throat, and to dangle in the same way from the chest between the forelegs.

The sexes are pretty much alike, only that in the male the horns are rather more developed, and the beard and outer coat are longer. The kids are the prettiest little things imaginable; they ran with their mothers at the time I first saw them, which was early in July; so that I should imagine the period for producing the young would be somewhere about the end of May or the beginning of June. I never saw but one female with two kids at her side; hence I am disposed to think that, generally, only one is produced at a birth. I have often watched the little fellows at play; choosing some rounded knoll, they seem to go in for a game of "I keep castle." One, having possession of the summit, tries his best to beat off and keep down all besiegers, until another, taking him at a disadvantage, butts him off, and then holds his right of territory until displaced by some other adventurous rival. Nothing can exceed the agile, springy, elastic bounds of these little kids, as they frisk and gambol upon the grassy sward. I do not think these gcats ever descend into the valleys; and when the winter-snows cover up the higher zones of the mountains, they come down only to the verge of the snow-line, and there somehow contrive to scrape up a scanty livelihood, until the summer's sun restores to them their favourite pasturingground. The Field.

CHAPTER XXVI.

VACCINATION.

If any man can reflect with satisfaction upon anything which he has accomplished, surely he can who conscientiously feels that he has increased the general happiness, or mitigated the general suffering, of the human

race.

It has been said, that he who makes two blades of grass to grow where there was but one before, is a benefactor to mankind; certainly the same may be said with as good (if not better) reason, of him who has succeeded, to an enormous extent, in reducing the fatal consequences of a frightful disease.

Smallpox has always been a disease greatly dreaded by people in all parts of the world, though they appeared for many ages to think it absolutely certain that every human being must be attacked by it. So strongly was this feeling implanted in the minds of Orientals, that they at length determined to propagate the disease artificially, on the supposition that, taken in this way, it would not be so likely to be fatal as when taken naturally.

A system of inoculation (this word is derived from the Latin inoculo, which signifies "to engraft," or "put an eye into," as people do when they bud roses) was adopted by the Chinese nearly 2000 years ago-that is, about 100 years before the date of the Christian era. They opened one of the large pustules, or mattery sores, from which they extracted the poisonous substance of the disease, technically called "the virus;" and it is said that the part of the body into which they inserted the virus was the great toe.

The number of deaths from smallpox was greatly decreased by this inoculation, but the disease was not entirely robbed of its fatal character; for though the production of the artificial disease rendered the patient less liable to it in its natural form, yet the system was not so absolute a protection as was fancied, for the belief in it was founded upon the fallacy that no person can be attacked twice by the same contagious disorder. Contagious" is a term derived from two Latin words -con, "together;" and tango, "I touch" and is applied to those disorders which are produced either by direct contact with the person suffering, or by

66

contact with his clothes or any object which has touched him.

What we call "contagious disorders" are generally communicated by infinitesimal particles of the skin, which, invisibly to the eye, are continually flying from the body of the patient and settling upon everything around him-in the same way that flowers give off their scent by detaching portions of themselves, though these atoms are too small for us to see them.

Smallpox began to attract the serious attention of Europeans about the year A.D. 580, when it spread throughout Europe as a pestilence. The mortality was frightful; the want of cleanliness, the absence of knowledge, and still more, of appreciation of the benefits to be derived from plenty of pure air, together with the fear and cowardice of those who were not themselves attacked, made the condition of the poor plaguestricken creatures something too horrible to contemplate. The general use of woollen clothing too, not only prevented present cleanliness, but preserved the germs of the disease for future propagation.

Smallpox appears to have travelled gradually westward, and it was not till some years after this fearful epidemic appeared on the Continent, that it became a well-known scourge in our own island.

We appear to have taken it in a way which would seem to indicate that we were thoroughly indifferent as to its consequences; or that, while we deprecated its results, we were too apathetic to exert ourselves to find means for their amelioration; or that we were fatalists, who satisfied ourselves that "what is to be will be."

It was not till the year 1718 that any serious action in the matter was taken; and this was done after a display of obstinacy, distrust, and jealousy, towards the innovator upon our own sinful negligence, which was disgraceful to a people professing to be civilised and enlightened.

Lady Mary Wortley Montague, whose son had been inoculated at Adrianople, in Turkey, strove to induce the English doctors to follow the example of the Turks. In vain she implored, argued, and proved from statistics all that inoculation had done for the East; the doctors were immovable. She applied to the Government for countenance and help, and at last obtained permission to inoculate seven convicts who were lying under sentence of death, and awaiting execution. These all took the disease thoroughly, ultimately recovered, and on their recovery were pardoned. As the rule had been death, and the exception recovery from smallpox, this fact of the restoration to health of the whole seven was too remarkable to be passed over; and inoculation was from that day permitted, though it was long before it was actually encouraged.

Inoculation continued to be practised for about seventy years, and throughout some part of that time it had been known that cows were subject to a disease very much of the same nature as smallpox, which showed itself by small ulcerated excrescences on the teats and udder.

It had been noticed too, that dairymaids frequently got this disease in their hands, from accidentally breaking the pustules while milking.* These milkers were never known to have smallpox; and although this fact was well known to many physicians, it never seemed to have entered their minds that any use could be made of it.

In 1798 Edward Jenner, a native of Gloucestershire, determined to do his utmost to convince the medical profession, of which he was a member, of the importance of turning to account what had been for so many years popularly known in the western counties. He published a treatise entitled 'Variola Vaccinæ, generally known as Cow-pox.' His object was to induce the members of the medical profession to inoculate for cowpox as they had been doing for smallpox.

*The same virus from the camel produces smallpox.

He had laboured for nearly twenty years at perfecting his idea, and had discovered that cows are subject to several eruptive diseases, only one of which is efficacious in preventing smallpox, and that this can be communicated only at one particular stage. He made experiments by inoculating with the virus of these several diseases, and found that they entirely failed in preventing smallpox; but with what he called the true cow-pox he inoculated successfully-so successfully, that inoculation for smallpox some time afterwards upon the same person took no effect.

Medical men were jealous of him who had made the great discovery of the use of Vaccination, and for a whole year after the publication of his pamphlet, Dr. Jenner had to contend with determined opposition, as severe as it was unjust. At the end of that time, seventy of the principal physicians and surgeons in London signed a declaration of their entire confidence in vaccination. Some dishonest persons attempted to deprive Jenner of the merit of his discovery; but the attempt signally failed, and scientific honours were bestowed on him from all quarters.

Vaccination is not an infallible preventive against smallpox, but the proportion of failures in comparison with the number of persons vaccinated is exceedingly small; and the decrease in the number of deaths from smallpox, even in the early days of vaccination, proves its general efficacy. In the twenty years preceding the introduction of vaccination, the number of deaths from smallpox, in London alone, was computed at 36,189; but in the twenty years following, the number of fatal cases in London was 22,480. Year after year, as vaccination was more generally practised and (better still) was made compulsory, smallpox became almost extinct as an epidemic; but we grew careless in our comparative safety, and the law has been disregarded, and even set at defiance.