Ch. XXXIX.] ON DISEASES. 501 



known to exist in general on green succulent pastures growing on cal- 

 careous or sandstone soils, and it is remarkable that it has appeared where 

 land has been completely drained although it was before unknown. It has 

 been, therefore, attributed to some astringency in tlie herbage of very dry 

 pastures, and it is more prevalent in dry summers than when the season is 

 showery. It is also said to have been very materially occasioned by the 

 destruction of moles ; for the ground, when turned up by these animals, pro- 

 duces soft succulent plants, which are afterwards found to languish and finally 

 become extinct ; the herbage on those places where they once flourished 

 assumes a white' benty appearance, and the sheep are attacked bv tlie pining. 

 In proof of which Mr. Laidlav/ says, " that for the last five years mole- 

 catching has been discontinued, and though the moles are still too scarce, 

 yet in those places where they have again shown themselves, the soil is 

 evidently ameliorated, and the pining is losing ground every year''." 



Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, also asserts, that the farms most liable to 

 the disease are those which were in former years wholly overrun with 

 molehills, and which are intermixed throughout with great Hats and ridges 

 of white and flying bents, which last are the bane of the flocks ; and that 

 exactly in proportion as the succulent and laxative herbage prevails over 

 the dry and benty, the effects of the pining will be less felt. In the course 

 of the nine years between 1821 and 1830, it appears that he lost upwards 

 of 900 sheep by the ravages of the disease, of which he gives this 

 description : — 



" On the genuine pining farms sheep do not take it by ones and twos, 

 but a whole flock at once. It is easily distinguished by a practised ob- 

 server, the first symptoms being lassitude of motion, and a heaviness about 

 the pupil of the eye, indicating a species of fever. At the very first, the 

 blood is thick and dark of colour, and cannot by any exertion be made to 

 spring; and when the animal dies of this distemper, there is apparently 

 scarcely one drop of blood in the carcase. It lives till there does not 

 appear to be a drop remaining, and even the ventricles of the heart become 

 as drv and pale as its skin." 



" it is most fatal in a season of drought ; and June and September are 

 the most deadly months. If ever a farmer perceives a flock on such a 

 farm having a flushed appearance of more than ordinarily rapid thriving, 

 he is gone. By that day eight days, when he goes out to them again, he 

 will find them all lying, hanging their ears, running at the eyes, and 

 looking at him like as many condemned criminals. As the disease pro- 

 ceeds, the hair on the animal's face becomes dry, the wool assumes a bluish 

 cast ; and, if the shepherd have not the means of changing the pasture, 

 all those affected will fiill in the course of a monthf." 



The change of pasture to one of more succulent herbage, or to clover, 

 in order to clieck the costive habit, is, indeed, in that period of the year when 

 turnips are not to be had, the only cft'ective remedy wliich has been hitherto 

 tried. Salt placed in lumps upon the ground and accessible to the sheep 

 might, perhaps, liave some effect, and there can be little doubt that laxative 

 medicines would he beneficial ; for if the bowels be opened, a change seems 

 then to have been eli'ected in the constitution, and the animal is saved. 

 He is again, however, more subject to complaints in the following year 

 than otliers, and few of the ewes that are attacked in autumn have lambs 

 the next year ; or they have them far too late to be of any value. 



The rot, though not contagious, is the most destructive, as well as the 



* Quar. Journ. o Agric, v. xi. p. 712. f Quar. Jouni. of Agric. vol. ii, p. 698. 



