4:0 PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



^^ -r. 1 J 1 5 Upper and Lower Silurian boulder clay ; 



Dumfriei>shirc— Upper Eskdale, \ occasional trap hills and dykes. 



Lower to Langholm. Upper Silurian. 



Upper Ewes Water, Do. 



Do. ; from Arkleton to | Upper Old Red and Carboniferous Sand- 



Langholm, ( stones, with broad platform of trap. 



Wauchope — North side, Upper Silurian, 



South, Carboniferous Sandstones. 



( Upper Old Red Sandstone hiU tops ; 

 Upper Tarras Water, < platforms of trap from Arkleton Shiel 



( downwards ; Carboniferous rocks, 

 Nithsdale-Euchan Water, U^^,,^^;^^^;^^^ 

 L^pper part, j 



Lower do., Coal measures. 

 Mennick, Lower Silurian. 



Peeblesshire — Bonnington, Lower Silurian, with a few trap dykes. 



Skye-Farms of Drynoch, Conybreck, ) ^^^^. ^^^^^^^ 

 and Culishadder, j •' 



Of the above, the upper part of Eskdale Muir and Mennick Water are almost entirely 

 free from the disease ; but it is clear that it is not confined to any particular soil or 

 geological formation, and prevails over a wide series, from the Lower Silurian through 

 the Upper Silurian, Old Red and Carboniferous Sandstones, to the basalt of the Ter- 

 tiary period. 



Botany. — On the other hand, the noticeable characteiistic of those places liable to 

 the disease, as pointed out by Mr. Brotherston last year in his report to the Teviotdale 

 Farmers' Club, was fully confirmed, \iz., the large amount of \\ithered herbage of pre- 

 ceding years, especially Nardns stricta (mat grass or wire bent) and Aira ccespitosa 

 (tufted hair grass or bull-snouts), which on examination were invariably found covered 

 with minute fungi, chiefly Cladosjjorium herharum. 



Part of Mr. Brotherston's report of last year is appended, in which he suggests ergot 

 as the cause, and gives a list of grasses which were also found very much ergotised. 



In Upper Eskdale Muir (already mentioned as free from the disease), while the 

 formation is the same as Borthwick and Rankleburn, there was very much less Nardus 

 stricta or Aira ccespitosa, there being a large amount of heather and floe moss, ^rith 

 extensive beds of peat, the heather being intermixed with Juncvs sqnarrosus (stool 

 bent), Scirjms ccesjntosus (deer's hair), Erio'phorum raginatmn (harestail cotton grass), 

 and Aira flexuosct (waved hair grass) ; lower dowai, where this disease prevails exten- 

 sively on the steep gi'assy slopes, there was an abundance of "^^^thered grasses, S^ardus 

 stHcta, &c., and much less wet or other spretty lands. Again, in Mennick Water 

 (also free), the hills are steep, dry, and bare. 



Pathology. — Professor Williams found that the disease in question was confounded 

 with several other ailments prevailing at the same time of year, all being described 

 under the one name, "Louping-ill." 



In a majority of cases he considers the cause to liave been neither more nor less than 

 poverty or starvation. 



The following diseases were also confounded tmder the common term : — 

 1. " Joint-i]l, or rheumatic and suppurative inflammation of the joints in lambs. The 

 symptoms are briefly as follows : — Swellings of one or several joints, lameness, pains, 

 loss of flesh ; sometimes the inflamed joints suppurate and burst, the fever now increases 

 in intensity, and the lamb generally succumbs ; but if the swellings do not burst, the 

 lamb may not die ; as a rule, however, it continues lame, unthrifty, and has its limb 

 deformed. This disease has been described as being associated with an unhealthy con- 

 dition of the navel. I found that it was so in a few instances only, and that disease, 

 originating perhaps in the navel, was not uncommon without any affection of the joint. 

 "2. Many lambs were Gx^xam^di jyost-mortem , which were said to have died of ' louping- 

 ill,' when the cause of death was found to be impaction of the fourth stomach with 

 Avool, in many cases this organ was quite filled with wool, the bowels empty of food ; 

 aTid if any milk was present at all, it was found in the other, and at this age imj^erfectly 

 developed compartment of the stomach, where it could give no nourishment to the 

 body, but rather act as an irritant by undergoing the process of putrefaction. 



"The practice of 'udder locking,' that is, of pulliDg ofl' the hairy wool surrounding 

 and in the neighbourhood of the udder, is now not practised, although I am told that 

 at one time it extensively prevailed. I consider it ought again to be carried out, as it 

 would be the means of saving many lambs which annually die from this form of impac 

 tion of the true digestive stomach. 



*'3. Navel-ill, without disease of the joint, is also confounded with ' louping-ilL' 

 The symptoms are those of great prostration, even to inabilitj* to stand, when the 

 disease has existed for some time ; convulsions absent ; the umbilical cord is enlarged, 



