THE SHEEP. 



writers allege that this disease is highly contagious, 

 but the best established facts do not sustain the 

 allegation. The disease prevails in fouled pas- 

 tures, and in seasons characterised by a peculiar 

 state of the atmosphere with regard to heat and 

 moisture. In the treatment of this disease, 

 bleeding is a proper remedy in an early stage ; 

 but if late, gentle purgatives alone must be 

 used : Epsom salts or castor-oil, with twenty-five 

 to thirty drops of laudanum, are the best. An in- 

 fusion of logwood and doses of ipecacuanha have 

 also been used with good effect 



Trembling. 



Trembling, or Louping III, is a disease caused 

 in mountain flocks by cold east winds, which are 

 prevalent in April and May, and at which season 

 this disease, after a bad winter, is often very de- 

 structive. The animal sometimes leaps from the 

 ground and falls down dead ; but more generally 

 it is seized with trembling, loses the power of its 

 legs, and lies on its side, grinding its teeth, and 

 moving its limbs with great violence. The appear- 

 ances on dissection are very uniform : great con- 

 gestion of blood in the liver and lungs, and 

 particularly the heart, which is invariably gorged 

 with dark blood ; and the brain is also sometimes 

 congested ; the whole flesh of the body is as white 

 as if it had been killed by bleeding. 



Treatment. Copious bleeding in the first stage 

 of the attack will often restore the balance of the 

 circulation ; but if the animal has been affected 

 some time, it is often difficult to obtain a sufficient 

 quantity of blood, which has been thrown from the 

 surface upon the heart and other internal organs. 

 In this state, the animal must be put into a tub of 

 hot water at 98, which will cause the blood to 

 flow, and thus restore the action of the heart, and 

 tend to restore the balance of the circulation. 

 After a sufficient quantity of blood has been drawn, 

 doses of Epsom salts, dissolved in warm water, and 

 followed with thin warm gruels, must be given till 

 the bowels are freely opened. The prompt appli- 

 cation of these remedies on the first attack of the 

 disease would in general be successful ; but, like 

 many other diseases of sheep, it is not observed 

 till the action of the heart has become too feeble 

 for any remedies to restore the lost balance of the 

 circulation. A sudden surprise has been found to 

 produce trembling, so that shepherds cannot be 

 too cautious while turning sheep. 



Foot-rot 



This is a disease most prevalent in luxuriant 

 meadows, and in all soft grassy lands saturated 

 with moisture. The opinions entertained regard- 

 ing its causes are discordant in the extreme. Some 

 writers contend that it is comparatively a modern 

 disease, and was first mentioned by two French 

 physicians, M. Etienne and M. Leibault, who 

 published some cases of the disease in La Maison 

 Rustique, in the year 1 529. Lulin says that it was 

 brought from Piedmont to Geneva in the year 

 1786, and that the foot-rot did not exist among 

 Swiss sheep before that period ; and in a Report 

 of the management of Flemish sheep in 1763, 

 published by authority, foot-rot is not once men- 

 tioned. In our own country, it is mentioned by 

 Sir Anthony Fitzerherbert in the year 1523. But 

 whatever may have been its history and progress 

 in other countries, it was very prevalent in Great 



Britain in 1749. Ellis, who wrote in that year, 

 says 'that it raged particularly in the counties 

 around the metropolis. The ewes were seized 

 with foot-rot, which was communicated to other 

 sound ewes and to the lambs which they suckled ; 

 and most of the meadows are so much infected 

 with this sheep-malady, that few of the suckling 

 ewes are ever clear of it in a greater or less 

 degree, and the pain and anguish thereof keeps 

 them poor in flesh, and lessens their milk ; so 

 that two or three ewes thus affected give no more 

 milk than one full milch-ewe that is in perfect 

 health.' 



It will aid the reader to follow with greater 

 clearness the following discussions regarding the 

 nature and causes of foot-rot, to have first a cor- 

 rect view of the healthy anatomical structure of 

 the foot of the sheep, at least in as far as this 

 very formidable disease is concerned. 'There 

 are some points of importance,' says the late Pro- 

 fessor Dick of Edinburgh, 'to be kept in view, 

 in order to understand properly either the func- 

 tions of the foot of the sheep, or the nature of the 

 diseases to which it is liable The foot presents 

 a structure and arrangement of parts well adapted 

 to the natural habits of the animal. It is divided 

 into two digits or toes, which are shod with a hoof 

 composed of different parts, similar in many re- 

 spects to the hoof of the horse. Each hoof is 

 principally composed of the crust or wall, and the 

 sole. The crust, extending along the outside of 

 the foot round the toe, and turning inwards, is 

 continued about half-way back between each toe 

 on the inside. The sole fills the space on the 

 inferior surface of the hoof between these parts of 

 the crust, and being continued backwards, becomes 

 softer as it proceeds, assuming somewhat the 

 structure of the substance of the frog in the foot 

 of a horse, and performing at the same time 

 analogous functions. The whole hoof, too, is 

 secreted from the vascular tissue underneath. 

 There are, besides, two supplementary digits at 

 the fetlock. Now, this diversity of structure is 

 for particular purposes. The crust, like that in 

 the foot of the horse, being harder and tougher 

 than the sole, keeps up a sharp edge on the outer 

 margin, and is mainly intended to resist the 

 wear and tear to which the foot of the animal is 

 exposed.' 



This structure of the foot of the sheep is adapted 

 to Alpine ranges, which are the native abodes of 

 sheep. ' Dwelling by preference,' in the language 

 of Mr Wilson, 'among the steepest and most 

 inaccessible summits of lofty mountains, among 

 its native fastnesses, it is seen to bound from rock 

 to rock with inconceivable swiftness and agility.' 



From these facts, it is easy to perceive how our 

 domestic sheep are very subject to foot-rot, when 

 confined to a limited range on soft and rich pas- 

 tures, and in wet and grassy lands. In these situa- 

 tions, the growth of the crust of the hoof exceeds 

 the wear and tear, and soon overlaps the sole, and 

 in this situation is either rent or broken off, when 

 sand or dirt reaches the vascular parts of the foot, 

 and hence inflammation is produced. The animal 

 then becomes lame, suppuration takes place, and 

 ulcers discharge fetid matter ; and if these ulcers 

 go on unchecked, they throw out fungous granu- 

 lations ; and if these be allowed to go on, the hoof 

 falls off. When the disease reaches to this extent, 

 the constitutional disturbance is very great from 



