268 SWELLED HEAD. 



gum of the lower jaw hardens after their removal, so that it 

 becomes, in a measure, a substitute for the lost incisors, in 

 separating their food. The molars, though shortened and 

 worn, are never shed, so that mastication continues complete. 

 Old breeding ewes often live, thrive, and raise good lambs 

 three or four years after ceasing to have any front teeth. 



English sheep become broken-mouthed from three to four 

 years earlier the difference about corresponding with the 

 difference in the longevity of the races. Sheep of all kinds 

 differ not only as between individuals, but between flocks in the 

 period of losing their teeth. If fed uncut and dirty roots, 

 they lose them much earlier. The prying action of the 

 incisors, as they are employed in scooping out a turnip, for 

 example particularly if it be partly frozen or the 

 obstruction of a bit of gravel (which often finds its way from 

 the tap roots even among cut turnips) between an incisor 

 and the pad above it, not unfrequently causes a loose one to 

 be detached, or a comparatively firm one to snap off. 



SWELLED HEAD. The head of the sheep sometimes 

 becomes swollen from causes which are not very well under- 

 stood. I do not know of any special or characteristic disease 

 among sheep which produces this effect.* It is occasionally 

 heard of in this country but I have never seen it, or heard 

 its symptoms accurately described. According to Mr. Hogg, 

 it appears in Scotland. An abscess is formed and breaks, and 

 the sheep then speedily recovers unless too much reduced by 

 the discharge. In England it is sometimes occasioned, Mr. 

 Youatt thinks, from the sting of a venomous reptile or insect, 

 in which case, he says, the wool should be cut off round the 

 wound, the parts washed with warm water, olive oil well 

 rubbed in, and small doses of hartshorn- diluted with water, 

 administered internally "half a scruple of the hartshorn in 

 an ounce of water every hour." 



Mr. Youatt conjectures that the Scotch form of the disease 

 may arise from eating poisonous plants, or from a species 

 of catarrh or influenza, f To these causes, and to the last 

 especially, I have been disposed to attribute such instances of 



sheep remains capable not only of cropping grass, but of scooping out a turnip in the 

 manner already mentioned. Nor should all be pulled when only one or two drop out. 

 The judgment of the shepherd must be his guide in the matter ; but as long as, say 

 five incisors remain together or press together, it is not usually best to remove them. 



* I should except blain, but this disease has not appeared in the United States. 



t Youatt on Sheep, p. 371. 



