THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



487 



drink ; but do they theu acquire the rot ? This seems to rae 

 a conclusive proof that these plants are not the cause of rot. 

 Although such is the case, we have this practical fact for our 

 guidance, that where these plants abound such pasturage 

 is very unsafe, and that under an improved system of drainage 

 these plants cease to grow, and that a much better herbage 

 springs up. I will suppose that I am called to see a flock of 

 sheep which betray uumistakable symptoms of the rot. I 

 inquire ou what land these sheep have been deposited ; I ex- 

 amine it, and ten chances to one but that the owner will him- 

 self point out the coathe plant ; and yet believing that this 

 plant is the cause of the disease, he will persist with blind in- 

 fatuation in putting his sheep where they can eat this plant 

 and drink this stagnant water. To me that seems very wrong 

 practice, in fact, very much like running to destruction with 

 his eyes open. Is the disease confined to low and damp situa' 

 tions? No ! Bakewell, and a host of other authorities almost 

 equally liigh, have demonstrated that the disease can be uner- 

 ringly produced. Bakewell, as you know, was the founder of 

 the celebrated breed of Leicester sheep. — " When particular 

 parcels of his best-bred sheep were past service he fatted 

 them for the butcher; and to be sure that they should be 

 killed and not go into other hands, he rotted them before he 

 sold them, which, from long experience, he could do at plea- 

 sure. He had oidij to flood a, ■pdialuie 01 meadow in summer, 

 and it invariably rotted all the sheep that fed on it the follow- 

 ing autumn. After the middle of May, water Howing over 

 land is certain to cause rot, whatever be the soil. He acted 

 thus with several of his fields, which without that manage- 

 ment would never have affected a sheep in the least. The 

 water may flow with impunity all winter, even to the end of 

 April ; but after that the above effect was sure to take place," 

 &c,, &c. There are certain pastures on which it is dangerous 

 to put sheep at all during the summer months, no odds whether 

 the season be wet or dry. On such lands are to be found 

 these coathe plants, which are only to be found in boggy, ill- 

 drained land. But when the rot is generally prevalent, when 

 it ragua as a pestilence as it were, we have had a very wet 

 season, such as the past. And then the rot is sometimes con- 

 fined to pastures in which not a single variety of these so- 

 called coathe p'ant; can be found. If land that has been 

 sound for many years can be converted into rotting laud, by 

 merely flooding it for a week or so in the month of May, and 

 then turiiing ou sheep after the water has subsided, surely no 

 one can doubt but that the disease is entirely independent of 

 these plants. The lecturer cannot lay much claim to origi- 

 nality of thought, even when he asserts that sheep became 

 rotten by grazing on damp pastures. If lying on damp pas- 

 tures had much to do with the disease, how does the lecturer 

 account for the numerous instances of sheep contracting the 

 rot by grazing on a common or a pasture for the space ouly of 

 an hour, and during the whole of that time not a single sheep 

 had lain down. These cases are well authenticated. Again, 

 if lyiog on damp pastures had much to do with the disease in 

 the way the lecturer supposes, don't you thmk. Sir, that a 

 great deal more damage would be done to a flock of sheep by 

 keeping them ou land partially covered with water during the 

 cold winter and spring months ? Indeed, it is generally con- 

 sidered that there is no danger as long as the land is covered, 

 even though sheep may have to wade for their food ; it is after 

 the water has subsided that the danger commences. This fact 

 has, in my opinion, led to the idea that miasm or noxious 

 vapour was the cause of the disease. Many have thought 

 that the noxious vapour or miasm that arises from the decom- 

 posing grasses, when the air is warm, is specially injurious. 

 If cold, or chill, or inflammation had anything to do with the 

 origin of the disease, why surely hundreds of sheep would be 

 more likely to contract the rot during the cold winter months 

 than during the mild genial weather of summer. I agree with 

 the lecturer that it is bad practice to keep sheep penned upon 

 cold, wet clay land'; although I differ with him as to its 

 modus operandi. If a sheep's liver is stuffed with these flukes, 

 he requires all the stimulating food that can be given him, 

 and all the protection from cold that can be afforded. In such 

 a severe case as this, do what you will, I believe you will 

 scarcelj- be able to make him accumulate flesh or fat, or even 

 make him hold his own. But suppose a sheep to have 

 a good many flukes in his liver, enough to interfere materially 

 with health, but not enough to spoil the organ — particularly if at 

 a time when these flukes, though numerous, have not materially 

 altered the structure of the liver — don't you think that if a 



sheep is in this condition he is very likely to be made to 

 accumulate both flesh and fat, if liberally fed and protected 

 from the cold ? Many sheep that die would live, if so treated, 

 simply because they have not the vital energy to resist those 

 depressing causes that they could readily withstand if their 

 livers were not at all diseased. These sheep are starved down ; 

