502 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXIX. 



most frequent malady by which sheep are attacked, and notwithstanding 

 the volumes which have been written by scientific and practical men, no 

 certain remedy has yet been discovered ; for the disease is considered in- 

 curable. In its earliest stage, if they appear lethargic, dull, and careless 

 of feeding, it may be justly suspected ; and when advanced still further, it 

 may be known by handling. If the loins feel loose and flaccid ; if the skin 

 has lost its healthy redness, and has assumed a pale, faded hue ; if the eyes 

 appear with a sickly want of lustre, and the animal is more restless than 

 usual, it may be concluded that he is rotten. He does not, however, show 

 symptoms of disease in its incipient state, nor does it immediately aftect 

 the flesh ; for sheep are constantly purchased in seeming health, which, 

 when killed, may be seen with their hvers full of flukes, although the meat 

 is perfectly sound and well flavoured. 



The distemper is supposed to commence in the liver, which is found 

 infested with numerous triangular flat-shaped worms, called " flukes," formed 

 like a flounder, and about the size of a finger nail. The animalcules from 

 which these are thought to proceed, are presumed to be deposited in the 

 herbao^e of marshy places and water-meadows, where they are taken up 

 with the food, as on such land the complaint is prevalent during the warm 

 months of autumn, whereas after a single night's frost there is no further 

 danger. Among sheep bred upon the wolds and downs it is unknown ; 

 thouo^h if sent into the low lands, or even removed on the same farm to 

 low ground which has been covered with water during the winter, they are 

 subject to be infected in the course, it is said, of a single night. 



Such is the common notion of the origin of the disease, but various other 

 opinions exist upon the subject of its theory, and those insects are by many 

 considered as the consequence, not the cause, of the rot ; for they evidently 

 exist in the livers of sound and healthy sheep, and the disorder may per- 

 haps be occasioned by their feeding upon soft watery grasses, in proportion 

 to the wetness of the season, which is always detrimental to their health. 

 It may also be remarked, that flukes are propagated in the gall and liver 

 of the sheep *; that it is hardly possible that the eggs of any insect can 

 escape into the second stomach of an animal which chews the cud, in so 

 unimpaired a state as to be capable of being hatched ; and that no worm 

 has ever been discovered on the grass which at all resembles them. 



We have, however, neither room nor inclination to discuss theories 

 which lead to no practical result; and referring to Mr. Youatt, who has 

 lately treated the subject with great discriminationf, we can only recom- 

 mend our farming readers never to turn sheep, during the summer months, 

 over land which has been flooded : or, if they must necessarily be pastured 

 on moist land in that season, to have them carefully removed before evening 

 into a dry situation, and fed partly with hay. If any suspicion of the 

 actual disease be entertained, a change of pasture to entirely dry land 

 should be immediately adopted. 



It has been stated in a well-written treatise on the management of sheep, 

 published some vears ago under the title of a Lammermuir farmer, that 

 salt is a decided cure. In asserting that, he certainly goes too far ; but, 

 as a preventive, nothing has yet been found to check the evil so eff"ectually. 

 The duty being now taken off, the expense cannot be much ; and if left 

 in blocks at the discretion of the sheep, it cannot do any harm. 



* On this subject see two Essays by Mr. Edward King in Nos. XXX. and XXXIV. 

 of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 

 t " On Sheep," Nos. XIV. and XV. 



