312 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



tears the brain and carries foreign material into it, so that 

 it is of less value for purposes of inoculation than if it were 

 intact and uninjured. The practice of shooting a dog that 

 is actins; in a peculiar manner, on the appearance of the first 

 symptoms of any unusual condition, and calling it mad, can- 

 not be too strongly condemned, as there is then no foun- 

 dation upon which to base an opinion as to whether the 

 animal was suffering with rabies, or whether some other 

 condition existed, and it is an injustice to the dog. The 

 only exact way to decide whether a dog has rabies or not is 

 to have a scientific examination made, as described above. 

 This is particularly necessary if the dog in question has 

 bitten any persons or other dogs. 



At times when there is any danger of an outbreak of 

 rabies, the dog-licensing law should be rigidly enforced by 

 the police authorities in every city and town (it always 

 should be), and all ownerless, homeless and stra}^ dogs 

 should be caught and destroyed. 



If an outl)reak of rabies should occur in any town, any 

 dogs that have been bitten by a rabid one should be quaran- 

 tined for ninety days ; and in some instances it is necessary 

 to have all dogs running at large properly muzzled. 



By carrjdng out this method in years pa.st the State has 



been practically freed from this disease, and if it should 



reappear, similar measures would be productive in time of 



equally good results. 



Sheep Scab. 



At the time of making the semiannual report, in July, it 

 was reported that sheep scab existed in a few small flocks 

 of sheep in Groveland, West Newbury and Amesbury. The 

 sheep had been dipped twice, under the supervision of an 

 agent of the Cattle Bureau, and released from quarantine. 

 Since then no further complaints of trouble from this dis- 

 ease have been made. 



The sheep dip first used was a lime and sulphur dip, which 

 was made according to one of the formulas of the United 

 States Bureau of Animal Industry. This contains 24 

 pounds of flowers of sulphur and 8 pounds of unslacked 

 lime to 100 gallons of water. The lime is first slacked 



