THE EOT. 375 



liver, exclusive of those that were cut to pieces or destroyed 

 in opening the various ducts. In other cases, and where the 

 sheep have died of the rot, there were not found more than 

 ten or twelve. * * * Then, is the fluke worm the cause 

 or the effect of rot? To a certain degree both. They 

 aggravate the disease ; they perpetuate a state of irritability 

 and disorganization which must necessarily undermine the 

 strength of any animal. * * * Notwithstanding all this, 

 however, if the fluke follow the analogy of other entoza and 

 parasites, it is the effect and not the cause of rot. * * * 



" The rot in sheep is evidently connected with the soil or 

 state of the pasture. It is confined to wet seasons, or to the 

 feeding on ground moist and marshy at all seasons. It has 

 reference to the evaporation of water, and to the presence 

 and decomposition of moist vegetable matter. It is rarely or 

 almost never seen on dry or sandy soils and in dry seasons ; 

 it is rarely wanting on boggy or poachy ground, except when 

 that ground is dried by the heat of the summer's sun, or 

 completely covered by the winter's rain. On the same farm 

 there are certain fields on which no sheep can be turned with 

 .mpunity. There are others that seldom or never give the 

 rot. The soil of the second is found to be of a pervious nature, 

 on which wet cannot long remain the first takes a long 

 time to dry, or is rarely or never so. * 



" Some seasons are far more favorable to the development 

 of the rot than others, and there is no manner of doubt as to 

 the character of those seasons. After a rainy summer or a 

 moist autumn, or during a wet winter, the rot destroys like a 

 pestilence. A return and a continuance of dry weather mate- 

 rially arrests its murderous progress. Most of the sheep that 

 had been already infected die ; but the number of those that 

 are lost soon begins to be materially diminished. It is, there- 

 fore sufficiently plain that the rot depends upon, or is caused 

 by, the existence of moisture. A rainy season and a tenacious 

 soil are fruitful or inevitable sources of it. * * * The 

 mischief is effected with almost incredible rapidity." 



Mr. Youatt here gives various instances to prove that rot 

 is engendered in a few hours and even minutes.* He further 

 says : " It is an old observation that on all pasture that is sus- 

 pected to be unsound, the sheep should be folded early in the 

 evening, before the first dews begin to fall, and should not be 

 released from the fold until the dew is partly evaporated. 

 * * * Then the mode of prevention that with which 



* Youatt, p. 453. 



