MODEKN FARllIER. 405 



3. Erysipelas, or Wild Fire. 



Symptoms. — This, like the last mentioned disease, 

 also affects the skin, and is apt, if not attended to, 

 to spi-ead very quickly among the flock. It is at- 

 tended with more inflammation than the last : and 

 but seldom with blisters over the body. It com- 

 monly appears in August and September, and does 

 not continue above eight days at a time, although 

 those sheep affected with it are liable to relapse. 

 In former times, it was a practice with shepherds to 

 bury those sheep affected with this disease at the 

 door of the fold, with their feet upwards, which 

 they believed acted as a charm to drive it from the 

 flock. 



Cure. — ' It is necessary,' says Mr. Stephenson, 

 * for the cure of this disease, to follow the same me- 

 thod recommended in the red water. An ounce of 

 salts, dissolved in warm water, given every morn- 

 ing, for three or four days, answers remarkably well 

 to begin the cure, when the last mentioned receipt, 

 wdth the addition of the nitre, may be continued, 

 till the disease disappears.' But Sir G. IMackenzie 

 thinks, that giving salts in warm water is liable to 

 objection. The effects of the medicine, he says, will 

 be more powerful, and more beneficial, when the 

 solution is administered cold. For washing; the 

 body, goulard w^ater is the best application. 



o 



4. Scab, or Itch. 



Symptoms. — This infectious, troublesome, and de- 

 structive disease, is well known. A sheep is never, 

 even slightly, affected, but it proceeds to scratch 

 itself, and to rub its sides and buttocks against 

 every thing it meets. As soon as the disease is dis- 

 covered, the whole flock, among which the scabbed 

 animal has been pasturing, should be carefully exa- 



