142 DE. BEETT — OS THE FLUKE IN SHEEP. 



rot, well knowing that their death-warrant was then signed, and 

 th;it in a few months they must either die of the butcher or of 

 disease. Secondly, sheep which have the rot get fat five to six 

 weeks earlier than other sheep. Perhaps the fluke at first makes 

 them hungry and they eat more ; but it is rather a dangerous ex- 

 periment, because after a time the fluke causes disease of the liver, 

 and of other parts, and the sheep will become lean. 



2nd. — If it is possible to give the rot to sheep, it is equally 

 possible to prevent the disease by following the opposite plan of 

 treatment. 



3rd. — The disease when once established in the liver of the sheep 

 is incurable ; no drug will get to the large vessels inside the liver 

 of the sheep so as to destroy the flukes. The best remedy is the 

 butcher. 



4th. — The meat has not been known to produce any disease in man. 

 If we were to eat the fluke in an early stage, our gastric juice 

 would most likely destroy it. It must be remembered that our 

 stomach differs widely from that of ruminant animals. The ' Lancet ' 

 says that the meat of a sheep that has fluke is not unwholesome. 

 The fact is that rot in sheep is a disease that has been known for a 

 great many years, and the meat of such sheep has been habitually 

 taken, and no harm has been seen to result from it. But the 

 question is only one of degree. In the early stages of the disease 

 the muscles have not been diseased, and the meat may be eaten. 

 "When disease has advanced and produced general or constitutional 

 symptoms, the meat must be refused. It is customary to eat the 

 livers of sheep that have fluke in them. This in my opinion is 

 wrong ; such livers should be burnt ; for as one sheep may have 

 two hundred millions of possible flukes in it, the sooner the livers 

 are destroyed the better lor all. The meat of flukey sheep has been 

 eaten in Watford by all classes, and such meat by good judges and 

 epicures has been pronounced to be excellent. 



This very imperfect sketch shows that there is still much to be 

 learnt, and I strongly advise our members to study entozoic 

 diseases. * Hitherto it has been too much the custom to look upon 

 entozoa as an effect rather than as a cause of disease. Are they so 

 in that condition of the flesh of the pig vulgarly called measled 

 (mizzled) pork, or in gid in sheep, or in dyspnoea in calves and 

 lambs, or in the gapes in chickens ? If not, why should they be so 

 considered in rot ? 



* Those who wish to study the subject would derive help from Dr. Cohbold's 

 'Entozoa,' Simmonds' 'Rot in Sheep, its Nature, Cause, Treatmeut, and Pre- 

 vention,' and an article in the ' Pharmaceutical Journal' for April, 1880. 



