12 SMALL-rOX IN SHEKP. 



in 1()90. We have again to record another outbreak 

 of that disease in 1740, ^v]Hch continued with more or 

 less severity in Picardy till 1792. " The sheep were 

 affected with a contagious malady which the French 

 commonly call clav'in or cloveau, and which is, in fact, 

 no other than the small-pox. It is, of all the conta- 

 gious distempers which affect sheep, the most easily 

 communicated, and that to which they are the most 

 hable. Like the small-pox, too, it is distinguished into 

 the distinct or mild, the confluent or malignant*." 



In the interval between the above dates, that is, 

 about 1758, another of these epizootics reached our 

 shores, and many of our cattle died. Dr. Layard 

 describes it as a putrid, malignant, and inflammatory 

 fever, attacking the ox tribe, and producing ulcers 

 in the mucous membranes and external parts of the 

 body ; and says that he had often seen sheej), pigs, 

 horses, and dogs in the midst of the infectious without 

 being contaminated by it. 



In 1763-4 our cattle again fell victims to one of 

 these diseases : the digestive organs were the chief seat 

 of the affection, and parasites were present, viz. intes- 

 tinal w^orms, and flukes in the liver. Sheep suffered 

 severely. This disorder seems, however, to have been 

 no other than " the rot'' 



From this period down to 1838-9 England seems 

 to have escaped ; but suddenly in the former year an 

 epizootic associated with fever, and with vesicles on the 

 tongue, lips, teats, and between the digits, made its 

 appearance among our cattle, attacking oxen, sheep, 



* MQls on Cattle, p. 420. 



