228 SHEEP I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Where proud flesh appears on the lips or gums, it should be 

 promptly touched with lunar caustic, and any teeth which may 

 become loose must be removed. 



LIVER ROT, COATHE OR BANE. 



No disease is more dreaded by the flockmaster than rot. 

 Although the true nature of this fearful malady has only been 

 understood during recent years, its fatal character has been 

 long known under various names. We must necessarily write 

 with brevity upon this subject, although the material at our 

 disposal might be extended over many pages. The proper 

 understanding of the disease is in a great measure due to the 

 investigations of Mr. A. P. Thomas, which are recorded in 

 vols. xvii., xviii. and xix. of the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal (second series). It is not necessary in this connection 

 to do more than give a general and popular account of this 

 extraordinary and fatal disease which claims, it? is stated, 

 1,000,000 victims a year in Great Britain. We can never 

 forget the devastation of our flocks after the wet summer of 

 1879, which was followed by what was at the time called a 

 sheep famine in 1882 and 1883. This is the fellest of all ovine 

 diseases, and is due to the presence of parasites in the liver of 

 the sheep. The disease is produced by an invasion of what is 

 popularly known as FLUKE, and scientifically as Fasciola hepatica, 

 or Distomum hepaticum, a member of the Trematode section of 

 the Annuloida (Steel). It is a flat worm, having a general 

 resemblance to a flounder, by which name it is also known. 



One of the most interesting and fascinating pages of modern 

 natural history concerns the life history of the entozoa or 

 internal parasites of mammalia, of which the fluke is a strik- 

 ing example. Like so many entozoa, recent researches have 

 shown that their life history depends upon their entrance into 

 more than one " host," or receiving animal, at different stages 

 of their existence. Of this fact there are many examples, such 

 as the tapeworm and the bladder worms, which cause gid or 

 sturdy in sheep. 



