15 



floclr owners, that when sheep not ' badlj flukey ' are brought 

 into dry healthy pastures they get round again. And it is 

 also known, that the eggs are not, in most cases, expelled from 

 the uterus until the fluke has passed from its host. Now this 

 knowledge, removes, in some measure, the gloom from the 

 terrible picture of the disease and its results portrayed in the 

 report. The conclusion is almost beyond controversy, namely, 

 given healthy, well-drained pastures and the fluke will dis- 

 appear in a great degree ; although the germs of the disease 

 will always be there ready to spread in any flocks that may be 

 exposed to attack by being placed in conditions favorable to 

 their development. 



Good drainage and occasional salt diet appear to be the only 

 remedies known at present ; but it is quite possible that cer- 

 tain breeds or crosses may, from having more vigorous systems 

 and better digestive powers, withstand the entrance of the 

 parasite into the tissues better than others. 



Perhaps, I may be pardoned if, before concluding, I pass 

 from the scientific side of the subject to the consideration 

 rapidly and curtly, of its politico-economic relations. 



The disease and its causes has been well known for the last 

 century. Its internal microscopic structure has certainly, only 

 comparatively recently been elucidated, but all that which re- 

 lates to its dire effects on sheep, that which tends to irritate 

 or to subdue its prevalence, has been intimate knowledge for 

 a long time. Turning to the first edition of Cuvier, published 

 in 1817, I find, under Les Trematodes, the following : — ■ 



" La plus celebre est la douve due foie (Fasciola hepaticay 

 Linn), qui est si commune dane les vaisseaux hepatiques des 

 moutons, mais qui se trouve aussi dans ceux de beaucoup 

 d'autres ruminans, du cochon, du cheval, et meme de I'homme. 



" La douve des moutons se multiplie beaucoup, quand ils 

 paissent dans des terrains humides, et leur occasionne 

 I'hydropisie et la mort." 



It is very evident, then, that the disease and causes of its 

 aggravation have been known amongst sheep farmers for a 

 long time. A sheep farmer, understanding his business, must 

 have known well enough that, in taking up his flocks to the 

 marshy lands of the Lake district he was taking them to 

 certain disease ; and without the slightest precaution, bring- 

 ing them down to winter in the warmer country below, 

 was taking as certain means to spread that disease. It may 

 be presumed that some sheep farmers desirous of larger gains, 

 have carried more sheep than their cultivated estates would 

 bear in summer, and that during those months they sent them 

 to depasture on lands utterly unprepared by drainage for their 

 reception. The result was inevitable ; for a time greater profits 



