204 THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



sweet, nor on those pastures which are scant, but yet nutritious, 

 and intermixed with coarse herbage ; nor on lands that are abun- 

 dantly supplied with lime. It is impossible to know beforehand 

 whether the pasture will produce this effect or not, as it seems 

 most probable that the geological character of the soil has most to 

 do with it But when once a farm, a pasture, or a field, is found 

 to induce this ailment, sheep keeping may be abandoned upon 

 it, unless the flock can be immediately changed to some other part 

 of it where it will thrive. A change from a pasture field to a corn 

 field, where the picking amongst the hills furnished but scanty 

 feed, has been found to produce an immediate change for the bet- 

 ter. No treatment, other than a change of locality, can be indi- 

 cated, and if the farm does not supply this, the flock must be dis- 

 posed of or removed. The disease unfortunately is not well un- 

 derstood, for it is sometimes found very destructive to lambs and 

 yearlings, which are chiefly affected by it It is frequently 

 confounded with a parasitical disease hereinafter referred to, but 

 a post-mortem cximination of a subject will easily identify it as 

 being different from it as shown by the absence of parasites in the 

 stomach, lungs, or air-passages. An adequate supply of supple- 

 mentary food would of course act as a remedy, but the cost of 

 this would defeat its object and render the flock unprofitable. 



Scrofula Tuberculosis. This disease is almost surely fatal in 

 course of time, although at first the sheep subject to it may be 

 brought, by proper treatment, into condition for the butcher. It 

 is a question, however, if the flesh of scrofulous animals can be 

 safely consumed as food, but yet many such go yearly to the 

 butchers to be thus disposed of. It would certainly seem that the 

 use of such animals as food should be carefully avoided, and the 

 sale of then- flesh prevented as injurious to the public health, for 

 no taint is more readily conveyed to the system than scrofula. It 

 is supposed to consist of a diseased condition of the blood, by 

 which the lymph, or white, serous, uncolored portion of it is unfit- 

 ted to nourish properly the tissues of the body and to be built up 

 into organized matter. Lest the accumulation of this imperfect 

 blood should embarras the system, it is deposited in various parts 

 where it is productive of least inconvenience, and the nutrition of 

 the body goes on, as well as it may, with the remainder of the 

 blood thus separated from the useless and injurious portion. But 

 it is frequently the case that there is not sufficient left to supply 

 the waste of the tissues, and a gradual falling off in condition oc- 

 curs. The symptoms of " consumption," a very significant term, 

 as the chief organs are slowly consumed, then appear. The pulsa- 



