BRAXY Itf SHEEP. 295 



the sheep gorges itself to repletion, and when morning 

 arrives, is found struck down by the most fatal braxy. We 

 have very carefully considered this cause, and have com- 

 pared shepherds' books, especially on low lands, where full 

 feeding on turnips, &c., is the cause of the disease, and we 

 have found most deaths at the period of the full moon. 



A circumstance which would appear precisely the oppo- 

 site to the foregoing is, however, a very common exciting 

 cause of braxy. Dark, cold, tempestuous nights are attended 

 often with a fearful mortality amongst the finest sheep. Sir 

 George Stewart Mackenzie, who wrote in 1809, says : " Cos- 

 tiveness from eating hard, dry food, drinking cold water when 

 the body is overheated, or its being plunged into water while 

 in that state, or suddenly drenched by rain, or chilled by a 

 shower of snow, may all contribute to bring on this dan- 

 gerous malady/' Hogg also says : " Any shepherd will tell 

 you that it is always on sudden changes from fresh weather 

 to a frost that its ravages are most felt; and so much are 

 they aware of this, that I have frequently seen them on such 

 mornings put on an old hat and old clothes in order to carry 

 them home, not doubting in the least but that some of them 

 had fallen a prey to it." Hogg believed this cold to act upon 

 the stomach: the true explanation of the influence of cold, of 

 frost, and even of dark showery nights, in producing the 

 disease, is, that the action of the skin is checked ; indeed, all 

 the organs of secretion become torpid, the blood cannot be 

 purified or relieved, the blood-vessels are filled to reple- 

 tion, and the sudden effect of the cold also enervates and 

 paralyses the animal. The influence of cold cannot be under- 

 stood, unless we consider its effects on the secretions, and 

 the effect of an arrest of secretion on a rich and abundant 

 blood. 



Thus, braxy is caused by circumstances which make the 



