On Merifio Sheep. 37 



V. A new and most alarming disease made its ap- 

 pearance in my flock, in the latter part of the past winter, 

 which almost in every instance baffled all attempts at a 

 cure. In its effects it resembled cholera, though it was 

 in no instance observed to produce vomiting^^ and yet 

 from the sudden debility and apparent anxiety produced 

 by it, it was evident that the stomach was much affected. 

 It generally terminated in ten or twelve hours, from the 

 first appearance of indisposition, and in one or two cases, 

 even in a shorter period, a course so rapid as to render 

 hopeless, the most powerful remedies. 



This malady, which, as it corresponds with none as yet 

 described in any treatise on the diseases of sheep which 

 have come under my observation, I shall call cholera, 

 commences with a violent purging, accompanied by 

 straining and other marks of pain, but without any striking 

 symptoms of fever. Loss of appetite, great lassitude 

 and coldness of the extremities and tongue soon suc- 

 ceed, with involuntary motions of the head and limbs; 

 and finally the most distressing convulsions are the cer- 

 tain precursors of death. 



The most careful examination was made in almost 

 every instance after death, in order to ascertain the cause 

 of this new and extraordinary disease. The appearances 

 were uniformly the same. The contents of the paunch 

 were in a state of excessive fermentation, and looked as 

 if they had been raised by yeast; and yet the stomach 

 itself was not enlarged beyond its natural dimensions : 

 the contents of the other stomach were much more li- 

 quid than in healthy sheep, and there was a slight de- 

 gree of inflammation discernable in all the stomachs, and 



* The idea. of sheep vomiting may appear a little laughable 

 at first view; but it is a certain fact, that this operation may be 

 produced in them by means similar to those which excite it 

 in our own species. 



M 



