MODERN FARRIER. 41 



» 



are subject to similar swellings, and in them they 

 are often so large as to prevent the animal from 

 swallowing. It is not improbable that the poke 

 may sometimes have the same effect on sheep. 

 Mercury will probably reiuove it. Consumption of 

 the lungs, and the effects of hunger, seem to be 

 confounded with the disease properly called rot, and 

 we must wait till future observations enable us to 

 distinguish the symptoms, before a more particular 

 account of these different disorders can be given. 



7. The Braxy, or Sickness. 



Symptoms. — This is a disease, the symptoms of 

 which can seldom be observed till all hopes of cure 

 must be given up. Sheep have been seen eating 

 heartily as if in perfect health, and suddenly to start 

 and fall down dead, and when opened immediately, 

 the putridit}'^ of the whole carcase occasions a stench, 

 often so intolerable as to force most people, however 

 curious, to abstain from an examination of the body. 

 The disease in all its varieties is inflammatory ; and, 

 from the great tendency of the inflammation to run 

 into mortification, it may be termed a putrid dis- 

 order. The progress of the inflammation in general 

 excites great pain ; but when mortification begins, 

 the pain ceases, and thus we may account for sheep 

 appearing well and suddenly dying. When a 

 sheep is observed to be restless, lying down and 

 rising up frequently, and at intervals standing with 

 its head down and its back raised ; and when it ap- 

 pears to run with pain, inflammation of some of the 

 viscera may be suspected, and the commencement 

 of the braxy apprehended. 



Causes. — The causes which inflame the intestines, 

 and occasion this disorder, may be very various. 

 Costiveness from eating hard dry food, drinking 

 cold water when the body is overheated, or its 

 being plunged into water while in that state, or 



