CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



high inflammatory fever, and the animal rapidly 

 loses flesh, and, if unrelieved, dies of fever and 

 starvation. 



The most approved treatment of the disease is 

 to pare away all the detached hoof, and dress the 

 diseased part with some caustic, perhaps muriate 

 of antimony. But as prevention is in all cases to 

 be preferred to cure, the shepherd should keep a 

 vigilant eye upon the flock, and pare regularly on 

 lands that require it. By the simple means here 

 recommended, the writer has prevented the disease 

 from injuring his flock of sheep for more than 

 twelve years, though the lands were subject to 

 the disease. But if foot-rot be as virulently 

 infectious as it is affirmed to be by a whole host 

 of writers, very different means both of preven- 

 tion and treatment must be adopted. As the 

 decision of the question, whether foot-rot be infec- 

 tious or non-infectious, is of great practical import- 

 ance to every sheep-farmer, the evidence on both 

 sides of the question would require to be stated 

 with perfect candour, in order to arrive at the 

 truth. In so far as evidence has been produced, 

 the argument inclines to the side of those who 

 contend for the non-contagiousness of the dis- 

 ease. Professor Dick asks : ' Has any one ever 

 attempted to produce the disease by inocula- 

 tion ? If it is highly infectious, surely it will at 

 once be produced by inoculation. But this is not 

 such an easy matter as one would expect, from a 

 disease which is supposed to infect a whole field, 

 and that, too, even if it be of five hundred acres 

 in extent Gohier, a French veterinarian, first 

 applied a piece of horn from a diseased foot, 

 covered with the matter, to the sole of a sound 

 foot without effect ; secondly, he rubbed a diseased 

 foot against a sound one without effect ; thirdly, 

 he pared the sound foot, and having applied a 

 piece of diseased hoof, the disease afterwards 

 appeared ; but in this case the foot afterwards got 

 well of itself, and there seems to have been a doubt 

 in the mind of Gohier as to whether it was truly 

 foot-rot or not. Other French veterinarians have 

 tried similar experiments, and particularly Vielhan 

 of Tulle, and Favre of Geneva ; and although I 

 have not seen an account of their experiments, it 

 is said they succeeded in producing the disease by 

 inoculation. Now, it will be asked, Is not this a 

 sufficient proof of its infectious nature ? I answer 

 that it is not. It appears to me that this is a 

 strong proof against it. If it is produced with so 

 much difficulty by the direct application of matter, 

 is it not absurd to suppose that a few sheep with 

 diseased feet should infect a whole field ? I have 

 not seen an account of the manner in which the 

 experiments of the French veterinarians have been 

 performed ; I know not what quantity of matter 

 was employed, neither have we any account of 

 counter-experiments, nor whether any were tried 

 to prove if a similar effect would not have been 

 produced by the application of any other morbid 

 matter ; for example, whether the matter of grease 

 from the heels of horses, or from thrushes, would 

 not have produced similar effects. I have little 

 doubt of such being the case ; that suppuration 

 might be produced by inoculating with that or 

 almost any other matter, if, in the operation, the 

 wound was made sufficiently deep ; nor would I 

 doubt that disease would be produced if matter 

 was spread over the foot in sufficient quantity, and 

 applied for a sufficient time.' 



654 



In support of these views, Mr Black, farm- 

 overseer to His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, 

 states that he had thirteen score of Black-faced 

 sheep, the greater part of which were affected 

 with foot-rot, and many of them crawling about 

 upon their knees. He turned them into a drier 

 pasture, on which were seven score of Leicester 

 and Cheviot sheep. All of the diseased sheep 

 except four speedily recovered, and not one of the 

 Leicesters or Cheviots was infecteu. 



The Scab. 



This frequent and very mischievous disease has 

 annoyed the cultivators of sheep in different parts 

 of the world from time immemorial. It is men- 

 tioned by Ovid and Livy, and in the Georgics it is 

 very graphically described by Virgil. In our own 

 country, it is mentioned by our earliest writers ; 

 and in Italy, France, and Germany there is 

 scarcely a writer on sheep who does not describe 

 this prevalent and ruinous disease. 



Symptoms. The sheep becomes restless, scratch- 

 ing itself, tearing off the wool with its teeth, and 

 rubbing violently against any post, stone, or gate. 

 When the skin is carefully examined, there are 

 seen numerous pustules, which, having broken 

 and run together, form large patches of scab. 

 The back and shoulders are generally first 

 affected. The general health of the animal sinks 

 in proportion to the extent of the eruption and the 

 virulence of the disease, and if allowed to proceed 

 unchecked, it brings on general inflammation, and 

 the animal dies in a most miserable condition. 



It is now ascertained that this disease in sheep 

 is caused by minute acari. M. Walz, a German 

 veterinarian, has given a very curious and inter- 

 esting account of the operations of these acari, 

 which are said to burrow in the skin of the sheep, 

 and reappear again about the sixteenth day with 

 a numerous brood. These young insects com- 

 mence operations at once, and propagate in the 

 same manner, till the poor sheep sinks under 

 myriads of his destroyers. 



The treatment of scab is very simple the 

 destruction of the insect which causes it. An 

 infusion of tobacco, hellebore, and arsenic, have all 

 been employed with success. In bad cases, mer- 

 curial ointment has been applied with the happiest 

 effect. A very good recipe is a decoction of tobacco 

 and spirit of turpentine, with a little soft soap and 

 sulphur vivum. 



The only caution necessary to be given in the 

 use of any of these remedies is, to take care that 

 they be brought thoroughly in contact with every 

 part of the skin of the affected animal, lest any 

 of the burrowed acari escape. And all folds or 

 sheds in which infected sheep have been confined, 

 and all gates, posts, and other rubbing-places, 

 must undergo thorough purification. Besides the 

 acari, sheep are liable to be attacked by various 

 other insects, such as the flesh-fly, and a species 

 of aphis called the sheep-louse. The maggots of 

 the flesh-fly only prevail in the moist and warm 

 summer months, but increase in numbers with 

 amazing rapidity, and require great watchfulness 

 on the part of the shepherd, as they soon destroy 

 a large portion of the skin and flesh of the sheep if 

 unchecked. The-aphis also creates great irritation ; 

 3ut both are easily destroyed by any of the pre- 

 jarations already detailed. The tick (Acarus 

 ^eduvius) is also a very formidable insect to 



