
arising from infection, where did the infected animal come from ? 
We know that since its previous visit in 1877 the disease has 
been occasionally met with in different parts of Canada, but 
never in the form of an enzootic, and in the neighborhood of 
Montreal it had disappeared for upwards of a year. This theory 
is therefore improbable unless we suppose the infected animal to 
have come from a distance. Atmospheric causes seem to have 
something to do with it.* The present winter has been character¬ 
ized by extreme mildness with frequent alternations of cold and 
wet, and this, taken in connection with the fact of the previous 
