Tke Digestive Organs in Young Sheep. 639 



These substances are similar in form to tlie hair balls frequently 

 foimd in the stomachs of fatting calves, but as connected with disease 

 in the digestive organs they are of far greater moment in the case of 

 young sheej) than in that of other young animals. A hair ball in a 

 young calf very rarely indeed produces any mischief, unless it be passed 

 or attempted to be passed into the mouth again, to be re-masticated, in 

 which case it will often happen that choking ensues, as shown by 

 several specimens in the Museum of the Royal Veterinary College. 

 The chance of choking does not depend upon hair which is deglutated, 

 or attempted to be deglutated ; but the evil actually occm-s from the 

 hair as a ball passing upwards from the rumen. I am not aware of 

 any diagnostic symptoms by which the presence of these vegetable 

 hair balls can be detected ; it is only through a jjost mortem examina- 

 tion that one can tell that an animal has suffered from such a cause. 

 It is a common idea among farmers and shepherds that lambs die from 

 wool-balls ; for though wool-balls are not to be confounded with vege- 

 table hair-balls, the two are produced in a similar manner — that is, by 

 the matting together of the wool or hair ; yet hair becomes matted 

 much quicker than wool, and it is only when the animal is living on 

 clover, and particularly broad-leaved clover, that hair-balls are found 

 present to any great extent. 



Disease op the Lungs. 



Moreover, a large loss of lambs is found to arise fi*om diarrhoea as 

 symptomatic of a diseased condition of the lungs. In investigating 

 this disease, it is always necessary to endeavour to understand upon 

 what the symptoms really depend. For want of this we frequently find a 

 person saying, " I am losing a large number of lambs from scour ;" and 

 he believes that this arises entirely from something that disagrees 

 with the digestive organs of the sheep, or that some disease exists in 

 those organs with the nature of which he is unacquainted. When 

 you speak to him further on the subject, he will say, "I have 

 changed the food of my animals ; some having died upon such 

 a food, I put the others upon food of a different character ; they were 

 upon artificial grasses, and I put them upon natural grasses; they 

 were upon clover, and I put them ujjon artificial grasses. I have given 

 them corn, peas, and so on ; and though they will not eat much dry 

 food, which is not to be expected when they can get green and succu- 

 lent food at this time of the year, nevertheless, I find that a lax state 

 of the bowels is as prevalent among them now as it was a week or two 

 ago." If you ask this man, " Have you noticed whether your lambs 

 are coughing ? " he will reply, " Yes, I have found them coughing very 

 much, and I have observed that the coughing preceded the diarrhoea." 

 This he will say, though knowing very little about what the coughing 

 depended upon. Now, this form of diarrhea is really due to the 

 presence of entozoa within the bronchial tubes of the lambs; and 

 the diarrhoea is but symjitomatic, coming on as one of the last 

 things in the break up of the animal machine. We know that in 

 several affections of the limgs in sheep or other animals the disease 



