222 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



ands and in 1830-1, the number swept off much exceeded two millions.* 

 Its ravages are equally fatal in Germany, and more so in Egypt. It is 

 also common in France, Spain, Australia, &c. There is nothing sufficient- 

 ly marked in its diagnosis to effectually distinguish it from some other dis- 

 eases, to a person possessing no previous practical acquaintance with it, 

 or no more veterinary knowledge than is common among farmers ; and 

 when a slow train of wasting symptoms have occurred, and the structure 

 of the liver is found disorganized, after death, it is not uncommon in this 

 country to pronounce it a case of the rot. The same mistake, according 

 to Dr. Coventry (late Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edin- 

 burgh), is often made by even the shepherds and flock-masters of Europe.t 

 There are other diseases besides the rot which specifically attack the in- 

 tegrity of the liver. Even fasciola or flukes in the liver, the most infalli- 

 ble diagnostic, to the common eye, of the rot, also, according to Dr. Cov- 

 entry, accompany hepatitis chronica. I will not take upon me to deny that 

 ;he rot ever exists in the Northern States, but I have yet to see, or hear 

 of, adequately authenticated, the first undoubted instance ; and this would 

 go to show that if isolated cases of it do sometimes occur, it has dwindled 

 from the wholesale destroyer of Europe to an obscure and occasional dis- 

 ease. The same remarks apply to existence of the disease in the Southern 

 Atlantic and Gulf States, judging from the statements of my correspond- 

 ents, and from the agricultural newspapers. I cannot learn from either 

 of these sources that anything analogous to this malady is common in those 

 States. According to Mr. Cockerel, of Tennessee, and Mr. Flower, of Illi- 

 nois, the rot docs prevail in our Western States ; and the latter gentleman, 

 who has, I presume, seen the disease in Europe, and who ought therefore 

 to be familiar with its pr<z-mortcm and post-mortem appearances, states 

 that it occurs in Southern Illinois " from suffering sheep to pasture on land 

 that is overflowed with water ;" and he adds, " even a crop of green oats, 

 early in the fall before a frost comes, has been known to rot young sheep.'* 



It is worthy of remark that Mr. Livingston equally distinguished for 

 research and observation does not include the rot in his list of American 

 ovine diseases. This affords a strong corroboration of the position I have 

 assumed in relation to the existence of this disease in the North-eastern 

 States, and those of the Southern ones lying east of the Apalachians.J 



The Hoof-ail, though introduced here by contagion, and kept in constant 

 existence by the same means, does not appear, in the common phrase, to 

 originate spontaneously, as in Europe ; or, in other words, to be excited by 

 any other causes than contagion. I have never known an instance going, 

 eren colorably, to prove the contrary of this proposition. 



Acute dropsy or Red-water, I judge to be an exceedingly rare disease in 

 the Northern States, though the author of the American Shepherd thinks 

 differently.|| 



Enteretis, or inflammation of the coats of the intestines ; blain, or in- 

 flammation of the cellular tissue of the tongue ; and a whole train of other 

 diseases including most of the frightful list of infectious or contagious 

 European epizootics seem to be unknown in this country. 



Why there should be so wide a difference between the ovine nosology 

 of Europe and the United States, is a matter of curious and interesting 

 speculation. Whether it will always remain so, or whether the advent of 



* Youatt on Sheep, p. 445. 



t See remarks of Dr. Coventry, quoted at some length in Mountain Shepherd's Manual, p. 20. 



{ I limit the remark to the States lying (mostly) east of these mountains, because they would probably 

 oe the only ones, at the time at which Mr. Livingston wrote, with the Sheep Husbandry of which he would 

 DC supposed to be familiar. 



U American Shepherd, p. 359. 



