INFLAMMATION OF BRAIN LOCKED JAW. 281 



lambs half that dose. I should prefer Mr. Spooner's prescrip- 

 tion but for the Merino sheep, would be inclined to reduce 

 it to two ounces of the salts, followed by an ounce in six 

 hours, until a copious evacuation took place. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. This is a secondary 

 effect of the causes which produce apoplexy, by which the 

 substance of the brain, its membranes, or both, become the 

 subject of inflammation. The symptoms are much more 

 violent than the preceding. After a degree of dullness and 

 inactivity, accompanied by redness and protrusion of the eyes, 

 the animal becomes delirious, rushes about the field " with its 

 tail cocked," attacks men and trees ; and, says Mr. Spooner, 

 "in lambs their motions are quite ridiculous, and have in 

 consequence, among the ignorant, given origin to the idea of 

 their being bewitched." The disease is treated in the same 

 way with apoplexy. 



TETANUS OR LOCKED JAW. In the spring of 1861, 1 had 

 about eighty rams the " culls " * which had been accumula- 

 ting for two or three years in a breeding flock then numbering 

 three thousand. They were castrated a portion of them 

 by slitting tKe scrotum and tying the spermatic cords with 

 waxed thread in the usual way that old rams are altered 

 a portion of them (mostly yearlings and those older ones 

 which had small spermatic cords,) by cutting off the end of 

 the scrotum and removing the testicles precisely as is done in 

 the case of lambs i. e., by pulling them out ! This last 

 novel mode I permitted as an experiment, on the urgent 

 solicitation of the operator, a person of great experience and 

 practical skill in such matters, and who had heard of its being 

 practiced with success. And I am bound to state that not 

 one, or not more than one, of the rams castrated in this 

 unusual way was among the victims I am about to describe, f 



Owing to preceding bad weather and other hindrances, 

 the sheep were castrated rather late, and the flies caused 

 much trouble. After the lapse of about ten days, when the 

 animals appeared to be doing well enough, three or four of 

 them were suddenly found entirely rigid and unable to walk, 

 or only retaining some command over the muscles of the 



* They were those which promised too well to be castrated when lambs, but 

 which did not develop themselves satisfactorily as they grew older. 



t This may have been because they were younger, or had smaller spermatic cords 

 but it at least shows that the mode is as safe as any other with such sheep. 



