LOUPING-ILL 673 



The blood becomes viscid and dark, and stagnates in certain 

 parts before death ; so that effective bleeding, which is 

 usually attempted, is often impossible. To try bleeding, and to 

 make the animal move about, are almost the sole remedial 

 means at command, and that only in the early stages. The 

 discovery of the specific bacillus by Ivar Neilsen in Norway, 

 in 1888, was confirmed by Professor Hamilton prior to the 

 beginning of the Committee's investigations in 1901. 



The most successful shepherds' treatment which is not 

 incompatible with the finding of the Board of Agriculture 

 Committee is the drenching of hoggs in the third week of 

 September, or before the braxy season, with a wineglassful of 

 a mixture of pigs' dung and sweet milk, after they have been 

 fasted for twenty-four hours in a clean fold. They are kept 

 for two hours more before being turned into clean foggage. 



The pig " is turned out on to foul ground," says a footnote, 

 page 10, Part III., of the Louping-Ill and Braxy Report, but in 

 the Scottish Border country it is kept in a clean house, and fed 

 on grass or cabbages and milk for three clear days. The 

 dung is gathered on the fourth day, and the drench for 100 

 hoggs made up of I Ib. of dung to 100 wineglassfuls of milk, 

 or, according to the Report, I pint of dung to 15 pints of 

 milk. The treatment is most effective, but it reduces the 

 condition of the hoggs, which is a serious disadvantage at 

 their start in life, especially if the coming winter prove to be 

 a trying one. 



Louping-Ill is not certainly known away from Britain. 1 

 The chief centres of attack, which are unfortunately extend- 

 ing, are the western counties of Scotland, viz., Ross and 

 Cromarty, Inverness, Argyll and the adjacent islands 

 including, in the Hebrides, the west centre of Lewis ; a 

 number of small areas in the central southern counties of 

 Scotland ; a large area in the north-west of England ; and 

 about a score of small centres in very divergent districts of 

 the country, including Wales. It prevails most on grassy 

 uplands, those growing nard or mat-grass, Nardus stricta, 

 being particularly liable to produce it. 



Sheep, more especially before they are a year old, are most 



1 Ziindel, V.S., Strassburg, describes a disease in lambs very similar 

 to that of louping-ill, in which an organism is found which, he says, 

 " resembles the microscopic plant PJeospora herbarum? 



2 U 



