THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



48d 



gives the slieep flukes, and only at a certain season of the 

 year ; and it only grows in certain moist jjlaces. But the 

 Professor laughs at this most important truth. He may. 

 But I will engage to take a numher of sheep from a liealthy 

 soil where flukes have never been known to exist from any 

 date on the farm. I will only see them eat once each a 

 few mouths' full of a certain vegetable at a certain season 

 of the summer, and seven out of ten shall be fluked by 

 Christmas, if not all of them. I will myself otter to meet 

 the Professor, and try experiments with him. First, I 

 will put a number of sheep before him which I will take 

 from two ditt'ereut farms. From one farm flukes never 

 exist. The other fai-m sheep arc never without them. I 

 will colour their wool, so that ho shall not be able to see 

 the marks of soil on their wool. I will defy the Professor 

 to tell any one with certainty tlie sheep by any symptoms 

 that has flukes from the sheep that has none. They shall 

 be all killed, one by one, opened, and examined, and they 

 shall be all healthy. I am ready at any time. Farmers are 

 anxious for me to meet the celebrated Professor, and 

 fairly test his most " wonderful skill." Or, if he prefers it, 

 T will take an hundred sheep, and rot the whole of them 

 witliin a few days before his eyes. I will not give them 

 any drug : he may go with me every day and see them if 

 he chooses ; and "thus I will convince the Professor of what 

 he calls one disease to be two separate diseases. I will 

 show him how to prevent both diseases ; and I have been 

 able to do so for some years ; and I do prevent these dis- 

 eases, and so do many others now; and every farmer may 

 prevent if he only knew how. The Professor says in his 

 lecture " that lie has discovered the animalcule escaping 

 from the fluke's egg, and it lives in water and afterwards. 

 The sheep drink the water, and get flukes." I will try an 

 experiment with on the " great and grand discovery." He 

 shall take as much eggs of flukes as he likes, and hatch 

 them, turn them in the water. I will get a score of sheep 

 from the soil where flukes do not exist, and the Professor 

 shall drencli them with this identical water. I will see it 

 dcme : I will take the sheep back to the same farm again : 

 I'll chance them getting fluked. I beg to inform the I'ro- 

 fessor that it's more likely that flukes' eggs produce worms 

 that go into the earth a few days, and then turn to flies at 

 a certain season of the summer. I also beg to inform the 

 Professor that his lecture will not bear the scrutiny of an 

 ordinary self-educated naturalist. In fact, his theory would 

 get crumbled all up. I beg to inform the Professor that his 

 lecture is a metaphysical one, and of no use to the agricul- 

 turist. It's very far from a philosoxfliical lecture : it has 

 no foundation whatever on facts. 



Your most humble servant, 



Reuben Thomas, 

 Practical Farrier and Farmer. 

 St. Austell, Cornwall, May Uth, 1801. 



The new number of the BalJi and West of Emjland Journal, 

 now just out, contains a most able and elaborate essay on the 

 subject of Sheep Rot, by Professor Brown, the Veterinary Sur- 

 geon of the Society, as well as of the Cirencester College. 

 There is a deal of new matter and decisive deduction in this 

 paper, from which we take the more practical points, leaving 

 the Professor's treatment of the fluke theory to the especial 

 consideration of his brother veterinarians. 



The article opens with an acknowledgment to the follow- 

 ing gentlemen for their courtesy in supplying information 

 having reference to their own or neighbouring localities : — 

 Mr. G. S. Poole, of Bridgwater ; Mr. R. Smith, of Emmett's 

 Grange, Exraoor ; Mr. Widdicorabe, of Torrhilj, South 

 Devon ; Mr. Darby, of Lytchett, Dorset ; Mr. Squarey, of 

 Salisbury ; and Mr. Selley, of Witheridge, North Devon, to 

 whom we are indebted for a supply of subjects. 



The paper then proceeds with an array of facts and 

 opinions : — 



Most fatal Years. — In 180!), 1824, and 1830, as we are in- 

 formed, the annual estimate of one million fatal cases of 

 sheep-rot was more than doubled. In the year 1833 the 

 supplies of sheep fell ofl' to so great an extent that at Smith- 

 fieI4 market they averaged about 5,000 head less than usual 



each market-day, and the same falling oil' was observed in 

 all the countrj' fairs and markets. The statement in Stow's 

 Chronicle that '' rot" was introduced into Northumberland 

 in 1275 by an imported Spanish ewe, cannot be received as 

 a fact ; or, to speak more correctly, the term, as used by 

 him, probably referred in the case cited to variola (sheep- 

 pox), or some malignant and contagious disease. As far 

 back as we can trace, the aiTection has been destructive to 

 sheep ; but it has not been confined to that animal, as hares, 

 rabl)its, deer, horses, and cows, are said to be liable to it. 

