§ SIR JERVOISE JERVOISEsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the experiments in Vaccinating Sheep are yet concluded; and, if so, when the results will be laid before Parliament?
§ MR. LOWESir, the experiments in vaccinating sheep were concluded last Michaelmas, and I am sorry to say the result is exceedingly unsatisfactory. I am also sorry to say that the Report is not yet ready to be laid before Parliament. The framing of that Report is in the hands of a gentleman who is not officially connected with the Government, and who, I think, has taken a great deal more time than was necessary in its preparation. I am assured, however, that it will be ready by Easter. As I am not able to produce the Report, I may state its general effect. The experiments that have been made are of two kinds. One has consisted in vaccinating sheep with lymph taken from the human subject, and this has succeeded in some measure. The sheep took the disease, though in an irregular and abnormal form, but when we came to test the value of that vaccination, we found that the sheep took the virus of small pox either by inoculation or in the natural manner from other sheep, so that vaccination appears to be futile. The next plan was to inoculate cows with matter taken from sheep, in order, if possible, to produce a vaccine disease in cows which would stand in the same relation to sheep as, cow pox does to the human subject. But we entirely failed in producing that disease, and therefore the result of the experiments was altogether unsatisfactory.