THE SCAB. 343 



recipes ; when ordered the party should take care to name that 

 it is required for the specific purpose of curing the disease, 

 that attention may be specially paid to the grinding of the 

 quicksilver. In mild cases one dressing by an experienced 

 shepherd, at the rate of 3 Ibs. to the score for full-grown 

 sheep, and 2^ Ibs. for younger ones, will prove sufficient,* 

 plenty of shreds being the principal feature, and also observing 

 to dress the points pretty freely; care should be taken to 

 shut them up one or more nights, according to the case, and 

 afterwards kept in a warmer situation, if possible, for a time, 

 and given a good supply of food. In bad cases, it is proper 

 to inspect them weekly, until the disease be entirely 

 removed, and give opening medicines pretty freely. Should 

 any die under the operation, the remainder should be washed 

 immediately ; if the disease do not then stop, they should be 

 shorn, which is a certain remedy." 



Tobacco has always been the favorite American remedy, 

 but at the present time would be very expensive. If every 

 farmer would, in a bed of his garden, raise a sufficient 

 quantity of tobacco plants for this purpose and for dipping 

 his lambs, it would cost him but a trifle. 



Prof. Simonds, one of the most recent writers on the 

 subject, recommends a liquid prepared as follows : 



"Take two ounces arsenic and two ounces carbonate of 

 potash, and boil in a quart of water till dissolved, and then 

 add water enough to make a gallon of the solution. To this 

 add a gallon of vegetable infusion, made by pouring a gallon 

 of water over four ounces of fox-glove leaves, (digitalis,} and 

 allowing the infusion to remain till cold, when it is poured 

 off. ' These two gallons of liquid,' he says, ' constitute a safe 

 agent, and one of the most potent remedies for scab. Half a 

 pint of it (from a bottle with a quill in the cork,) on the skin 

 at the back and sides of the sheep. Two or three dressings 

 will be found sufficient to cure the most inveterate cases of 

 scab in sheep.' The digitalis leaves can be obtained at any 

 drug store."f 



compounded of mercury 2 Ibs., lard 23 oz., suet 1 oz. There is a mild mercurial oint- 

 ment, prepared in London and sold under that name, which is compounded of strong 

 mercurial ointment 1 lb., lard 2 Ibs. The proper reduction of the strong mercurial 

 ointment of the shops is given in No. 2 of the remedies mentioned in text. 



* Mr. Smith writes of large English sheep. I should consider 1 oz. of the reduced 

 ointment per head, quite enough for Merino sheep, and half that amount for lambs 

 in winter. 



+ I think I cut this from the American Stock Journal but accidentally failed to 

 mark it with its proper credit at the time. 



