JOINT-ILL. 219 



offending tapeworm, masters of hounds might do much in the 

 interest of sheep farmers by urging upon the attention of their 

 kennel huntsman the desirability of keeping the pack as free 

 from tapeworm as possible. 



Pastures near to towns crossed by public footpaths are 

 specially prone to become infected with the eggs of tape- 

 worms from dogs which pass over them. Such enclosures 

 should not, if possible to avoid it, be stocked with lambs, but 

 reserved for older sheep. 



JOINT-ILL (Pycemic arthritis). 



The early life of the lamb is threatened with many and 

 various diseases which too often visit the fold early in the year, 

 and thin down to ruinous proportions the future of the flock. 



Not the least important of these terrible visitations is that 

 acute and destructive affection to which custom has assigned 

 the term "joint-ill," and which is generally regarded by shep- 

 herds and flockmasters as having some obscure connection 

 with the " weather." It should, however, be pointed out that 

 while the affection so termed usually develops changes of a 

 marked character in the articulations of the limbs, such al- 

 terations are by no means invariably manifested in the course 

 of the disorder. It is frequently the case that this so-called 

 "joint-ill " assails and destroys its victims without exciting any 

 obvious changes whatever in those parts from which it has 

 derived its name. While, there.^re, joint disease may be 

 admitted to form a leading symptom of the malady, it must be 

 understood that the disease itself is one of a general systemic 

 nature, of which the joint affection is but a local manifestation. 

 In whatever form it presents itself it frequently kills, or so far 

 depletes and wrecks the system as to render the survivors from 

 the affection most undesirable property. 



The circumstances and conditions under which it arises 

 were, until recently, most impenectly known, and hence it was 



