ITS TRKATMKNT. 93 



ternatcd witli linseed, hay, corn, chaff, &c., and 

 sprinkhng the food with salt and water. 



When much debility exists, the patients must be 

 drenched with oat or pea-meal giaiel twice or thnce 

 a-day, substituting for it now and then half a pint of 

 good ale. Great care is required in administering these 

 beverages, and no unnecessary force should be used. 

 If the animal coughs while taking a draught, the head 

 must be immediately liberated, or suffocation may re- 

 sult : for want of due attention to this simple rule many 

 valuable sheep have been destroyed ; it therefore ought 

 to be well impressed on the mind of the flock-master. 

 A small drenching horn, with an opening at the lesser 

 end, and fitted with a moveable cap at the other, is 

 the most useful instrument for exhibiting fluids to these 

 animals. 



Throughout the progress of the malady the patients 

 should be disturbed as little as possible ; both the 

 agriculturist and the veterinary surgeon ought never to 

 lose sight of the fact, that sheep bear up very badly 

 against acute diseases, and that slight causes will 

 greatly tend to aggravate their illness. Besides feed- 

 ing and nursing the animals in the way recommended, 

 care must be taken to supply them with plenty of water, 

 which should be renewed at least once a-day ; for al- 

 though much thirst prevails, especially during the 

 papular and vesicular stages of the disorder, the sheep 

 will often refuse to drink in consequence of the mucus 

 which flows from their nostrils being mingled with the 

 water. 



When ovine variola assumes even its mildest foiTn, 

 many of the patients will suffer more than others, 

 and to these the chief attention is to be given ; the 