 consequently when they are treated with warm tonics, such aa 

 sulphate of iron, gentian, and ginger, aided by warmth and 

 nitrogeuized food, such as oilcake, their Uvers not being greatly 

 diseased, they recover. But any man who promises to inva- 

 riably cure rotten sheep, is, I have no heoitation in saying, 

 either a fool or an impostor. The lecturer may possibly have 

 noticed the stomach of a single sheep, or even of a flock of 100, 

 to be distended with gas ; I agree that foul pasture is very- 

 likely to produce this distension, and that Epsom salts and 

 ginger is a proper remedy. But does he mean to assert that 

 it is the prominent symptom of the early stage of rot ? Does 

 he mean to imply that this distension of the stomach or hoove 

 is the forerunner of these flukes in the liver ? I kuow that the 

 lecturer confessedly likes to trace an effect to its cause. But 

 is this the result of his investigations ? The rot is only con- 

 tracted during the summer and autumn. Every one who has 

 written upon " rot," whether ancient or modern, is pretty 

 well agreed upon this point. How can the disease be thus 

 engendered ? Why surely it is as plaia as the sun at noon- 

 day that these flukes were in the liver previous to the stomach 

 becoming distended. The beautiful and modern theory of the 

 alternation of generations of these flukes is ridiculed, and 

 opinions utterly opposed to the teachings of modern science 

 are advanced with unblushing confidence. The lecturer should 

 recollect that there is no feeling to be more despised than that 

 of a contempt for everything that we can't comprehend. 

 I will not exhaust your patience by entering into a detailed 

 history of the liver fluke. I will merely observe, on that point, 

 that the researches of modern investigators have, in my opinion, 

 conclusively established the fact of the products of these 

 eggs (in which stage of their several transformations I cannot 

 with accuracy determine) being received into the organisms of 

 sheep. These conclusions are based on that which is capable 

 of inquiry and proof. For all practical purposes it is a matter 

 of comparative unimportance whether these germs pass into 

 the organisms of sheep in the shape of cercari;e, iu any other 

 form, or even in the form of an elephant for the matter of that. 

 We have this practical fact for our guidance, that in ordinary 

 years the disease is confined to those pastures that have ill- 

 drained marshy spots ; and we have abundance of evidence to 

 prove that after this land has been thoroughly drained, it 

 then becomes perfectly sound. I do not wish to be impracti- 

 cal. I think there is not a single agriculturist in this room, 

 who has a few acres of such land, but would gladly prefer, in- 

 dependently of its tendency to rot his sheep, to have such 

 land thoroughly drained, as he would know that its fertility 

 would be much improved. Suppose a man takes a farm 

 which contains a few acres of such laud. He knows from 

 tradition that many sheep have been coathed there. Don't 

 you think. Sir, that he either ought to apply the remedy, or 

 else he ought to keep his sheep elsewhere during the summer 

 and autumn ? Your unacquaintance with the structure of the 

 liver will prevent my entering into a lengthy explanation of 

 the reasons why a sheep in the early stage of the rot should 

 rapidly improve in condition. But really the fact that they 

 do improve in condition is so well known, that men with 

 the commonest understandings have availed themselves of 

 that knowledge, for the purpose of furthering their in- 

 terests; and I have therefore no inclination to discuss the 

 point. The rather pompous assertion of the lecturer that the 

 idea of sheep thus rapidly improving is contrary to nature 

 doesn't affect rae in the least. When the lecturer has lived a 

 little longer, and has paid more minute attention to the early 

 stage of rot, he will have ocular demonstration of the fact. 

 The liver of a sheep is not altered in structure at the outset ; 

 its functional activity is, on the other hand, increased ; a 

 much larger proportion of the food that is digested is con- 

 verted into blood, and a more rapid accumulation of flesh and 

 fat takes place as a consequence. During such very wet sea- 

 sons as the past the disease is very general. Many of you 

 can cite cases in which sheep have become rotten on land that 

 contains no marshy spots. Well, what is the common-sense 

 deduction ? Why, seeing that the disease is not to be cured, 

 that every precaution ought to be taken to prevent it. If I 

 were to recommend you to put your sheep upon dry pasture, I 



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