MEDICAL TREATMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 479 



" Many of the diseases of sheep which are described as com- 

 ' paratively common in Europe, are unknown in the United 

 ' States ; and this remark applies particularly to those which have 

 * proved most destructive in the former. 



" I have owned sheep the entire period of my life, — a little over 

 ' half a century, — my flock numbering at alternating periods from 

 ' hundreds to thousands. I have for considerably more than half 

 ' of this period been constantly concerned in their practical man- 

 'agement, and a deeply interested observer of them. For more 

 ' than twenty years I have been engaged in a constant and exten- 

 ' sive correspondence in respect to sheep and their diseases, with 

 ' flock-masters in various portions of the United States, and have 

 ' been in the frequent habit of inspecting flocks of every size and 

 'description, and I never yet have witnessed or had satisfactory 

 ' proof brought home to me of the existence of a single case of 

 ' hydatid, water on the brain, palsy, rot, small-pox, malignant in- 

 ' flammatory fever, {La Maladie de Sologne^ blain or inflammation 

 ' of the cellular tissue about the tongue, enteritis or inflammation 

 'of the coats of the intestines, acute dropsy or red-water, acute 

 ' inflammation of the lungs, or of a whole host of other formidable 

 ' maladies described by every European writer on the diseases of 

 ' sheep. I do not aver that they never occur in the United States, 

 ' but the above facts would seem to show their occurrence must 

 ' at least be very rare, or confined to localities where they are not 

 ' recognized. 



" To correct or confirm my own impressions on this subject, 

 ' I addressed letters a few months since, to a large number of 

 ' highly intelligent and experienced flock-masters residing ii» 

 ' various States, and in situations differing widely in respect to 

 'climate, soil, elevation, etc.; asking them what diseases sheep 

 'were subject to in their respective regions, and what remedies 

 'were most successfully employed for their cure. The spirit 

 'and substance of nearly all the replies are contained in the fol- 

 ' lowing extract from a letter of my ofF-hand friend, Mr. Theodore 

 ' C. Peters, of Darien, New York : — 



" ' You ask me for our sheep diseases and for the remedies. 

 31 



