SCAB IN SHEEP. 349 



amounting from ten to twenty in number. They were generally 

 confined in a small enclosure, well sheltered, and fed off for the 

 butcher on cut turnips, corn, and hay. They were allowed to 

 remain white, that is, no dipping or smearing was had recourse to, 

 and in the beginning of the spring of each year an unusual erup- 

 tion broke out on the skin, and although it could not be termed 

 scab, still the wool began to fall off, and there was a certain irri- 

 tation or itch about the skin which prevented the sheep from 

 feeding, and they had always to be sold off in the course of three 

 or four months after the feeding had begun. It may be argued 

 that the want of dipping or smearing was the cause of the erup- 

 tion on the skin. This, however, was not the case, for amongst 

 the rest of the feeding sheep, also undipped or unsmeared, vary- 

 ing in number from five to twelve score, enclosed in a turnip 

 field and fed in the same manner, nothing of the kind ever ap- 

 peared on the skin although fed for a longer period. Thus I 

 think it is clear that confining sheep too close is injurious to the 

 health, and has a tendency to bring on disease of the skin, and 

 may, if persisted in for any length of time, combined with other 

 causes of mismanagement, produce scab, and in this respect it 

 only follows the laws by which other diseases are governed, and 

 are produced in a great measure by neglect or mismanagement. 

 For example, sturdy in sheep, the hydatid in the brain of sheep, 

 is a parasitical insect propagated in a great measure through im- 

 proper nourishment and shelter of the animal. Mr Gardner 

 states that moist, showery weather had a great influence in 

 spreading the disease. When the weather had been dry for a long 

 time only slight symptoms were visible amongst the flocks, but 

 when it changed into soft and frequent showers, the disease 

 spread with alarming rapidity. This fact is easily explained. If 

 the acari are newly hatched and kept dry, they die in a few 

 days and crumble into dust ; the same fact may also be recog- 

 nised in the maggot. If the fly deposits its eggs on the wool in 

 very dry weather a great many perish ; but if the atmosphere is 

 soft and warm they spring into life with amazing rapidity, and 

 multiply exceedingly. As I have already said, I have never seen 

 scab arise spontaneously ; it was always communicated from 

 sheep to sheep by the coming in contact of the sound animal 

 with the diseased. 



The following are a few of the examples that have come under 

 my own observation : — In the back end of the year a sheep 

 having strayed from a drove that had been bought at Falkirk, 

 and after passing through a great many stock-farms, took up 

 its abode on one of the farms in the high pastoral districts of 

 Peeblesshire, and although it had been often observed by the 

 shepherds, no particular attention was paid to it, as it is an event 

 of frequent occurrence. In the course of a few weeks the animal 



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