REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 37 



the body, usually the uose, ear, jaw, leg, or side. The animal uses its 

 feet, of ali.^ convenient object, such as a tree, fence, or post, to rub 

 against. The itching seems allayed somewhat by the friction, but soon 

 returns with increased violence, until the hair and skin are quite rubbed 

 and torn off. The parts swell and fill with a serous fluid, as the disease 

 advances. The animal becomes frantic, and dies, apparently from ex- 

 haustion, from eight to twenty -four hours after the first symptoms have 

 shown themselves. Sometimes they bloat before death. But little de- 

 rangement of the secretions is noticeaWe. There is no fever, and the 

 circulation at first is riormal, becoming weaker and more rapid toward 

 the last. Bevenil 2)ost-morte7n examinations of cattle dying of this dis- 

 ease were without satisfactory results, as each case seemed to present 

 different features. 



Sheep. — This class of animals, so liable to disease, have been exempt 

 from prevalent disorders to a far greater degree than for several years 

 past. When of little value they die oft' by thousands ; as they appre- 

 ciate in the market, disease disajipears. 



Foot-rot is still found in a few flocks, but its virulence has generally 

 disappeared as obstinate cases have been culled out, and medication 

 and cleanliness have been brought into requisition. In places where it 

 was almost universally prevalent two years ago, it is now scarcely 

 found. It usually yielded readily to applications of white vitriol or a 

 weak solution of corrosive sublimate, in the mild form in which it has 

 appeared during the past year. It has had a slight foot-hold in most of 

 the counties of the Middle States, and has in Yates County, Xew York, 

 affected 75 per cent, of the flocks ; it has been somewhat troublesome in 

 several of the central counties of j^Tew Jersey; in Washington, Penu- 

 vSylvania, it was confined to meriuoes; in Galveston County, Texas, losses 

 from this cause amounted to 10 per cent. ; it has had slight existence 

 in the Southern States, with the exception of Texas ; in Medina County, 

 Ohio, half the sheep ha^'e been aftected ; in Martin, Indiana, a loss of 

 20 iier cent, is reported ; and its occasional prevalence is reported in all 

 the prairie States east of the IMissouri Eiver. 



Sc(ib, — This disease does not appear to have been prevalent, except in 

 Texas, and in portions of Missouri, though a few cases are reported in 

 Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and other States. 



Uot^ — The reportsof " rot" are not always accompanied with statements 

 of symptoms showing the characteristics of the disease. From several 

 of the Southern States " rot" is reported. In Clackamas County, Ore- 

 gon, severe losses resulted from what is locally designated "leech in the 

 liver," the liver being infested with x>:^i'^sifces. 



Various other diseases appear in isolated cases, of which " grub in the 

 head " was most common. A disease in Barton County, Missouri, car- 

 ried off a large proportion, scarcely five hundred being left, though 

 large flocks have since been brought in. Losses were reported in the 

 South from eating acorns. In Houston, Minnesota, a skin-disease com- 

 mences with a few pimples under the fore-leg where no wool grows, 

 which extend rapidly, the skin becoming raw over the uncovered por- 

 tions of the body, the ulcers emitting a bad odor. 



Swine. — The mortality of swine is quite too common to report in de- 

 tail. The losses by what is called " hog-cholera," which is practically 

 any iirevalent fatal disease, are most common in the West and South, 

 ranging from 5 to 50 per cent, of the entire number in any county ; and 

 in severely infected districts, smaller than counties, a loss of from GO to 

 75 per cent, is not an unfrequent record. A distiller in Switzerland 

 County, Indiana, lost hogs valued at $10,000. It is generally reported 



