178 PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF SCABIES. 



our largest markets without contracting scab, and a very 

 extensive cattle and sheep dealer in Lincolnshire told me 

 recently, that it was impossible to purchase sheep in the 

 Islington Market without communicating the scab to farms 

 on which such sheep were placed. It is, therefore, the prac- 

 tice in many parts of England to use mercurial ointment as 

 a dressing for newly-bought sheep, and the result is the de- 

 struction of many animals by mercurial poisoning. 



Since my first general inquiries into the nature of prevail- 

 ing diseases amongst animals in different parts of the United 

 Kingdom, I have repeatedly been informed of the destruction 

 amongst sheep by a disease of the lungs, occurring in Lin- 

 colnshire, especially during the spring months. From the 

 1st April this season (1863), many flocks have been deci- 

 mated, and my attention has been again drawn to the sub- 

 ject by Mr John George Dickinson, veterinary surgeon, 

 Boston. 



As usual, a great diversity of opinions has tended to 

 perplex the farmer, and no systematic inquiry has been con- 

 ducted. It has been said by some that the highly manured 

 turnips induced the disease, others looked upon the rank 

 grass as its cause, and not a few have recognised that the 

 flocks have been poisoned by the salves used for the treat- 

 ment of scabby sheep. 



The importance of the subject may be appreciated when 

 we learn that the losses amongst flocks have varied from 5 

 to 25 per cent. ; that some flockmasters have lost a hundred 

 sheep or more, and one veterinary surgeon has been dispens- 

 ing drinks by the thousand, having four or five thousand 

 sheep in his neighbourhood more or less affected. 



It were well if farmers could be made to understand that 

 no such frightful and general losses can occur without mis- 

 management; and it is much to be deplored that there is as 



