SHEEP, SWINE, AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 437 



and tlie cavities of the body will soon be penetrated, if tbe poor 

 sufferer is not sooner relieved of its tortures b}'" death, 



"The offensive odor of the ulcerated feet, almost from the 

 beginning of the disease, is so peculiar that it is strictly pa- 

 thognomonic. I have always believed that I could by the sense 

 of smell alone, in the most absolute darkne!L<s, decide on the 

 presence of hoof rot with unerring certainty. Acd I had about 

 as lief trust my fingers as my eyes to establish the same point, 

 from the hour of the first attack, if no other disease of the foot 

 is present. But the heat, which invariably marks the earliest 

 presence of hoof rot, might arise from any other cause which 

 produced a local inflammation of the same parts. 



" When the malady has been well kept under during the first 

 summer of its attack, but not entirely eradicated, it will almost 

 or entirely disappear as cold weather approaches, and not mani- 

 fest itself again until the warm weather of the succeeding 

 summer. It then assumes a mitigated form ; the sheep are not 

 rapidly and simultaneously attacked ; there seems to be less 

 inflammatory action in the diseased parts, and less constitu- 

 tional disturbance, and the course of the disease is less malig- 

 nant, more tardy, and it more readily yields to treatment. If 

 well kept under the second summer, it is still milder the third 

 A sheep will occasionally be seen to limp, but its condition will 

 scarcely be affected, and dangerous symptoms will rarely super- 

 vene. One or two applications of remedies made during the 

 summer will now sufi&ce to keep the disease under, and a little 

 vigor in the treatment will entirely extinguish it. 



" With all its fearful array of symptoms, can the hoof rot be 

 cured in its first attack on a flock? The worst case can be 

 promptly cured, as I know by repeated experiments. Take a 

 single sheep, put it by itself, and administer the remedies daily, 

 after the English fashion, or as I shall presently prescribe, and 



