produced affords the genuine cow-pox in the 'human species.*
It is obviously very probable, that the same susceptibility
would b e found, On experiment, to exist in many other tribes. •
Small-pox, as we might conjecture from its analogy to cow-
pox, is likewise communicable to many species., M. Viborg,
at Copenhagen, is believed to have communicated this disease
from the human subject by inoculation to asses, dogs, and
swine.f It had been reported long ago by Jansen, a physician
at Amsterdam, that an ape was affected with pustules
from the contagion of small-pox; j but without displaying
any of the other symptoms of the disease. The cow is likewise
said to receive the small-pox by inoculation. §
Hydrophobia is another malady which, by a peculiar method
of inoculation, is known to be communicable to many species
of animalsy though it probably originates only in the dog!:
Instances have likewise been reported in which the poison of
glanders, a . disease commencing in horses, is said to have
affected grooms, who have had wounds in their hands, and
have become accidentally inoculated. ; §
There are other contagious diseases, which, as far as the
evidence yet obtained extends, are incommunicable from the'
human to other species, though it does'not appear that any
race of men has an immunity from their influence. One of
these is the yaws, a disease which, though principally knowrr
among Negroes, also attacks Europeans. We aFe informed
by Dr. Thomson, that repeated attempts have been made in
the West Indies to communicate this disease to rabbits, dogs,
and fowls, by different methods of inoculation, but that they
have all failed. He adds that there is an eruptive-disease in
cattle, which the .Negroes in Jamaica term the yaws, but that
it bears no analogy to the complaint so termed in man. Is
this disease the cow-pox ? |j Dr. Kerr, in his excellent treatise
-on yaws, contained in th é Cyclopaedia of Practical Medi- *§
* Dr. Baron’s Life of Dr. Jenner, page 243.
+ Medicaland Physical Journal. Sept. 1602. Dr. Baron’s Life of Jenner,
page 216.
J Blumenbach, de Gen. Han. Var. Nat.
§ Dr. Baron, ubi supra, page 216.
l[ Edin. Med. and Surg. Jo. vol. xv.
cine, has likewise remarked that “ repeated experiments have
proved the impossibility of transferring yaws by inoculation beyond
the human species.” Attempts have been made to inoculate
an ape with the poison of syphilis, but they .have failed.*
Other contagious diseases,^Such as measles, scarlatina, hooping
cough, are not known to extend.their influence beyond
the human species, I am uncertain whether to include plague
in the same order of diseases'with those' above mentioned.
When this .disease has been committing its ravages, and
almost depopulating whole cities and districts; be
supposed "that domestic animals would have ’Suffered! if they1-
were-capable'of receiving1 th e • *hohta'i;iphi]‘ NotMiii’g&'Of this'
kind, as far asil know, is on rebdrd^ Murrains afhc®g tratoe
are indeed said to haves?plebhded ssoim'e- fatal epidemicspbUt
there is mo evidence* thatethO’se were the ’genuine p'lagub^ and
it appears to^me, that Dr. Baron hAsT sUCCCCdM'dri" rendering
"rih extremely probable fhat they were- epidemical 'invasioh# o f
small-pox,?sand -not the bubonic peStilenteh?©r pl%ue;<prdpfefiy'
so termed. In general1 the distempers which attack* different'
species of'animals, as d f cattle, are not? observed to-sprCad
from one to another, »however severe their effects' may be life
the destruction of the particular kind in which they o rig in a te
It hasbefemobserved that sheep and ?,pigs* have- been carried'
to the Wehthlndies in the same vessel, and that a distemper
apparently-* qontagious has broken s out in One kind, without
affecting the other in the smallest degfeeP Even-amob^' plaht^i
it has been remarked, that a- disease which ^W'ery destructive^
of, one? species, will not attack others, even the most'nearly-
alhed to it.
I On the other hand, itdS well known with respect f o' the con--
taeious diseases »affecting mankind, that there ismoiie which is
peculiar to one race, or incapable of attacking others p though
the predisposition to any given disease is different in- different'
races, as it is known to be in thef several families ofdhefsame-
race or nation. On the whole, thednferences resulting from facts-
relating to contagious-and epidemic diseases; Are, as far as their
• It has been asserted, but I know not on what authority* Jthat this disease has
been communicated to dogs.