Tlie Digestive Qrfjar,s in Young Sheep. 637 



than ordinarily firm cui'd is produced in the stomach. When a young 

 animal partakes of milk, the milk (that is to say, its caseine) is acted 

 upon by the gastric juice, and the first effect of digestion is tho 

 coagulation of the caseine ; but after a short time the same cause acts 

 upon the coagulum thus produced, and it is broken up or otherwise 

 digested. Now, if you have an abnormal condition of the milk itself 

 produced by a cause of this kind, yoii will find that when the clot is 

 produced in the stomach of the young animal the gastric juice is not 

 solvent enough to break it up ; so that it becomes an indigestible 

 material, often accumulating to the extent of three or four pounds 

 weight. The whey of the milk is passed thi'oiigh the intestinal canal, 

 and is voided with the mucus of the intestines as an abnormal secre- 

 tion and comes from the intestines in the form of a white fluid. I 

 have seen many young animals fall a sacrifice to this state of things, 

 because not merely had they functional derangement of the stomach 

 and intestines, but absolutely inflammation of these organs. Tho 

 animals then die of gastro-enteritis, induced by causes of this kind. 



For getting rid of the aflection, common sense would tell tho 

 farmer to alter his management ; for you can hardly do anything 

 that will be beneficial to the lambs without paying attention to the 

 health and food of the ewes. Let the nitrogenized food be lessened 

 in quantity, especially cease to use cake and corn for a certain time, 

 and you will find fewer cases of this kind occurring. Thus you wall 

 strike at the root of the evil at once. 



Something might be done also with regard to the lamb, whose sys- 

 tem is ill-adapted to bear up against disease. It should be prevented 

 from taking more milk for a day or two by being taken from the ewe, 

 the necessary support being given it by well-boiled oatmeal gruel, and 

 so on. Antacids should also be given, particularly bicarbonate of potash, 

 which will have a tendency to break up the firm coagulum of caseine 

 in the stomach ; and if this treatment be combined with a little gentle 

 aperient and carminative medicine, the case may not be unsuccessfully 

 dealt with. Perhaps as good a mixture as can be given to the lamb 

 for a day or two while it is separated from the mother is a scruple of 

 bicarbonate of potash, with about 10 grains of rhubarb, and from 5 to 

 10 grains nutmeg. Give this with a little pejipermint-water or gruel 

 once or twice a day, and with such management as I have indicated 

 the white scour will generally be arrested. 



DlARRH(EA. 



I pass on to speak of other derangements of the digestive system 

 which lead to diarrhoea in young sheep prior to weaning. In 

 considering the manner in which the animals are managed, attention 

 must of course be paid to the system of farming. In the case of ewes 

 upon tm-nips when the lambs are strong, the common practice is to 

 use what are called lamb-hurdles, by means of which the lambs 

 can run out of the fold on to the turnips, and retiu-n to the 

 ewes at their will. If these turnips have a large amount of top 

 quickly grown the lambs become subject to diarrhoea. On the other 

 hand, if there is an advanced ripening of the turnips, the weather 



