THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



341 



sufficient quantity necessary for the purpose without destroying 

 the whole vegetation upon the meadows; anything short of that 

 would be positively of no benefit whatever to the sheep. Now, 

 bearing iu mind the trinsformations of the fluke— bearing io 

 mind the fact which I have meiitioued, that the last change 

 takes place in the stomach and not in the liver; and the other 

 fact, that salt is destructive of these infusoria;, as we may call 

 them— you will see that if you convey salt in sufficient quan- 

 tity into the stomach you may destroy them there before they 

 undergo the last change, and then as flukes find their way into 

 the biliavy ducts. Thus, if you can prevent that last meta- 

 morphosis you get rid of the cause. I am therefore bold 

 enough to say — not that I depend entirely upon salt, because 

 I shall have a word to say in regard to something else ; but that 

 I do believe that rot maj- be prevented to a very considerable 

 extent, and I further believe that we may save, even iu our 

 worst years of rot, a great number of animals. What would 

 be the means by which I should prevtut the disease ? I must 

 bear iu mind all the facts of the case. I must bear ia mind 

 the influence of excess of moisture with an elevated tempera- 

 ture. When ia the daugcrous period to sheep ? As you ap- 

 proach towards Midsummer. Tueu if that is the dangerous 

 period to the sheep, and for the reasons we have stated, we 

 must prevent the disease then ; that is the time to strike 

 at its root. Instead of grumbling about our losses in the 

 winter mouths, we ought to have taken measures for pre- 

 venting them during the summer. Now what have we had 

 iu the past season ? We have had a very wet summer. I 

 happeu to be au unfortunate farmer — unfortunate, I say, 

 because, like many others, I have not had a very profit- 

 able return this year, but I had a number of sheep, and fore- 

 saw what was coming. I said to some of my neighbours, 

 " We shall hsve a great deal of rot this year "; and I thought 

 I would attempts, if I could ^.so far as my own sheep were cois- 

 ceraed, to save them. What did I do ? The sheep were on 

 wet meadows up to the fetlock jiints nearly every day, and 

 nobody could avoid it. Uut at Midsummer I began to feed 

 the lambs and sheep with corn and nitrogeuized food, giving 

 them with every meal a small quantity of salt. I continued 

 that plan during the whole summer and autumn, and I have 

 the satisfactioa of saying that I do not believe at the present 

 time I have one of those lambs affected by rot. L kept 

 killing them week by week to watch their progress. And 

 here I may incidentally observe that long-continued wet 

 weather is very prejudicial to the sheep iu another way. I 

 refer now to the so called water-rot. What was the state 

 of the liver of these animals at Midsummer ? There were 

 no flukes or anything of the kind, but the liver was streaked 

 with white Hues here and there, and generally pallid. This 

 was for the want of nitrogeuized matter. The bile-cclla were 

 blanched ; the liver had become structurally diseased, 

 and as such it was a good nidus for these entozoa to 

 inhabit. Not only, however, did this simple treatment pre- 

 vent the entozoa, but it brought about a healthy state of 

 liver, for in the course of a month or two I found that the 

 organ resumed its natural colour and consistence, I again 

 say, that if we commence at midsummer, aud conliaue the 

 treatment through the entire dangerous period of a wet 

 season, we may do a great deal in the prevention of the 

 disease. Aud I may go further, and say that even on farms 

 where we have what are called rottea-pastures, on which sheep 

 are placed, the animals might be preserved to a very consider- 

 able extent simply by giving nitrogeuized food and salt, to 

 destroy these creatures within the stomach, aud prevent their 

 final change, alternating with the salt a tonic, invigorating 

 agent such as sulphate of iron. I do not depend on the 

 salt alone; far from it, but it is a valuable a^ent, and its 

 value depends more upon putting the iufusoriAl creatures 

 and young flukes into salt-water, as it were, in the stomach, 

 t'lan anything else. This ia the course I recommend. You 

 have to look to the condition of the liver in a wet season ; 

 you have to look to the necessity of laying the foundation for 

 a good quality of blood, by giving the animals nitrogeuized 

 food, and throwing sulphate of iron into the organism. Every 

 practical pathologist, human or veterinary, knows very well 

 that if you have an aiicemiated or bloodless state of the sys- 

 tem—if there is a deficieucy of the red cells, upon which the 

 invigorating properties of the blood depeud, those cells will 

 rapidly multiply, and the blood regain its proper colour by the 

 vte of iron. This is the reason why sulphate of iron should 



be employed. It should be given in fine powder about twice 

 or thrice a week, and in doses of about half-a-drachm a day ; 

