A practical treatise on variola ovina, or, Small-pox in sheep, containing the history of its recent introduction into England; with the progress, symptoms, and treatment of the disease; also the experiments instituted to ascertain its peculiar features, and the best means to avert its fatal consequences.

  • Simonds, James B. (James Beart), 1810-1904.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on variola ovina, or, Small-pox in sheep, containing the history of its recent introduction into England; with the progress, symptoms, and treatment of the disease; also the experiments instituted to ascertain its peculiar features, and the best means to avert its fatal consequences. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    like spots as broad as farthings, and there dieth many sheepe thereof, for lacke of looking too betimes. Therefore to handle often all your sheepe, and looke all ouer their bodies, and see if ye find any sheep taken therwith : ye shal by and by take him from his fe- lows, and put him into some fresh pasture. And then see and looke daily to the rest of the flock, and draw them as ye shal see them infected therwith, and put them in fresh pastures if they haue it, in somer when there is no frostes, then it shalbe good to wash them in water. Remedies also. Some do take ye iuice of nightshade mixt with grease, and therwith anoint, or garlick beaten togither with tar, and so anoint. Or the iuice of pelitory of Spain, or of artichoke, mixt with strong vinegar, and therewith wash it. Other reme- dies shepheards haue the which I know not, but these I thinke shalbe sufficient, (4to, London, 1587, p. 231-2). Ruscam, Gervase Markham, James Lambert, and others, who wrote shortly after Mascal, either copy his observations, or merely give their own recipes for the cure of the complaint. Ellis in his Sure Shepherd's Guide (page 324), speaking of the disorder, says, My next neighbour had one [sheep] that came out in blotches from its horn to its mouth; to cure it he made use of tar. The malady here indicated might be sheep-pox, or, what is more likely, an eruptive affec- tion to which the ovine race are liable; but arising from ordinary causes, as exposure to inclement wea- ther, &c. Thus Virgil says, A scabby tetter on their pelts will stick, When the raw rain has pierced them to the quick. Georgic III, Diyden's Translation, 1. 672.