358 
NEW RESEARCHES UPON PLEURO-PNEUMONIA, ETC. 
trative measures, sanitary and prophylactic, to be taken for the 
protection of cattle and consequently for the good alimentation of 
human species. 
By insisting at length upon the question of spontaneity and of 
contagion of exudative peripneumonia, I have for my object to 
demonstrate that the facts of practice agree with the doctrine 
upon the nature and pathogeny of this affection, which, for me, 
proceeds from a parasite, and consequently never arises sponta¬ 
neously, the spontaneous generation of this parasite being impossi¬ 
ble, according to the recent researches of Mr. Pasteur, Tyndall 
and others. 
A. In the town of Ilasselt, and in all the province of Liin- 
bourg, I have never seen and never heard that pleuro-pneumonia 
had originated spontaneously. On the contrary, everybody knows 
the exact date of its first invasion and it has been easy to follow 
its march through the province, from one point to another. The 
first diseased animal was introduced in 1836, from Flanders, in 
the town of Hasselt, where never before that time, any case of 
pleuro-pneumonia had been seen; and from that time it spread 
with frightful rapidity in the city and surroundings. Since, it 
has not disappeared from the stables of distilleries; it has been 
kept up by contagion, following the introduction of contaminated 
animals, coming from foreign markets, especially those of Holland 
and Germany, because the distillers of the town of Hasselt receive 
a great number of horned cattle often renewed. 
The disease having once taking lodging in a stable, it is only 
extirpated with difficulty ; notwithstanding the use of the most 
powerful disinfectants, contagion exists; it attaches itself to the 
ground, the beams, straw, walls, &c., and a long time after the 
stable has been emptied and white-washed, even for years, the 
miasma dried and preserved, reproduces itself by the introduction 
of fresh animals, under the influence of the warm and damp air, 
becomes loose and falls upon them to infect them. Here is an 
example, taken amongst many others of my acquaintance. 
In the village of Curange, near Hasselt, there is a farm where, 
about three years ago, four cattle were affected with pleuro¬ 
pneumonia and were killed. The barn remained empty from 1877 
