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47
diseases have a further resemblance in their general
symptoms and anatomical lesions ; they are also
like each other in the period of incubation, and in
their extreme contagiousness. If this identity
should be fully established, it opens up to us an
entirely new view of the disorder, and indicates
the possibility of mitigating its effect, or even of
eradicating it altogether. As small-pox in the
human subject is made less severe by vaccination,
so also it may be possible to induce a milder form
of the cattle plague by passing it through the system
of another animal. Already this idea has occurred
to the veterinary surgeons of the continent, and it
has to some extent been put into practice in those
districts where the disease is endemic. Professor
Jessen, of Dorpat, is of opinion, and has even
recommended, that all the cattle of the steppe
districts should be inoculated with a mild form of
the virus, and be cured of the disease before they
are exported. The same opinion has been expressed
by Professor Untesberger, and others.
M. Garlach, the distinguished professor of veterinary
science in Hanover, has actually proposed
that all the cattle of this country should be inoculated,
as a means of shortening the duration of
the epidemic; for although, he says, experience
shows that in many cases as many animals die
which have taken the disease by inoculation as
those which have taken it by contagion, yet it is