348 PARASITES OF ANIMALS 



of their oral armature, behaving as veritable leeches, will, if not 

 expelled in good time, produce a rapidly fatal anaemia, precisely 

 in the same way as the human AnchyJostomum of the tropics. 



The worst of dealing with this sheep-parasite is that it will 

 not succumb to ordinary doses of salines like the stomach stron- 

 gyle ; moreover, the little leech-like wounds will probably 

 bleed after the parasites have been compelled to abandon their 

 hold. Prevention is better than cure. Accordingly, I sought 

 to explain the origin of these creatures, and in what possible 

 ways the germs of the various species could be destroyed, or at 

 least limited in numbers. 



As to the drugs and inhalations to be employed, it would 

 be difficult to advise any more effective than those commonly 

 in vogue, the great thing being to effect changes of pasture 

 and ground, to look to the purity of the water-supply, and to 

 supply the best kinds of nourishment after active treatment. 

 The diseased animals should, from the very first, be separated 

 from their companions, because the amount of germ distribution 

 is thereby greatly lessened. They should be at once drenched 

 or treated by inhalation (as the parasitic nature of the attack 

 requires), and the enclosure in which the animals have been 

 temporarily housed should be thoroughly scoured with boiling- 

 hot water impregnated with salt. 



The nomenclature of the parasitic diseases of animals is 

 excessively vague. Thus, apropos to the case above recorded, I 

 may mention that an American veterinary practitioner appeared 

 to be much shocked that I should have had the temerity to speak 

 of four distinct kinds of lamb-disease. It is in this way that 

 practical men often commit serious mistakes by rolling together 

 disorders that are totally distinct. If it were true that epizooty 

 in lambs is exclusively due to Strongylus filaria, then profes- 

 sionals might aptly speak of the parasitic bronchitis of young 

 sheep as lamb-disease ; but we now know that several other 

 helminths prove terribly fatal to lambs, occasioning death in 

 totally different ways. In one set of cases the animals are 

 asphyxiated ; in another set they become fatally anaemic ; and 

 in a third set they perish from the severity of nervous reflex 

 irritations. Lastly, it may be remarked that, in view of the 

 successful management of the parasitic disorders of animals, 

 the veterinary practitioner must necessarily be guided by the 

 same general principles as the physician. For myself, I may 

 say that I have hitherto designedly withheld many practical hints 



