642 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



that, being expelled in the manner I have mentioned, they become 

 parasitic to some vegetable matter, and, being thus taken into the 

 sheep, produce disease. This would explain why, if you put fresh 

 sheep on a farm where the worm affection has existed, those sheep 

 become diseased, and the evil continues year after year. We know 

 that weather often has an influence by rendering animals more suscej)- 

 tible ; and we know, too, that particular systems of management have 

 an influence ; but we are now looking at the matter in an abstract 

 point of view, and I throw out the hint that this may be one cause of 

 the increase of the disease. 



There are a large number of worms which affect sheep in particular, 

 some occupying the true stomach itself, under the influence of which 

 sheep will die in a dropsical condition ; and from this cause, under 

 all circumstances and conditions, and at all ages, scores and scores 

 of sheep are at this moment being lost. There is no diarrhcea in 

 a case of this description. Within the last few days I have received 

 some worms of exactly the same class as those found in wild rabbits ; 

 and I believe that the worm which is found in the stomachs of sheep 

 is one that exists in other creatures, and it may be common to half-a- 

 dozen kinds of animals. 



One word with regard to the means for getting rid of the lax con- 

 dition of the bowels regarded as symptomatic of limg affection. As 

 in this instance diarrhoea is not a disease affecting the alimentary 

 canal, it is not our object to give astringents. No change of food, 

 no medicine, having that object in view, will produce any benefit at 

 all. We must endeavour either to get rid of the worms as they exist 

 in the trachea or in the bronchial tubes of the-lamb, or to root 

 out the disease which they have produced within the lungs. The 

 best thing we can do is of course to attempt to get rid of the worms 

 themselves and destroy the broods as they follow one another ; and 

 this can be effected only by getting the sheep to inhale a medicated 

 atmosphere. Perhaps, however, I should not say "only," because it 

 is well known that there are certain worm-destroyers which, on 

 being given to sheep, are quickly diffused through the system, and 

 are found beneficial in destroying these worms. But these anthel- 

 mintics are often i:)owerless, so that after all we have to come back to 

 a medicated atmosphere, which can be used with great facility, safety, 

 and advantage. If sheep be placed once a day, or perhaps once every 

 other day, in a shed, so arranged that the animals can be got to inhale 

 the fumes of burning tar into which sulphur is cast from time to time, 

 and the atmosphere is thus impregnated with sulphurous vapour, wo 

 shall find that we destroy, probably, not the parent or matured worms, 

 but a very large number of those recently hatched. I do not suppose 

 that we have any influence over the ova as ova, but we have consider- 

 able influence over the young worms ; and I believe also, to use a 

 homely phrase, that we give a " notice to quit " to the old worms. 

 We make their habitat rather untenantable to them, and the result 

 is that they are inclined to quit the body, and so some of them are got 

 rid of. 



Then many lives may bo saved if we strengthen the constitution 



