Report on the Health of Animals of the Farm. 561 



Abnormal Urine. 

 «p.Gr. 1-046. 



Residue dried at 2 12^ Fahr 10-8 



Ash upon incineration 3*1 



Coagulum formed on boiling ; after being dried at 212^^ Fahr, 1 • 8 



Practically the main difference in the two samples of urine has chiefly 

 reference to the albuminous compounds present in the abnormal specimen. 

 The examination, both chemically and microscopically, fully confirmed the 

 -conclusions which were arrived at some years since at the College. 



J. WoBTLEY Axe, 



Assistant Professor. 



4. Bej)ort of an Investigation of a Disease among some Lambs on the 

 Farm of Mr. Abel Smith, Woodall ParJc, Hertford. 



On the 6th of March I visited Woodhall Park, near Hertford, and examined 

 a flock of lambs, the property of Mr. Abel Smith, the produce of 150 ewes of 

 the Southdown breed. The ewes began to lamb on the 14th of January, and. 

 on the date of my visit only sixteen had still to lamb. The lambs at birth 

 presented a fair average condition, and were apparently perfectly healthy. 

 About the second week in February, however, some of them gave evidence of 

 a disease to which forty had succumbed at the time of my visit : and thirty 

 others were in a precarious condition. The ages of the animals aflected 

 varied from one to twenty-one days, and the duration of the malady ranged 

 between five days and three weeks. The early indications of the disease 

 were associated with a faulty gait, which gradually developed into acute lame- 

 ness, and resulted in many instances in an inability of the animal to stand. 



Some of the lambs at the commencement of the attack are affected with en- 

 largements of the joints of various sizes, which soon assume the form of fluctua- 

 ting tumours, and, unless opened by artificial means, they break, and pour forth 

 a quantity of thick, yellow, pus-like matter. The joints most frequently affected 

 are the hocks and knees ; similar enlargements, however, also show themselves on 

 the fore-arms and thighs ; and others occur about the belly, flank, arm-pits, 

 and throat. In reference to the last-named situation of the tumours, it may 

 be observed that suffocation is by no means an uncommon result. The tumi- 

 fied parts are hot, red, and acutely sensitive to the touch. In several of the 

 cases some of the local symptoms above referred to are variously modified, 

 or altogether absent. In the latter case the constitutional symptoms are most 

 marked and severe ; but the duration of the malady is not so long. In these 

 cases all desire for food ceases, the animal is very dispirited, mostly recum- 

 bent, and evinces no desire to move ; the pulse and breathing are much 

 accelerated, the mouth is dry and hot, the bowels constipated, and the visible 

 mucous membranes are of a reddish-yellow hue. In some few cases a defluc- 

 tion of tears from the eyes, and a mucous discharge from the nostrils, are 

 seen early in the attack, and continue, to a greater or less extent, through- 

 out the duration of the malady. With the progress of the disease the symp- 

 toms become much intensified, and end almost invariably in death, chiefly as 

 the result of extensive morbid changes affecting the internal organs. 



Several post-mortem examinations were made of those lambs which I found 

 dead, and also of others in various stages of the disease, which I had destroyed 

 for the purpose. The lesions exhibited varied as to situation and extent; 

 but they were identical in their nature in everj^ instance. On removing 

 the skin from the body, tumours of various forms and sizes were found in 

 the several situations mentioned above. Some of them contained a watery 



VOL. X. — s. s. 2 o 



