Retrospective Criticism, 715 



safer keeping, deeming it too valuable a commodity to be 

 consumed in feeding our dumb animals. Is this eccentricity 

 of appetite in the horse to be accounted for on the same prin- 

 ciple as that suggested by your correspondent in thb' instance 

 of the goat? But what shall we say to the preference shown 

 for peat soil by the carniv«rf)tts-dog ? Did he eat this dried 

 conserve of iSphagnum and Carex for the same purpose as he 

 is so often observed to eat the leaves of coarse grass? Yours, 

 &c. — W. T. Bree. Allesley Ttectory^ June 26. 1832. 



The Rot in Sheep. (Vol. IV. p. 173. 284. 472. ; Vd.V. p. 98. 

 202.). — Sir, I thank your correspondents (Vol. IV. p. 284, 

 4TSf.) for calling the attention of your readers, &c. to this dis- 

 e^ise; but they both write too much as if it were a new com- 

 plaint, and that they were the discoverers ; whereas it appears' 

 t6 bave bfeen as well known, and to have committed as great 

 i-avages, in former times, as now, Johnson's Dictionary gives 

 it as one of the meanings of the word " rot," on the authority 

 of 'Ben Jonson. If either had taken the trouble to look into 

 i\\&- Encyclop(^dia of Agrnculttire, they would there have found 

 a'^mass of information on the subject, condensed into a single 

 page, and some of the questions asked fully answered before- 

 hand. The opinions of the older writers on agriculture, on' 

 the cause of the rot, may be various ; but they appear to have 

 blamed certain plants when taken as food by the sheep, such 

 as the white rot (Hydrocotyle vulgaris), the sundew (Drosera) ; 

 ahd' it was only last winter that I had the Ctirex caespitosa, 

 I believe, pointed out to me as the blue grass so fatal to stock. 

 Th'fe opinion, in the north of England, where the farmers too 

 frequently experience the pernicious effects of the rot, is, that 

 it is the peculiar quality of the food which causes the disease, 

 di!id the great increase of the flukes in the liver, as these are 

 sometimes found in the most healthy sheep. The most dan- 

 gerous period, if not the only one, is the autumn, if it is mild, 

 after considerable falls of rain. Pasture land which has 

 been overflowed by streams'; or upon cold moist clays, and even 

 stubbles where grain has been shed and sprouted, are then 

 CG«nsidered more than suspicious ; and even horned cattle are 

 sometimes lost by this disease after very unfavourable sea*, 

 s^ns, as well as deer and hares, which are also known to be 

 similarly affected. The reindeer (Cervus TarandusZ*.) brought 

 to England by Lord Ravensvvorth are said by Bewick to have 

 fallen victims to this complaint. As to medicines, where the 

 quantity composing the flock is numerous, the stock-master 

 would never think of handling his sheep for the purpose ; the 

 injury done would more than overbalance the chance of be- 

 nefit. Nothing remains, if once discovered to havb a taint liii 



