THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



493 



function, is attained by the exhibition of agents rich in the car- i 

 bonaceous element : the condition of the patient definitely shows ] 

 a deficiency of carbon, and a consequent defective calorefacient 

 prijcess. lu all cases where such defect is present, the 

 hydrated carbons are found of great value. Thus, turpentine, 

 naphtha, glycerine, and cod-liver oil, act principally by supply- 

 ing the required element — carbon — in an available form. 

 These various agents may be considered to possess an equal 

 value in this respect, aud may be used alternately. Turpen- 

 tine and naphtha are more stimulating, and hence may be used 

 for cases where much prostration is present. A dose of two 

 drachms of eitlier drug may be "iven at first, combined with 

 an e<,'g or linseed emulsion, three or four times a day, the 

 quantity being gradually increased as the animal becomes 

 accustomed to the action ; the effect upon the kidneys being 

 carefully noted, although little apprehension need be felt, as 

 in such cases animals bear enormous doses with impunity. 

 Glycerine and cod-liver oil are much less actively medicinal, 

 and may be given in almost any quantities in the food or by 

 the drenchiug-horn. Half an ounce to an ounce, twice or 

 three times a day, will generally be sufficient. Where tur- 

 pentine or naphtha prove too stimulating, the other agents will 

 be effective and safe substitutes. Salt as a remedy stands 

 high in popular estimation. Of its preventive effects we en- 

 tertain a strong opinion ; but as a specific for the cure of the 

 disease when fairly established, we think very lightly of it in- 

 deed. In our hands it has not proved itself a very effective 

 medicine. As an ordinary condiment, its alterative action is 

 beneficial ; and it may, therefore, be used with the diet 

 throughout the treatment : but, alone, we caution the farmer 

 not to depend upon it. In the attempt to restore the per- 

 verted functions to their pristine condition , a number of means 

 will suggest themselves to the practitioner — for example, 

 taraxacum, for its effects upon the liver and kidneys. The 

 compounds of iodine and chlorine, and also charcoal, for their 

 antiseptic and tonic properties, will be at various times taken 

 advantage of. The diminution of the number of flukes will in 

 all probability follow the restoration of a healthy condition ; 

 besides which, the variou3 agents indicated will further the 

 end. The frequent use of camphor, in the form of vapour, 

 would, we have no doubt, be advantageous ; but, excepting 

 in the Turkish bath, we have no means of so fumigating a 

 number of animals. Under any system of treatment, we have 

 reason to believe that a large per-centage of fatal cases will 

 occur ; and, as far as our experience extends, the question of 

 "cure" gives way to a more important one — viz., that of 

 " prevention." 



Prevkntion of Rot. 



The second conclusion at which we arrived, from a review 

 of the evidence placed before us, at the commencement of our 

 subject, furnishes some important suggestions. If it be true 

 — and there is no reason to question it — that rot never occurs 

 on well-drained lands, where no excess of moisture is present 

 to stimulate the herbage to a precocious development, we 

 have at once the proper course indicated to us. Short of deep 

 draining, we can conceive nothing that is likely to be success- 

 ful. Partial draining has proved injurious, by removing the 

 flood which prevented the rapid growth of grass, and leaving 

 the moisture stagnant at the roots, and thereby promoting 

 that unhealthy exuberance of which we complain. The free 

 use of salt, with a varied and, as far as may be, dry and nu- 

 tritious diet, are means that the farmer should not neglect to 

 use in seasons like the past one, during which the large 

 amount of wet might well have sufficed to injure even the 

 most healthy grounds. Under such unfavourable circum- 

 stances, the healthy or unhealthy condition of the flock will 

 much influence the number of animals attacked. To provide, 

 therefore, as much as possible against such an emergency, 

 extra expense must not be spared in the attempt to render 

 the system non-ausceptible to the influence of the causes of 

 the disease. If our conclusions upon the nature of those 

 causes be correct, there can exist no question about the best 

 preventive measures, although there may be considerable diffi- 

 culty in carrying them into effect. It is certainly easier to 

 insist upon the propriety of converting bogs and marshes 

 into healthy pasture, than to effect their conversion ; never- 

 theless, we can no more escape the necessity than we can 

 escape the conviction that, without such a change, thoroughly 

 effected, rot will continue to exist, and devastate our flocks. 

