ARTICLES EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE, 393 



at ^d. ; two in 1466 at $d. each ; two in 1467 at 6d. each; one 

 in 1472 at 3^. ; one in 1528 at gd. ; two in 1529 at ^d. each ; 

 two in 1532 at $d. each; one in 1534 at ^d. ; three in 1541 at 

 4d. each. Lastly, two are bought in 1578 at 2s. 6d. each, and 

 one in 1579 for 6s. 8d. The exaltation in price, if there be 

 any corresponding magnitude in the pieces purchased in these 

 later years, is altogether without parallel. In any case, I 

 submit that the trade in rock salt must have been occasional or 

 capricious, and that these prices imply that the manipulation 

 of the mineral for the consumption of man was only locally 

 known, or more probably, was wholly unknown. 



The price of salt was exceptionally high during the first 

 decade of the fifteenth century. But otherwise the decennial 

 periods correspond closely with the price of corn during the 

 remaining 130 years of the earlier period. The dearest are 

 1431-40, 1511-40; the cheapest are 1441-50, 1461-80, 1491- 

 1500. The reader will find the correspondence even more 

 exact in comparing the price of salt with that of oatmeal. 



I have found no trace of the use of salt either as food for 

 cattle, or as a manure. 



CATTLE MEDICINES. I find no account of any veterinary 

 drugs to be used internally, except it be that 'nervai' for a 

 sick horse in 1454 is of this kind. All other drugs are used 

 externally, and it seems from Fitzherbert's work that surgery, 

 and especially the actual cautery, were the remedies most 

 relied on for cattle diseases. But remedies were employed for 

 the skin diseases of sheep. For these the principal, indeed the 

 universal, remedy is tar. 



I stated in my earlier volumes that mercurial, and perhaps 

 arsenical unguents were originally employed to treat the new 

 and disastrous disease in the fleece of sheep which is known 

 as scab, and which appeared at the conclusion of the thirteenth 

 century for the first time. Very soon however these, and the 

 use of sulphate of iron, which was also tried, disappeared, and 

 tar takes their place. The shepherd, says Fitzherbert, must 

 never be without his tar-box. 



