1014 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



cause, which has been shown to be a variable temperature, with excessive moisture of 

 pasturage, which may also be aided by such remedies as assist the action of the biliary 

 system ; salt acts in this way, and thus salt mashes are good ; salt may also be given in 

 the water. Salt appears the principal ingredient in Flesh's patent restorative for sheep, 

 for it states it to be composed of turpentine, sal ammoniac, turmeric, quicksilver, brim- 

 stone, salt, opium, alkanet root, bark, antimony, camphor, and distilled water; but of 

 this medley, none of the articles can be in sufficient quantity to prove useful, but the 

 salt. In the more advanced stages of the disease, when the liver has become materially 

 affected, it is prudent to rub the bellies of each sheep with half a drachm of mercurial 

 ointment every other day for a week : give also the following, every morning : watery 

 tincture of aloes, half an ounce, decoction of willow bark, four ounces, nitric acid, twenty- 

 five drops. 



6521. The pelt rot, hunger rot, or naked disease, is a variety of the former, but with this difference, that 

 whereas the liver in the hydropic rot is principally affected; in this the whole of the chylopoietic vis- 

 cera are injured ; the mesenteric glands are always swollen and obstructed, and from thence arises the 

 emaciation and unhealthy state of all the secretions, by which the rot becomes incapable of receiving nutri- 

 ment, and falls off, leaving the body bare, and in the last stages the teeth and horns also loosen. Indiffer- 

 ent, unhealthy keep, is a very common cause of this malady, and a contrary course of feeding is the best 

 remedy when the disease has not gone on too long. 



6522. The scab, shab, ray, or rubbers, are sometimes erysipelatous eruptions, and sometimes they are 

 psoric or mangy ones. In the former instance they are universal and very red, occasioning a great heat 

 and itching, and are thence called the rubbers : in such cases, nitre administered quickly relieves, with 

 change of food. The eruptive scab is seldom cured without an external application ; either of those directed 

 for mange, lowered to half the strength, will relieve it at once. (See Vet. Pharm.) 



6523. Foot rot sheep have a secretory outlet between the claws peculiar to them, which is liabl^ to become 

 obstructed ; their feet are also liable to become injured, and then diseased, from travelling or continued 

 standing on wet soils : but the real foot rot is an endemial affection which sometimes attacks half of the 

 flock. It must be attended to by removing all diseased portions, and then dressing with the thrush paste, 

 or foot rot application, {Vet. Fharm. 5885.), and afterwards wrapping up from external exposure. 



6524. Staggers, gid, turnsick, goggles, worm under the horn, sturdy, watery head, and pendro, are all 

 popular terms for hydatids, or an animal now known as the tsenias globulus, which, by some unaccount- 

 able means, finds its way to the brain, and settles itself there either. in some of its ventricles, or more 

 frequently on its substance. Their size varies from the smallest speck to that of a pigeon egg, qnd the 

 sheep it attacks are usually under two years old. These animals are likewise occasionally found in all 

 the natural cavities of the body. 



6525.- The appearances of cerebral hydatids are, stupidity, a disposition to sit on the rump, to turn to one 

 side, and to incline the head to the same while at rest. The eyes glare, and from oval, the pupils become 

 round. An accurate examination will now usually discover some softness at a particular part of the skull, 

 generally on the contrary side to that on which the animal hangs the head : when no softness of the skull 

 is discernible, the hydatid usually exists in some of the ventricles, and the destruction of the sheep is certain 

 and quick, from the greater disturbance to the functions of the brain ; but when it is situated on the sur- 

 face, it sometimes requires many months to destroy ; an absorption of the bone taking place as the hydatid 

 increases, which produces the thinness in the skull opposite to the affected part. 



6526. This disease is not incurable, as has been supposed, but it is only relieved by a manual operation. 

 In France it has been successfully treated by the application of the actual cautery : a pointed iron, heated 

 red hot, is forced through the skin and skull, to the surface of the brain ; the principal nicety of which, 

 is in penetrating the hydatid with the hot iron without wounding the brain itself. In England, some shep- 

 herds are very dexterous in wiring, which they do by thrusting a wire up the nostrils till it rests against 

 the skull. In the passage of the wire, the hydatid is usually ruptured ; others elevate the skull (by means 

 of a trephine, or even a knife) opposite to the softened portion, and extract the hydatid, if possible, whole, 

 which a little care will effect, by drawing it away with a blunt pincer, gently moving it from side to side. 

 Tapping is merely letting out the fluid contents of the hydatid by an awl, which is practised by some shep- 

 herds with success; and if the instrument be not thrust too far, the animal is never injured: to avoid 

 which, it is passed obliquely. A well hardened gimlet is a very proper instrument, with which the skull 

 is easily penetrated, and an opening by the twisting of the instrument is made, sufficiently large in the 

 hydatid itself, to discharge its contents, which is all that is sufficient to ensure its destruction, and which, 

 if no others exist, is followed by immediate recovery. 



6527. Frontal worms. Sheep are observed to gather together, with their noses thrust inwards to avoid the 

 attack of the oestrus ovis, or fly, that lays its eggs on the inner margin of the nose, which, having become 

 hatched, the larva creep up into the frontal and maxillary sinuses, to the torment of the sheep. The con- 

 tinental shepherds tre|>an an opening into these cavities, and effect their removal; but our shepherds have 

 not succeeded in the operation. 



6528. Fluke worms are a parasitic animal, found in the biliary sinuses, not only of the sheep, 

 but of the horse, ass, goat, deer, &c., and whose existence is rather a consequence than a cause of 

 morbidity. 



6529. The diseases of lambs arc con^ned to indigestion, and eruption of secretive matter : the former 

 shews itself in colic, which is relieved as in sheep, and also by diarrhoDa, to be likewise cured by the means 

 detailed for them ; the latter is more obstinate, and begins on the rump, gradually extending along the 

 chine, and when it becomes more universal, it usually destroys. The cure consists in giving daily drinks 

 of half a drachm of cream of tartar, and one drachm of sulphur, in four ounces of chamomile decoction. 

 Anoint also with mild mercurial ointment and Turner's cerate in equal quantities. 



Chap. VIL 



*rhe Swine. Sus Scrofa, L. j Cochon, Fr. ; Schwein, Ger. ; Piicrco, Span, and 



Porco, Ital, 



6530. Of swine tliere are several species, but none in general domestication, or much 



used as food when taken wild, excepting the common sort, wlvich includes the wild 



hog or wild boar, the original stock of our domestic breed, the European hog, and the 



Chinese hog. The common hog is found either in a wild or domestic state, in almost 



