DISEASES OF THE LUNGS. 193 



to be dreaded in this disease with sheep as with the horse. Injec- 

 tions of thin oat-meal gruel, strained, should be given every two 

 hours. After the bowels have been well evacuated, the following 

 may be given twice a day in oat-meal or linseed gruel : 



Powdered Digitalis 1 scruple. 



Nitrate of Potash 1 dram. 



Tartar emetic 1 scruple. 



to be continued several days. As soon as the sheep improves and 

 begins to move about, a pint of gruel may be given every three 

 hours with half a dram of powdered Gentian. Warm drinks of 

 dissolved gum Arabic, or linseed-meal tea, hi which a little honey 

 is dissolved, will be useful. The nostrils should be freed from 

 accumulated mucus by washing or sponging with a mixture of 

 equal parts vinegar and water, or of one ounce of acetic acid with 

 a quart of water. Some of the acidulated water should be squeezed 

 into the nostrils to clear them as far as possible. 



One dram doses of tartar emetic alone have been given with 

 benefit in this disease. As it is in nearly every case avoidable by 

 proper care and precaution, and is rarely cured when once well 

 seated, it will be by far the best policy to prevent its occurrence. 



Pleurisy, or inflammation of the membrane covering the lungs 

 and the lining of the cavity of the chest, is produced by the same 

 causes as pneumonia. It frequently accompanies this latter dis- 

 ease. It most frequently follows the careless washing of sheep or 

 their exposure to cold winds with wet fleeces, or from a severe 

 chill after having been sheared. After an attack of this disease, 

 and a seeming recovery, an adhesion of the lungs to the sides of 

 the chest often takes place which prevents the sheep from thriving 

 and keeps them in poor condition, from which they cannot be 

 recovered. Wide-spread causes, chiefly those arising from the un- 

 favorable condition of the weather, sometimes affect the flocks of 

 extensive districts, and lead to the supposition that the disease is 

 epizootic or contagious. This, however, is not the case. 



Prevention consists in watchful care to protect the sheep from 

 sudden change of the weather at a time when they are more than 

 usually exposed to its ill effects ; also from a too sudden change 

 from housing to open pasturing in the spring. All sudden changes 

 in the management of sheep should be made with caution, a 

 change, even from poor to rich feed, may produce this or other in- 

 flammatory diseases, and care must be exercised in this respect. 



The symptoms are similar to those of inflammation of the lungs ; 

 more pain is experienced, and the sheep exhibits more distress, 

 sometimes moaning in agony. After death, the cavity of the chest 

 9 