 not, however, that a larger quantity would be prejudicial. The 

 sheep should be divided iuto small lots; aud if you have 

 about a score feeding in one trough there should be ten 

 drachms of sulphate of iron mixed with the food for the day ; 

 and then, if one should get a little more, and another not quite 

 so much, it will be of very little importance ; alternated with 

 the sulphate of iron we must also employ salt. There are 

 matters of detail which of course every individual farmer must 

 carry out for himself; but if he will adopt these leading prin- 

 ciples that I have attempted to lay dawn this morning, in a 

 very imperfect manner, he will save a considerable number of 

 his sheep from falling a sacrifice to the affection which is com- 

 monly designated "rot." 



The Chairman said he had no doubt that some gentlemen 

 would propose a vote of thanks to Professor Simonds for his 

 interesting lecture. If the natural history of the fluke be dis- 

 covered at all, they must feel very proud that the discovery 

 should be materially assisted by the researches of the 

 veterinary professor of the Society. He had never before 

 understood the nature of the operations of those little creatures, 

 nor had he been aware of the length of time they could lie 

 dormant iu the system of the sheep before producing the 

 disease. He congratulated the Society on hiving a gentleman 

 connected with it of Professor Siraoud's attainments. They 

 were also under great obligations to M. Trehouuais, who had 

 supplied medicine to the Society for the purpose of performing 

 the experiments to which reference had been made, aud from 

 wliich he hoped good results would follow. 



Sir J. Johnston here vacated the Chair, which was oc- 

 cupied during the rest of the sitting by Mr. Kaymond 

 Barker. 



Mr. Thomas Akkell, of Wiltshire, said he was very 

 much pleased with the lecture, and hoped it would be imme- 

 diately published for the benefit of the agricultural community. 

 From the observations which had fallen from Professor Si- 

 monds, and from what he himself recollected, he thought 

 they were standing on the edge of a very fesirful precipice. 

 He remembered the period to which Professor Simonds had 

 alluded — 1828, '29, and '30— when there were three wet 

 seasons in succession. He had not referred to a meteoro- 

 logical table, but he felt satisfied that the greatest quantity of 

 rain did not fall iu 1830, but in 1828 or '29. Scientific men 

 said that the seasons went in cycles. If so, comparing the 

 last year with 1828, they might expect two wet seasons to 

 follow the last ; and it was time, therefore, to be up and 

 doing. He well remembered that in the first season there 

 we»e a great many rotten sheep; in the next a considerable 

 number more, and in the third season the disease swept off 

 nearly all the sheep in the district to which he belonged. It 

 was a question with him whether the heat of 1830 had not 

 more to do with the height to which the disease had arrived 

 than the additional quantity of rain. He could confirm 

 the statement of the lecturer with regard to the value of salt, 

 from his own experience. Last season, which was a wet one, 

 he gave his sheep salt through the summer, and the result 

 was a successful lambing, very few having been lost. One was 

 lost from being fed on swedes; and on examining the liver, 

 there were no flukes to be found in it : the liver was pale, aud 

 the gall-bag white. He was desirous of knowing, and the 

 lecturer had answered the question, whether stimulants would 

 not be likely to save a flock in that condition. A veterinary 

 surgeon, a neighbour of his, had recommended sulphate of 

 iron in the food as likely to bring about a healthy state of the 

 liver. With regard to the drenching of sheep, of course tliat 

 operation could not be carried on to any considerable extent, 

 and the medicine employed should be chiefly given in the food, 

 something not very nauseous, which should be mixed with the 

 cake or other food taken by the sheep. It was well known 

 that farmers were liable to lose tegs in fattening them ; and 

 last year he (Mr. Arkell) bought some advertised cattle food 

 as a medium for the administration of physic. It would, he 

 thought, be well if something authoritative in the way of a 

 proper cettle food could be put forth for the benefit of the 

 farmer. He gave in the food which he purchased some sul- 

 phur and saltpetre, which the animals took, and after that 

 period he lost but few of them. He thought if a list could be 

 published of the diff'erent medicines for Sheep in the various 

 stages to be mixed with theii food instead of drenching, it 



