84 SMALL-rOX IN SHEEP. 



tenial structures of the eye give evidence of disor- 

 ganization : the animal shrinks from the touch, the 

 jnilse gets more and more indistinct ; great prostration 

 of all the vital powers succeeds, and death closes the 

 painful scene. Captain J. Carr thus describes the 

 symptoms when the disease takes on a malignant form : 

 — " The pulse becomes increasingly rapid, the mouth 

 dry and hot, the breath fetid, and the eyelids, and even 

 head, so much swollen, that the creature can scarcely 

 be recognised. The pustules, being very numerous, 

 become confluent, and form a mass of matter which, 

 especially in warm weather, is apt to assume a putrid 

 character, degenerating into malignant ulcers, by which 

 the poor animal is rendered bhnd, lame, or loses part 

 of the lips, and is at length carried off by \dolent diar- 

 rhoea *." 



The pecuniary loss to the agiiculturist, arising 

 from the breaking out of the malady among his sheep, 

 is not simply confined to the number of deaths; 

 for even if the animals pass safely through the 

 attack, their weak and emaciated condition renders 

 them of little worth, and the subsequent care and at- 

 tention which they require for their perfect restoration 

 are considerable, and necessarily attended with great 

 expense. According to Sacco's statement, '' impreg- 

 nated ewes are certain to abort their lambs f:" the 

 loss which such a circumstance would cause can 

 scarcely be estimated. We entertain serious appre- 

 hensions that Sacco is too correct in this remark; 

 for we have many proofs that sheep, like other domes- 

 ticated animals — cows in particular — are very hable 



* Sheep-pox, p. 6. 



I Trattato di Vaccinazionc, p. 150. 



