670 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP DISEASES 



by sewing to the wool with stocking-yarn pieces of strong 

 canvas, 2 feet or 2 feet 3 in. square, which have been water- 

 proofed by brushing one side with boiled linseed oil, to 

 keep rain off and heat in ; the sheep should also be liberally 

 fed, and kept perfectly quiet in a well-sheltered place. Any 

 attempt to drug or fumigate the affected animals increases 

 the number of deaths. A few usually die of consumption 

 some months after the acute stage of the disease has 

 passed. The late Principal Williams and some other 

 authorities believed that the origin of the disease above de- 

 scribed is entirely parasitic, the special worm being Strongylus 

 filaria. To the public the difference of opinion as to whether 

 the disease is parasitic or infectious is of little moment, as 

 the remedial treatment recommended in either case is the 

 same. There exist weighty reasons for the statement that 

 much of the death from so-called "rot" in the United 

 Kingdom in 1879 was largely due to this disease, and 

 not so much to the liver fluke as was supposed, although 

 in many districts fluke was prevalent and most destructive. 



Wm. R. Davis says (1907): " Pneumo-enteritis of the 

 sheep, a disease classed by Nocard under the hcemorrhagic 

 septicaniiaS) is not uncommon in this country ; indeed, it 

 occurs a good deal more frequently than is generally 

 suspected. In the acute form the attack is very sudden ; 

 respiration becomes rapid, there is a frequent cough, a 

 discharge, often bloody, escapes from the nostrils, the 

 mucous membranes become purple, and spots may appear 

 on the inside of the thighs. There is great distension of the 

 abdomen, and after some hours, diarrhoea supervenes. The 

 termination is usually death in a few days, sometimes even 

 in a few hours. Treatment. Medicine is useless; the 

 pasture should be changed, salt and iron given internally to 

 the sheep, and a dressing of salt applied to the land." 



" In Asia Minor a contagious lung disease of goats has 

 long been recognised. Whenever an outbreak occurs among 

 the stock of the villagers, a strict cordon is drawn around the 

 infected area until the destructive malady has ceased to exist. 

 Some importations of Angora goats carried the disease to 

 Cape Colony a few years ago, where it committed great 

 havoc in 1881 and 1882, more especially in the districts of 

 Somerset and Bedford. Several thousands of goats died. 

 The mortality of an entire flock was at least equivalent to 90 

 per cent, in many places. Prompt measures were taken by 

 the Cape Government to stamp out the disease by the 



