Ch. XXXIX. j ON DISEASES. 499 



The mode of treatment recommended by the Reverend Henry S. Rid- 



dell, of Drydean, near Selkirk, "as having been found by experience to 

 be perfectly effectual, is a dressing of — 



' Corrosive sublimate. ^ oz. ; sulphate of copper, 2 oz. ; verdigris, 1.^ oz. ; alum, 2 oz. ; 

 white copperas (sulphate of zinc) .| oz. ; muriatic acid, 2 oz. ; charcoal, | oz. ; pounded 

 as small as possible, and mix in half a bottle of distilled vinegar.' 



" In all severe cases, and especially where the disease is the result of con- 

 stitutional affection, two ounces of glauber salts, dissolved in half a mutchkin 

 of water, should also be given internally." 



The red water, or, as it is sometimes termed, resp, and by others dropsy., 

 is thought to be most commonly occasioned by turning the sheep from 

 poor pasture into very succulent keep ; as they are frequently attacked by 

 it when put on turnips. It is also said to originate in the sheep being let 

 out of the fold when the ground is covered with lioar frost, and it is be- 

 lieved that clover stubble and folded land are apt to produce it in wet 

 weather; but it is not impossible that the disorder arises from too great a 

 quantity of crude and undigested matter being allowed to remain in the 

 stomach. Various causes are indeed given for the disease, though most 

 writers agree in attributing it chiefly to acrid or otherwise unwliolesome 

 food. Mr. Hogg says, that "it consists in an inflammation of the skin, 

 that 'raises it into blisters, which contain a thin, reddish, and watery fluid ; 

 which continue for a short time, break, and discharging their matter, are 

 followed by a blackish scab. The sheep should be placed in a fold by 

 itself, the "blisters slit up, and a little infusion of tobacco put into them ; 

 the following medicine may also be given for three or four mornings suc- 

 cessively : — 



' Sulphur two ounces; honey, treacle or syrup, three ounces ; to be mixed and^^divided 

 into six doses, of which one may be given every morning in half a mutchkin of warm 

 water.' 



" If this be found unsuccessful, half an ounce of nitre mixed with the 

 foregoing receipt will be attended with good effect ; after which a dose 

 of salts may be given, and the body washed with lime-water upon the parts 

 affected *." 



In the Leicestershire Report it is stated, that a Mr. Watkinson has used 

 the following mixture as a preventive against the disorder in lambs, 

 which are very subject to it. During thirty years, in the whole of which 

 time he has not lost a single sheep, though the disease was very fatal to 

 his flock previous to its use, and finds it unnecessary to repeat it : — 



" Two ounces of myrrh, boiled in 60 table spoonsful of ale : three table-spoonsful to 

 be given to each lamb about Michaelmas." 



Braxy^^sini the sick?iess, under which names this disease is known, in- 

 cludes similarities of the same distemper, but is in all cases an inflamma- 

 tory disorder, of a sudden and violent nature, occasioned, as is supposed, 

 much in the same manner as that of the red-water, by the sheep being fed 

 on rank grass or other coarse food, which, remaining in the stomach undi- 

 gested, occasions costiveness. This, however, is seldom observed, and as 

 the animal does not immediately lose his appetite, he continues to load his 

 stomach with additional quantities of food which become fermented and 

 cause inflammation of the bowels, by which young sheep in particular are 

 suddenly carried off". It most commonly makes its appearance about the 

 close of autunm, in consequence, as it is imagined, of the herbage then 

 becoming more dry and astringent. It ceases when winter sets in, and is 



* Hogg's " Shepherd's Guide," p. 183. 



2k2 



