:2^C) Report on the Parasitic Lung Disease of Lambs. 



•examined by Mr. Axe and myself." " This so-yclept gordian 

 worm is a large species of strongle, which, in contradistinction 

 to the common lung-strongle, I am in the habit of speaking of as 

 the long strongle, and I think this description is particularly 

 convenient, because the parasite, in its full-grown state, acquires 

 •a length of from six to seven inches, or, as Leuckart affirms, it 

 may be a span long." 



With reference to the natural history and development of this 

 " long strongle " of Dr. Cobbold, it may perhaps be affirmed 

 that even less is known than of the Strong ylus Jilaria, or coramon 

 lung-worm. Both species are believed to undergo important 

 •developmental stages out of the body of the sheep, dwelling 

 probably during this time either in the soil, or in the plants 

 of ordinary pasturage, or in the cultivated clovers and grasses. 



Parasitic affections in general, as well as that known as the 

 " lamb disease," have been largely on the increase of late years ; 

 and once introduced on to a farm, as is shown in the experience 

 of all the members of the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society who 

 have replied to the list of questions with reference to the " lamb 

 disease," they cause not only serious losses of animals, but 

 apparently resist all ordinary means of prevention, and often 

 also of cure. 



Doubtless, some systems of sheep husbandry (and such I 

 believe to exist in Lincolnshire) ar6 calculated rather to promote 

 the spread of the " lamb disease " than to keep it in check ; 

 but how far some of the pi-eventive means, founded on our 

 present amount of knowledge of the natural history of the lung- 

 worm, can be practically applied is a question to be deter- 

 mined by agriculturists themselves. On farms on which the 

 disease exists, the greatest care ought to be constantly exercised 

 in keeping lambs from pastures and from clover and other 

 layers which had been fed with sheep at an earlier part of the 

 jear. It is a noteworthy fact, and one yearly confirmed by 

 experience, that lambs dropped on turnips, and allowed to run 

 before the ewes, and later on in the season fed on tares and 

 similar green food, and on cabbages specially cultivated to 

 come in about weaning-time, are comparatively free from attacks 

 of the lung-worm. 



It has also been observed that the disease, when once it 

 has obtained a footing on a farm, is kept active if the system 

 of renewing the flock of ewes from lambs bred and reared on 

 the land be adopted — the selected lambs being those which 

 had suffered but little, or appai-ently not at all, from an attack oi 

 the parasites. Such a plan obtains in Lincolnshire, and is 

 described in no less than thirty out of the thirty-two returns 

 which have been received. The system adopted in the rearing 



