SCAB IN SHEEP. 347 



By degrees the skin becomes hard, large patches of scab are 

 formed, and the wool comes off in considerable flakes; the animal 

 looses condition rapidly ; no amount of liberal feeding will sustain 

 it ; on the contrary, it has rather a tendency to aggravate the 

 disease, and sooner or later the animal falls a prey to the tor- 

 menting disorder — a distressing spectacle of the negligence and 

 inhumanity of the owner. If sheep are first attacked with scab 

 on a part of the body where neither its mouth nor feet can reach, 

 the symptoms may for a time pass unobserved, but generally an 

 uneasiness will be recognised before the disease spreads to any 

 extent, No definite period can be stated how long a sheep will 

 sustain life under the disease. A good deal depends upon the con- 

 stitution and condition of the animal when attacked, also upon 

 the period and state of the season, at least upon hill pasture. 

 For example, if a sheep is effected with scab in the end of the 

 year, and means are not taken to cure it, if the winter is stormy 

 it runs a great risk of dying of poverty in the spring. A strong 

 proof of this fact came under my own knowledge in the severe 

 winter and spring of 1860 and 1861, in the county of Mid-Lothian, 

 where a hirsel of sheep, numbering between 400 and 500, had 

 been effected with scab for some years previous, no effectual 

 means having been taken to eradicate the disorder, and by 

 the month of May 1861, only about forty remained alive. 



It is asserted by some writers of high authority that scab 

 assumes different forms in different seasons; the only forms of the 

 disease in the south of Scotland that have come under my own 

 observation have all a striking resemblance. When the animal 

 is examined in the first stage of the disease, where it has been 

 scratching or biting off the wool with its teeth, small red pustules 

 or pimples are observed, the skin feels hard to the touch, and if 

 scratched with the finger or any instrument the animal exhibits 

 a remarkable uneasiness, chacking with its teeth, and will even 

 seize the operator and bite severely ; and at no time, either in 

 health or labouring under any other disorder, will a sheep attempt 

 to bite a human being except when suffering from scab. By de- 

 grees the pimples spread over the body, the skin becomes rough 

 and hard, an extensive eruption ensues, large patches of crust or 

 scab are formed, which increases over the body, and ultimately 

 the animal becomes exhausted from continual suffering, or dies 

 of poverty by the perpetual irritation. I have never had any 

 experience in the post-mortem examination of scabbed sheep, con- 

 sequently can give no minute account of the appearances from 

 my own observation ; and, as I have already hinted, there ought 

 to be no deaths of sheep from scab, as it yields readily to treat- 

 ment, and a post-mortem examination is either the result of igno- 

 rance or negligence, or allowed to take place to derive informa- 

 tion. 