 The matter assumea a national importance, when we reflect 



not only upon the loss to the agricultural community, but also 

 upon the probable consequences to the public health. If, 

 during the past season, " thousands of sheep" have been de- 

 stroyed in consequence of the disease, and carcases have been 

 sold from 83. or lOs. up to SOs., the inquiry as to what has 

 become of that enormous mass of diseased meat is a serious 

 one, albeit one not difficult to answer. A number of mo- 

 mentous points press upon us in considering the extraor- 

 dinary prevalence of rot and other diseases among sheep : 

 year by year the conviction becomes stronger that the animal 

 grows more and more subject to these maladies. Nor can 

 we doubt but that the emergencies of the present highly- 

 artificial system of farming are constantly acting to increase 

 the susceptibilities of his system. For examjile, the 

 cultivation of a remarkable precocity in the breed, the 

 necessity for exposing the animal to atmospheric changes 

 in his ordinary position on the farm, the deteriorating 

 effects of stimulating manures upon those plants which are 

 the staple articles of his food, are circumstances which inevita- 

 bly influence the predisposition to disease. How far they are 

 capable of modification let the British farmer decide ; at least 

 he cannot afford to contemplate their existence with indiffer- 

 ence. 



The occasional extraordinary prevalence of rot, as during 

 the last few months, is a circumstance of great significance in 

 relation to the essential cause of the disease. On some land 

 rot is an apparent necessity, an invariable result of feeding 

 upon its produce. On large tracts of soil in France, Belgium 

 and Germany, the disease is constantly present, aud in some 

 pastures in our own country the same thing is observed. 

 The presence of stagnant water in all these situations, at one 

 and the same time will explain the existence of flukes in the 

 liver and the peculiar growth of the herbage to which we 

 have ascribed so much of the primary derangement. As the 

 conditions for the development of the embryo of the fluke, 

 and the conditions for the precocious and unhealthy growth of 

 the grasses, are both found in the invariable moisture, it be- 

 comes exceedinglj' difficult, perhaps impossible, to decide be- 

 tween the food aud the entozoa — which of the two may exert 

 the greatest influence in the production of the disease ; while 

 it is evident that the presence of the entozoon is, in such loca- 

 lities, very probable, even if we admit, which we do not, that it 

 has nothing to do with morbid conditions. The occasional 

 ravages of rot are associated with abundance of wet falling in 

 situations where it may become stagnant ; in situations, how- 

 ever, which did not previously favour the occurrence of the 

 disease, and which will probably hereafter be exempt from 

 such an unfortunate peculiarity. Under these not uncommon 

 circumstances, if we accept the effects of the wet upon the 

 herbage, and upon the temperature and composition of the 

 atmosphere, as primary causes of the disturbance, we have no 

 difficulty in accounting for these occasional outbreaks. The 

 number of flukes found in the liver we have explained by re- 

 ferring to development of the larvae under the, to them, 

 favourable conditions of the disease ; the distoma brood ia 

 most likely largely supplied by the water of small stagnant 

 pools to which the sheep have access. If Steenstrup could 

 distinguish thousands of cercaria in the water in which he had 

 kept specimens of two of our largest fresh-water snails (Plan- 

 orhis cornea and lAnincEus slaynalis), there is surely no difli- 

 culty about the quantity of germs, uor anything marvellous in 

 their development under favourable circumstances. The dis- 

 toma brood may be swallowed commonly by healthy animals ; 

 but ia consequence of the absence of that peculiar condition 

 of system under which they floucish, the mEJority may die 

 and leave only a few representatives which do no mischief, 

 and are not even supected to exist until found by the butcher. 

 If we decline to accept this solution of the question, we are 

 forced to receive the other, viz., that the fluke is the essential 

 cause of rot ; this view is not difficult to defend, bo long as the 

 arguments refer only to the occurrence of rot in localities 

 where the requisite conditions, as we have remarked, are con- 

 stantly present ; but, if we extend our observations to the 

 case now under discussion, viz., the occasional production of 

 rot, in wet seasons, upon grounds previously free from it, we 

 incur the onus of accounting for the sudden presence of the 

 " distoma brood" in a new situation. We cannot assume that 

 the ova cf the fluke are developed in these places where in dry 

 seasons they would have withered, because, however probable 

 this suggestion as to the effects of the moisture upon the ova, 

 it must be remembered that we have no origin for these latter 



