CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



inflammation, and sometimes producing sudden 

 death by pressure on the diaphragm. One very 

 frequent cause of braxy is that kind of frosty 

 mornings which load the pastures with hoar-frost. 

 The hogs, from feeding chiefly on dry and binding 

 pastures at that season of the year (from Novem- 

 ber till March), eat the succulent spots of grass 

 laden with hoar-frost very greedily ; and thus the 

 temperature of the stomach is so suddenly low- 

 ered, that violent inflammation is immediately 

 produced, and death often ensues in a few hours. 

 In the list of the causes of braxy, the improper use 

 of the dog must not be omitted. It is clear that 

 nothing is more calculated to produce inflamma- 

 tion than violently heating a sheep by incessant use 

 of the dog at seasons of the year liable to sudden 

 and great falls of temperature. 



Symptoms. The animal appears uneasy, often 

 lying down and rising up, standing with its head 

 down and back raised, taking no food, but often 

 drinking water ; fever then ensues, when the pulse 

 becomes strong and quick, respiration laborious 

 and rapid, the skin hot, and the fleece clapped ; 

 the eyes are languid, watery, and half-closed ; by 

 and by it ceases to follow the flock, and soon dies. 



Appearances on Dissection. On opening the 

 body, the appearances vary, according to the parts 

 affected. Sometimes only the reed is affected, and 

 all the rest of the viscera appear perfectly healthy, 

 and the flesh not at all affected. In other cases, 

 the effects of violent inflammation are visible 

 through the whole of the viscera, and the entire 

 flesh of the animal is in a state of rapid putre- 

 faction. 



Treatment. The first and most effective remedy 

 is prompt and copious bleeding from the jugular 

 veins ; this being effected, the constipation of the 

 bowels must be removed. The best purgative for 

 this purpose is Epsom salts, two ounces for a 

 dose, dissolved in warm water, and followed by 

 thin warm gruels : these remedies will generally 

 prove effectual if applied at an early stage of the 

 disease ; but in a large flock of mountain-sheep 

 the disease is frequently not observed by the shep- 

 herd till too late for any remedy. Removal to young 

 grass or turnips has been attended with beneficial 

 results. The best preventive of the disease in 

 mountain-sheep is skilful and attentive herding, 

 preventing the young sheep from fastening too 

 much on marshy succulent spots, and seeing they 

 graze regularly over every part of the pasture, and 

 are allowed perfect repose for rumination, undis- 

 turbed by the dog. 



Sturdy. 



The proximate cause of this formidable disease, 

 is the presence in the brain of a parasite of the 

 same class as that which causes rot, and usually 

 called a hydatid. A hydatid is really an early 

 form in the development of the tape-worm, being 

 the embryo of a tape-worm inclosed in a bag or 

 cyst filled with a watery fluid a cystic worm (see 

 ZOOLOGY, p. 140). This hydatid, when given to 

 dogs, is known to produce tape-worms, and con- 

 versely itself originates from the ova of the tape- 

 worm ejected on the pastures by dogs, rabbits, or 

 even by sheep themselves. In the state of ova, or 

 in some of its earlier minuter transitional forms, 

 the hydatid embryo is picked up along with the 

 grass. The enibryo is provided with spines suited 

 for boring ; and with these it perforates the walls 



652 



of the stomach, and reaches some solid organ, 

 such as the liver or the brain, where it develops 

 for itself the bag or cyst above described. Curi- 

 ously, the ova are never developed unless thus 

 ejected, and swallowed by another animal. The 

 disease is most common in low damp pastures, 

 and amongst sheep from six to twenty months old. 

 The animal cannot properly seek its food, loses 

 condition, staggers when moved, turns stupidly 

 round almost in one spot, and usually towards the 

 side on which the hydatid lies. The parasite and 

 its sac may generally be safely removed by placing 

 the sheep, with its feet tied, on a table or bench, 

 searching for the softened portion of the skull, 

 which generally overlies the hydatid, laying back 

 a flap of skin, and introducing the trochar and 

 canula, and when the sac is deep-seated, cautiously 

 withdrawing it with the help of a small syringe. 

 Protected by a leather cap and simple water- 

 dressings, the wound speedily heals. 



The use of the trephine is attended with some 

 difficulty and danger. It lays open at once an 

 immense space in the brain to the action of the 

 atmosphere, and its consequent irritation, and 

 hence the risk of inflammation. When the situa- 

 tion of the hydatid can be ascertained by the 

 softening of a portion of the skull, to destroy the 

 vitality of the hydatid by perforating it with the 

 trocar or other sharp instruments, is perhaps the 

 method attended with the least danger of exciting 

 inflammation, and hence the most likely to succeed. 

 But the extent to which the disease must have 

 injured the brain, before the softening of the bone 

 could reveal the position of the hydatid, is an in- 

 superable evil, diminishing the chances of success 

 in any mode of conducting the operation that can 

 be devised. There is no medicine that can justly 

 be regarded as of any avail. But carefully observed 

 and accurately recorded facts may yet throw some 

 light on the remote causes of this formidable dis- 

 ease, under that higher anatomical and physio- 

 logical knowledge which has within these few years 

 been brought to bear on the diseases of our 

 domestic animals. 



Pining. 



This disease, it is said, was unknown in this 

 country before the sheep-walks were thoroughly 

 drained and the moles exterminated. If this 

 statement is correct, the cause of the malady must 

 obviously be too dry and binding pasture ; and 

 in accordance with this view, constipation of the 

 bowels is always present in this disease. To open 

 the bowels freely, and change to young grass, are 

 the obvious remedies ; and when both can be 

 readily applied, they seldom fail of complete 

 success. 



Dysentery. 



This disease begins with violent discharges from 

 the bowels of a green slimy mixture, which in pro- 

 gress of time becomes mixed with blood. It has 

 often been confounded with diarrhoea, from which 

 it differs in many particulars. Diarrhoea attacks 

 young sheep, particularly hogs, occasioned by a 

 sudden rush of grass in the spring, or from too 

 sudden a change from a scanty to an over-rich 

 pasture; when such are the causes of diarrhoea, 

 the mere change to a drier pasture will effect a 

 cure. But dysentery attacks old sheep, and gener- 

 ally does not commence till June or July. Many 



