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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 660, 6 January 1881, Page 2

EPIDEMIC,DISEASES PREVENTED. 1 ' The re -is. .s oinij fcii in ? like excitement in-medical circles just now," writes the London correspondent of a Scotch paper received by. the last mail,"in regard to. the announcement of what appears to, be startling discoveries by French physicians.' A short time since M. Pastern", mi emin> out physiologist in Paris, gave out his belief that the day would come when almost all epidemic diseases might be prevented by inoculation, in the same mauuor that 'siriill-jmi is prevented by vaccination. Me hud already succeeded in proving' that the -principle might W-advatitaueously applied to fowls to protect thflin from the species of cholera to which they are sub- • jflct. Noiv, Professor Tousstfints announces that he. has discovered-tile means, of paying sheep and cattle from''the terrible ettecta of the foot and mouth disease, which yearly destroys so large a iiumber of animals. If this news.be'true, the professor will.have proved a benefactor to the race of men as-well' as. quadrupeds. His mode of procedure is to" take some'blood' from an animal which has died of thesame disease, and simply defibrine it by means of-heat, and this done, to inoculate sheep several times with it, and the animals me unable .to contract the malady. The only question which remains is as* to whether ihe sfood effects continue for any length of time, and we. may safely suppose that the inoculation operates as a safeguard as loiig in- the anliijal as in'tlie man, Several French physicians are now pursuing similar investigations on.a large scale. -They believe that a new ■ era' is about to dawn, in which all contagious disease may have their preventives." ■ •