636 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



in contact with the lining membrane of the canal. But not only have 

 we causes of that kind atfecting the consistency of the fecculent 

 matter, and. the amount of nutriment extracted from the food of the 

 animal, but also very often an irritable condition of the bowels, pro- 

 duced by causes not acting directly on the intestinal canal. Indirect 

 causes frequently produce fatal cases of diarrhcea in sheep, particularly 

 in young animals ; and it is therefore important to be able to separate 

 the one cause from the other, and to ascertain whether it is acting 

 directly or indirectly on the intestinal canal. 



The White Scour on Turnip Lands. 



In the case of very early lambs, losses frequently occur from what 

 farmers term " white scour." When lambs are perhaps not more 

 than four or five days old, there will be an exit of liquid evacuations 

 of a pale colom', which are exceedingly sour, and to some extent even 

 excoriate the parts they come in contact with. This white scour generally 

 happens when the ewes are remarkably well fed ; and very seldom indeed 

 when they are being fed on ordinary grasses, or even receiving only a 

 moderate supply of turnips. In the ordinary case of ewes lambing 

 on turnips, they are often supplied with a very large quantity 

 of good turnips, and at the same time with a considerable amount of 

 highly-nitrogcnised food in the shape of oats, peas, or oilcake, the 

 object of the individual farmer being to fatten his ewes and his lambs 

 together. This is a system which used to be followed to a certain 

 extent in Middlesex. A farmer, under these circumstances, although 

 he got his ewes into good condition very easily, and could get rid 

 of them in the latter part of the year as fat ewes, yet lost a large 

 number of lambs from " white scour." The real cause of this 

 affection is, I believe, a peculiar condition of the lacteal secre- 

 tion induced by this highly-nitrogenised food. The milk of the 

 newly jjarturient animal is rich in an animalised product called 

 colostrum, and if we examine milk very shortly after parturition, 

 we shall find that in addition to the ordinary fatty globules 

 which exist in such large numbers, there are present a considerable 

 number of cells of large size filled mth granular matter. On the 

 condition of these cells will the coloiu* of the milk depend : if present 

 in large numbers, the milk will have a yellowish-brown apj)carance ; 

 if their number is small, it will be of the ordinary colour. Now, in 

 the ordinary state of things, these cells of colostrum very soon disap- 

 pear, and they are met with very sparingly indeed in milk a few days 

 after partm'ition. If, however, the animals are kept too well, the 

 period is prolonged, and the young animal is subjected to a disturbing 

 influence. It has been said that these cells exist in the milk, that 

 nature may furnish her own purgative to a young animal, whose 

 bowels are loaded with a peculiar substance, called mecovmm, and there 

 can bo no doubt that milk which is rich in colostrum has a laxative 

 effect on the intestinal canal. But further, we must regard these cells 

 as agents which absolutely excite fermentation in the millc ; and there 

 can bo no doubt, I thinlv, that lactic acid in excess is thereby pro- 

 duced, so that Avhen the milk is received by the young animal, a more 



