TEEATMENT OF SHEEP-POX. 39 



and lips become thickened, and the schniderian memhrane is 

 thickened and ulcerated ; there is great difficulty in breathing, 

 with a foetid froth discharged from the mouth. The vesicles, 

 instead of gradating into pustules, subside, dry up, with a gan- 

 grenous appearance, wool drops off, and the animal becomes 

 rapidly emaciated ; this state is frequently accelerated by a 

 foetid diarrhoea, and the animal succumbs under this form of 

 tlie disease. 



The favourable or unfavourable termination of this malady is 

 regulated according to the type it assumes, the intensity and 

 duration of the fever, the extent of the local appearances, to the 

 exposure the sheep are subjected to, and to the care and attention 

 bestowed, not only on the diseased, but also on the healthy. A 

 favourable termination generally follows a limited and distinct 

 eruption, when the fever runs its course and subsides, if the 

 weather be neither cold nor hot, the atmosphere clear and dry, 

 the animal of a robust and healthy constitution, and if proper 

 dieting and a rigid separation of healthy sheep from diseased be 

 attended to. Opposite conditions to these just stated lead very 

 often to an unfavourable termination, althoucijh that is most to 

 be feared when the fever alternates in severity and is long in 

 subsiding, and when the pustules are close together, confluent, or 

 gangrenous. Should any animal survive this worst form it is 

 left so sickly and debilitated that it is of little or no value. 



Treatment. 



No general rule can be laid down for the curative treatment 

 of this disease. It assumes so many different phases that if 

 medical treatment is to be adopted, most benefit will follow the 

 adaptation of remedial agents according to the particular course 

 and symptons exhibited in each particular case. Keeping before 

 our minds that it runs a fixed and determined course, our aim 

 should be to let nature do her work, but assist her chiefly by 

 keeping up the strength of the animal by good nourisliment, 

 such as oats, cake, ])ran, fresh turnips or carrots if in SL^ason ; a 

 plentiful supply of fresh air, shelter from either sun or rain, 

 giving them comfortable housing, the temperature of the above 

 regular, and by no means hot. In the febrile condition, if there 

 be no diarrhcna, small quantities of nitrate of potass, chloride of 

 sodium, and sulphate of iron three times a day in a little linscLnl 

 tea or warm ale, will hasten the development of the eruj^tion, and 

 also prevent it from disap])earing rapidly. Should the handling 

 excite the animals — which would do harm — it would be m(ue 

 advantageous to sul)stitute a little chlorate of potass in the water 

 they drink, and pieces of rock salt placed at convenient spots for 

 them to lick. If diarrhoea be present it is best treated by the 



