SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 239 



in our country, but is little noticed, as in most cases it disappears in a few 

 day*, or, at worst, is only followed by cataract. The cataract being usu- 

 ally confined to one eye does not appreciably affect the value of the ani- 

 mal, and therefore has no influence on its market price. As a remedy for this 

 disease, Mr. Grove recommended blowing pulverized red chalk into the 

 inflamed eye ! Others squirt into it tobacco juice, from that ever ready 

 reservoir of this nauseous fluid, their mouths ! I apprehend that all such 

 prescriptions are far worse than nothing. 



Conceiving it a matter of humanity to do fometlling, I have in some in- 

 stances drawn blood from under the eye, bathed the eye in tepid water, 

 and occasionally with a weak solution of the sulphate of zinc combined 

 with tincture of opium. These applications diminish pain and accelerate 

 the cure. 



PNEUMONIA. Pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, is not a com- 

 mon disease, in the Northern States, but undoubted cases of it sometimes 

 occur, after sheep have been exposed to sudden cold particularly when 

 recently shorn. The adhesions occasionally witnessed between the lungs 

 and pleura of slaughtered sheep, betray the former existence of this dis- 

 ease though in many instances it was so slight as to be mistaken, in the 

 time of it, for a hard cold. The sheep laboring under pneumonia is dull, 

 ceases to ruminate, neglects its food, drinks frequently and largely, and its 

 breathing is rapid and laborious. The eye is clouded the nose discharges 

 a tenacious, fetid matter the teeth are ground frequently, so that the 

 sound is audible to some distance. The pulse is at first hard and rapid 

 sometimes intermittent ; but before death it becomes weak. During the 

 hight of the fever, the flanks heave violently. There is a hard, painful 

 eough during the first stages of the disease. This becomes weaker, and 

 &ems to be accompanied with more pain as death approaches. 



After death, the lungs are found more or less hepatized, i. e. permanently 

 condensed, and engorged with blood, so that their structure resembles 

 that of the hepar, or liver and they have so far lost their integrity that 

 they are torn asunder by the slightest force. 



It may be well in this place to remark that when sheep die from any 

 cause with their Hood in them, the lungs have a dark hepatized appear- 

 ance. But whether actually hepatized or not, can be readily decided by 

 compressing the windpipe, so that air cannot escape through it, and then 

 between such compression and the body of the lungs, in a closely fitting 

 orifice, insert a goose-quill or other tube, and continue to blow until the 

 lungs are inflated so far as they can be. As they inflate, they will become 

 lighter colored, and t>lainly manifest their cellular structure. If any por- 

 tions of them cannot be inflated, and retain their dark, liver-like consistency 

 and color, they exhibit hepatization the result of high inflammatory ac- 

 tion and a state utterly incompatible, in the living animal, with the dis- 

 charge of the natural functions of the viscus. 



With the treatment of pneumonia, I have but little personal experience. 

 In the first or inflammatory stages of the disease, bleeding and aperients 

 are clearly called for. Mr. Spooner recommends " early and copious 

 bleeding, repeated, if necessary, in a few hours . . . this followed by aperi- 

 ent medicines, such as 2 oz. of Epsom salts, which may be repeated in 

 smaller doses if the bowels are not sufficiently relaxed. . . . The following 

 sedative may also be given with gruel twice a day : 



Nitrate of potash 1 drachm. 



Digitalis, powdered 1 scruple. 



Tartarized antimony 1 do. 



