PREVENTIVE MEDICINE 369 



10 per cent, strength for a minute or two, and then running them 

 through a bath of an organic acid solution of \ per cent, strength, 

 which would decompose the sulphur upon the skin and wool; the 

 evolution of sulphurous acid gas, he says, would act as an excellent 

 disinfectant. " Such a dip would be perfectly safe, even in inexperi- 

 enced hands, and the materials so cheap and readily available as 

 to be within the reach of all."* 



The improper use of dips, or the use of improper dips, not 

 infrequently does serious damage to the pelt and even to the sheep, 

 even necessitating their slaughter. Seymour-Jones (loc. cit.) 

 writing on the damage to pelts, say it is due entirely to the use 

 of non-approved dips by stock-raisers in their nervous anxiety to 

 eradicate the disease regardless of consequences to the pelt and 

 pain and suffering to the sheep. He points out that the arsenical 

 dips, being strongly alkaline, have a corrosive action, and the 

 carbolic dips, being strongly acid, have a peculiar tanning effect 

 which may blister. According to this writer, shepherds, when they 

 discover scab, try to eradicate the evil by pouring concentrated 

 dip over the affected part, which runs down the body causing a 

 wound wherever it touches. 



Apart altogether from the treatment of scab, the dipping of sheep 

 is very beneficial to them; it is a preventive against blow-fly and, 

 owing to its cleansing action, improves their health and vitality. 

 A most successful sheep farmer in the Border district has said to 

 the writer that he considers dipping the best " meat " he gives his 

 sheep, and but for the labour entailed would dip them more fre- 

 quently than he does. 



So long as dipping is regarded merely as a police measure it will 

 not be done effectually. Education is more potent than regulation. 



Stockman gives some valuable information in connection with 

 the eradication of scab.f The importance of the double-dipping 

 for the complete destruction of the parasites is emphasised. It 

 is pointed out that scab appears in flocks which have been dipped 

 once in the year, or twice with a long interval. The interval between 

 dipping and the appearance of scab may be from one to four months 

 or even longer. " With reference to the effect of a single dipping. 

 I am not prepared to say that one dipping will not cure scab in the 

 first few days after infection, nor can it be denied that a single 

 dipping temporarily checks the spread of scab in an infected flock, 

 but it has only a limited effect upon the dissemination of the 

 disease from flock to flock through sales." He says, further, that 



* The Sheep and its Skin, by A. Seymour-Jones, 1913. 



t Journ. Comp. Path., 1910, XXIII., p. 303. 

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