Disease among Lambs. 297 



with dry food, that food, unless it is composed principally of 

 beans or peas, is liable to disturb the equilibrium which should 

 subsist between the fat-producing elements and those which form 

 the tissues of the frame, and a tendency to disease is the result. 

 If it be remarked that linseed-cake is as rich in either principle 

 as leguminous seeds, and the question be raised why lambs cannot 

 do equally well upon that alone, I can only say that shepherds tell 

 me that, given by itself, it is too forcing — why, I cannot tell, 

 unless it is that legumes contain their nutritive elements in a 

 form more susceptible of being assimilated by young lambs. 



As regards treatment, curative means are of little avail after 

 diarrhcea has fully set in. To the animals purged as well as to 

 those apparently well, stimulants should be given ; for if my theory 

 is at all correct, the vital powers of the animal must be kept up by 

 artificial means long enough for the introduction and assimilation 

 of nutritive aliment. For a long time subsequent to a thorough 

 change in the diet and to medicinal treatment deaths will occur 

 among some of the animals, at first apparently well : this cannot 

 cause very great surprise, when the weakened condition of the 

 whole of the digestive and assimilative organs in all or most of 

 the sheep exposed to such influences is borne in mind. As regards 

 diet, unquestionably the introduction of some easily-digestible 

 nitrogenous matter is the first consideration. Peas or beans, with 

 bran and a small proportion of linseed-cake, I conceive to be the 

 best mixture of dry food for the affected lambs. They may either 

 be turned upon old pasture land, or upon a large turnip break — 

 and in either case be supplied with a limited quantity of chopped 

 turnip-roots, and good sweet hay ad libitum ; the latter, though it 

 contains more heat-forming than nitrogenous elements, I deem the 

 best vehicle for supplying the amount of fibre essential for the 

 digestion of a ruminant. I also find that it is very beneficial to 

 protect them from the inclemencies of the cold, rainy, autumnal 

 nights, for there is always a greater mortality after exposure to 

 such weather. Of course it is essential to keep them from water. 

 I have known instances where, having had access to a pond, they 

 have gone in and drank until they died upon the spot. 



The fearful mortality that occurs when once the disease has 

 commenced, in spite of all modes of treatment, shows that medi- 

 cine and nutritious food are then but of little avail, because the 

 assimilative organs are become so diseased as to have little or no 

 action on the aliment, and life hangs on so slender a thread that 

 a little extra exposure or increase of debility is fatal. Prevention, 

 therefore, rather than cure, must be our aim ; and for this our 

 best reliance is in a fair supply of easily-digestible nitrogenous 

 food from weaning-time to the following spring. I do not 

 speak confidently, but several shepherds and farmers have con- 



