216 COKKESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



your queries in regard to the distemper called " Puckeridge" 

 I consulted my brother and other persons on this subject and 

 minuted down the particulars he gave me, in which others 

 also concurred. The name of Puckeridge is unknown in 

 Cheshire. The disease along the chine, or rather the maggots 

 that cause it, they call " worry brees" * and a single one 

 " worrybree." But they are so far from thinking these 

 maggots prejudicial, that, on the contrary, they judge the calf 

 that has these " worrybrees " in the back less likely to be 

 struck (as they call it) with the hyant, which is or is con- 

 sidered a distinct disorder. When they are affected with this 

 it is perceivable by the hand; for the skin is hard, and rustles 

 (if you know that word) under the hand when rubbed by it. 

 Sometimes there is one or more spots of this nature, and 

 sometimes the body is almost covered with them. When the 

 skin is taken off, the flesh in those parts is like jelly. It is 

 deemed almost incurable, and they die in a few hours. My 

 brother never knew or heard of more than one instance of a 

 calf thus stricken recovering. That was but slightly affected, 

 perhaps in a single spot ; and the owner took the skin off the 

 part and put in a rowel, or something of the sort. This 

 disorder prevails most in Spring and Autumn, and commonly 

 in calves of the first or second year, seldom in older cattle. 

 Quid existimas de hac questione, an Puckerigium sit Hyan- 

 tium? and whence comes this remarkable word? Are the 

 Hyades supposed to cause it? I have heard the expression 

 planet-struck, but whether of this disease I am not sure. In 

 Cheshire they call calves the first winter twinters, in the second 

 year sterks. The last is common, the other growing obsolete. 

 I take it to be a contraction of two winters:, for it is applied to 

 them not as soon as calved, but when, if they were calved in 

 winter, they are two winters old. 



Dr. Loveday had a letter, about six weeks ago, from Dr. 



[The (Estrus bovis is commonly known in many parts of England by 

 the name " breeze." This is derived from the A.-S. briose," which had 

 originally a similar signification. The additional term "worry" refers, 

 )f course, to its effect upon cattle when attacked by it. Of the Word 

 " hyant " I can find no trace. T. B.l 