 The extraordinary prevalence of the malady during the past 

 autumn awakens us to the fact that our fancied improve- 

 ments in breeding, feeding, and tillage do not afford any 

 immunity from such ailections; on the contrary, it scarcely 

 permits us to compare our present system with that of years 

 past with any satisfaction to ourselves. 



Rot, according to the majority of writers and speakers, is 

 an aftection of the liver. Youatt considers it to be an zh- 

 JlammatioH of the gland ; and whilst most authorities deem 

 " flakes" to be the principal cause of the disturbance, and 

 aim at their destruction with the idea of thereby curing the 

 patient, Youatt looks upon them as both cause and effect — 

 an effect of the diseased condition of tlie fluids, and a cmise 

 of its coutinuance. Some writers refer to the lungs as the 

 primary seat of the disease, considering the affection to be 

 allied to consumption. According to these authorities, the 

 deranged liver, flukes, wasting, and death are all conse- 

 quences of disease of the respiratory system. 



The testimony of practical men is decisive that autumn is 

 the time when the disease is most prevalent ; but the evi- 

 dence as to the state of the land on which rot occurs, as well 

 upon many other points, is contradictory. A reference to 

 my notes gives me the following as the conclusions of dif- 

 ferent observers : — Moist warm weather in autumn ; preva- 

 lence of white misty rain ; and rain falling at a high 

 temperature, causing a rapid and luxuriant growth of 

 herbage, are universally ranked first among the causes of 

 the disease. Marshy situations ; clcy-lands ; low-lands re- 

 ceiving the waste and drainage from higher situations ; and 

 lands that have been flooded, the water having subsided and 

 left only the roots of the herbage moist, are the localities 

 most fruitful in cases of rot, according to a host of authori- 

 ties. In one case, a field in preparation for wheat, under 

 a dressing with lime, hedge-row and other mould, " the 

 grass grew luxuriantly after this dressing, and 110 ewes 

 placed upon it all died from rot." In the Derbyshire report 

 to the Board of Agriculture it is stated that on a hill of 

 limestone shale, where the pasture was dry and good, and a 

 great deal of rain fell at weaning-time, "causing the grass to 

 grow luxuriantly like a salad," rot was produced. On 

 Lockerly Common, Hants, sheep not bred there took the 

 rot. On Broughton Marsh, Hants, before its inclosure, 

 sheep rotted in summer. 



Many cases are recorded of the production of rot in a 

 very short space of time. Thus it is stated that twenty 

 sheep were taken to a fair and six left behind : the twenty 

 died, having, it is presumed, contracted the disease on the 

 road, whilst those left behind were not afl'ected. In another 

 instance some sheep were allowed to roam on a common : 

 one of the number, removed for a short time to have a 

 broken leg dressed, escaped the rot ; but the others all died 

 from it. So, again, a Dorset breeder is said to have allowed 

 his sheep to drink from a poud by the way, and 200 of the 

 nttmber died from the disease. A single night's frost was 

 formerly said to arrest the progress of the aft'ection ; but the 

 popular opinion is now somewhat changed. Among sheep 

 bred and fed on wolds and downs rot is unknown ; but if re- 

 moved to low grounds that have been inundated by winter 

 rains they have been known to rot in one night. Grazing 

 on certain plants is said to produce rot ; for ex-ample, pinguicula 

 vulgaris (butter-wort), hydrocotyle vulgaris (white-rot), dro- 

 sera longifolia( long-leaved sunden). The hay of moist land 

 is a presumed cause of rot. Sheep, after losing their fleeces, 

 are considered most liable to be affected. In the flat water- 

 meadows of Melbourne, Derbyshire, the rot was formerly 

 very rife. Poor sheep, fed on luxuriant grass, are likely to 

 sufl'er. A curious circumstance is mentioned in connection 

 with some land at Welbeck, belonging to the Duke of Port- 

 land.* It seems that, in 1806, there were twenty-five acres 



^ Journal of Royal Ayricwllnral Society, vol. i., p. 368. 



