SHEEP—CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



203 



laxative medicine. (See No. 69, Domi: 

 tic Animals, Medicines for.) 



In addition to this, the abdomen should 

 be well fomented with hot water — a 

 Iamb, indeed, may be placed altogether in 

 a warm bath. 



Every shepherd should have a little 

 born, made of that of a sheep, <*nd which 

 will hold about the usual quantity of med- 

 icine given as a drink; or at least the 

 quantity which the horn will hold should 

 be carefully ascertained, and then a large 

 bottle of the mixture may be taken into 

 the field, and the proper dose given to as 

 many ot the sheep as may seem So re- 

 quire it, without the trouble of measuring 

 it every time. 



If the animal recover, a change of food 

 must be afforded, and a short, sweet pas- 

 ture should be preferred. 



SHEEP, Sturdy, Giddiness, or Water in 

 the Head. — This is a very singular, and 

 also s, very fatal disease. It commonly 

 attacks yearlings; a two or three-shear 

 sheep is generally exempt from it. The 

 animal becomes dull; separates himself 

 from the rest of the flock ; is frightened 

 at the most trifling circumstance, and at 

 the least noise]; he runs round and round, 

 but always in one direction; holds his 

 head on one side ; if there is a brook in 

 the field, he stand upon its banks, poring 

 over the running stream, and nodding 

 and staggering, until he frequently tumbles 

 in ; or he breaks from his fit of musing, 

 and gallops wildly over the field, but with 

 no certain course, and with no determinate 

 object. Soon his appetite fails, or he 

 evidently feels so much inconvenience 

 when he stoops to graze, that he gives up 

 eating altogether; and then he wastes 

 rapidly away : he seems to be half 

 stupid, and at length dies a mere skele- 

 ton. 



The disease generally attacks the 

 weakest of the flock. It is in some 

 measure connected with a peculiar state 

 of the atmosphere. It is most prevalent 

 after a moist winter, and cold, ungenial 

 spring. It usually begins in the spring, 

 continues through the summer, and dis- 

 appears as the winter approaches. It is 

 dependent partly on the season, but more 

 on the health and strength of the animal. 

 It may be prevented by good upland 

 pasture; and is most common in low and 

 xnarshy ground. It is not contagious, 



nor does it seem to be hereditary. Hav- 

 ing once attacked the animal, and gradual 

 loss of flesh having commenced, the 

 case is hopeless. 



All medicine will be thrown away in 

 such a case. It is the consequence of 

 pressure on the brain by a strange, 

 bladder-like-formed animal j and it would 

 be more for the advantage of the owner 

 to destroy the sheep, however out of 

 condition it may be, than to commence 

 any desperate and fruitless course of 

 medicine. 



Various methods have been tried in 

 order to break this bladder, such as hunt- 

 ing the sheep with dogs, and frightening 

 him half to death, throwing him into a 

 gravel-pit, and various other absurd as 

 well as brutal methods. They who pur- 

 sued this course much oftener succeeded 

 in breaking the animal's neck than rup- 

 turing the bladder. At length some 

 persons bethought them of getting at, 

 and puncturing or removing, this bladder 

 by some operation. They thrust iron 

 wires or skewers up the nostril, and into 

 the brain, and sometimes succeeded in 

 effecting their purpose. If they hit upon 

 the nuisance, and pierced its envelope or 

 skin, they were made aware of it by a 

 greater or smaller quantity of water flow- 

 ing from the nostril, and they could 

 always tell on which side the hydatid lay, 

 by the sheep inclining his head that way. 

 They could also sometimes tell the precise 

 situation of the bladder; for after being 

 a long time inclosed between the skulL 

 and the brain, and pressed upon both, 

 and pressing upon both of them in turn,, 

 not only in consequence of that pressure 

 was a portion of the brain below destroyed 

 and absorbed, but even the bone above 

 was softened, nothing but a yielding 

 membrane sometimes remaining over a 

 particular spot. Some surgeons suggested 

 that this membrane should be punctured, 

 and it was done so with the lancet, or, 

 oftener, by a heated sharp-pointed wire, 

 and thus the creature beneath was 

 wounded and destroyed. Others im- 

 proved upon this method of operating. 

 A surgeon's trephine was used, and a 

 circular piece of the skull taken out* at 

 the place where it was softened, and thus 

 the hydatid was bodily removed; and 

 when this was carefully done, and the 

 bladder was not broken, the hydatid, by 



