THE SCAB. 341 



caught and its scabs scoured off, by two men who rubbed 

 them with stiff shoe-brushes, dipped in a suds of tobacco- 

 water and soft soap. The two men then dipped the sheep all 

 over in the large kettle of tobacco-water, rubbing and knead- 

 ing the sore spots with their hands while immersed in the 

 fluid. The decoction was so strong that many of the sheep 

 appeared to be sickened either by immersion or by its fumes ; 

 and one of the men who dipped, though a tobacco-chewer, 

 vomited, and became so sick that his place had to be supplied 

 by another. 



The effect on the sheep was almost magical. The sores 

 rapidly healed, the sheep gained in condition, the new wool 

 immediately started, and I never had a more perfectly healthy 

 flock on my farm. Though administered with little reference 

 to economy, the remedy was a decisive one. With a vat like 

 figure on page 187, this would not necessarily be a very 

 expensive method, with sheep recently sheared. But the 

 assaults of the scab usually come on in the spring before 

 shearing time, and it would require an immense quantity of 

 tobacco decoction to dip sheep with their fleeces on, however 

 carefully it might be pressed out. 



The following is the remedy recommended by Chancellor 

 Livingston: "First, I separate the sheep (for it is very 

 infectious ;) I then cut off the wool as far as the skin feels 

 hard to the finger ; the scab is then washed with soap-suds, 

 and rubbed hard with a shoe-brush, so as to cleanse and break 

 the scab. I always keep for this use a decoction of tobacco, 

 to which I add one-third by measure of the lye of wood ashes, 

 as much hog's lard as will be dissolved by the lye, a small 

 quantity of tar from the tar-bucket, which contains grease, 

 and about one-eighth of the whole by measure of spirits of 

 turpentine. This liquor is rubbed upon the part infected, and 

 spread to a little distance round it, in three washings, with an 

 interval of three days each. I have never failed in this way 

 to effect a cure when the disorder was only partial. * * * 

 I can not say whether it would cure a sheep infected so as to 

 lose half its fleece." * 



The following remedies are much used in Great Britain : 



No. 1. Dip the sheep in an infusion of arsenic, in the 

 proportion of half a pound of arsenic to twelve gallons of 

 water. The sheep should previously be washed in soap and 

 water. The infusion must not be permitted to enter the 

 mouth or nostrils. 



* Livingston's Essay. Appendix, p. 177. 



