()6 S.MAl.I.-roX IX SIIKKP. 



worse, and several of them died daily. The disease shewed itself by 

 a breaking out round the nostrils and the face, and the eyes of many 

 were much affected, some completely blind ; large scales and pustules 

 bv the sides of the face, and all over their bodies. It shewed itself 

 particularly between the shoulder and the brisket, when the sheep 

 was turned up. It resembled the small-pox, and"! have no doubt 

 but that is the disease, it leaving in those that recovered pits in the 

 face and on the skin wherever a pustule had been. Many of them 

 had it so severelv that in two or three days they could not eat, and 

 were starved. Observing what I did, I gave to those which were 

 very bad oatmeal-gruel several times a day, and saved many which 

 must otherwise have died. To shew how very infectious it is, I had 

 350 Southdown laynbs in another flock, that never had been mixed with 

 the Spaniards, or with any of the diseased lambs, and they broke out with 

 it from having been penned by the side of the others in the same field while 

 feeding off rape ; clearly shewing that the infection iras carried in the air 

 from one fiock to the other*. I am pleased to say, by taking a great deal 

 of trouble, and by perseverance, I have every reason to suppose that 

 I have effectually stopped this fatal disease from infecting the whole 

 of my flock, being upwards of 700. I will merely state the course 

 I took to arrest its progress after losing nearly half of those taken, 

 losing between 50 and 60, in about three weeks, out of about 130 

 which broke out with it. I employed two men to turn everj- sheep 

 I had on my farm, and minutely inspect every one of them ; and if 

 they saw the slightest appearance of any rash, or a single pustule 

 shewed itself between the inside of the shoulder and the breast, where 

 the skin of the sheep generally looks white and clean, and where it 

 was sure to shew itself first, / had it imynediately taken away, putting 

 the whole of the diseased ones together in one large field in the middle of 

 my farm, a distance from any road, as a protection to my ?ieighbours. I 

 followed the same course every morning, by having all my sheep 

 turned and closely inspected, not looking at the trouble and expense, 

 as I felt in my own mind that it was the only remedy I had to stop the 

 infection; as I calculated, if I could only find out those sheep which 

 had taken the disease and were breeding it, before it became infectious 

 to others, I should be able to arrest its progress. Fortunately, I was 

 right in my calculations ; for they daily decreased in numbers, 

 although they still kept faltering for a fortnight or three weeks from 

 the time I began turning them (particularly in one flock, where the 



* The Italics in this extract are our own. 



