SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 253 



Bection, in all cases, and especially in this, depend not only upon the amourii 

 of blood abstracted, but also upon the rapidity with which it is drawr 

 from the veins, the eye-veins are not the proper ones to op^n. They are 

 so small that the blood flows slowly, and if cut directly across, as is usually 

 done, they soon contract, and the flow of blood is arrested before a suffi- 

 cient quantity has been abstracted. It is better to have recourse at onco 

 to the jugular vein. The animal should be bled until an obvious constitu 

 tional effect is produced the pulse lowered and the rigidity of the muscles 

 relaxed. An aperient should at once follow bleeding, and if the animal is 

 strong and plethoric, a sheep of the size of the Merino would require at 

 least two ounces of Epsom salts, and one of the large mutton sheep more. 

 tf this should fail to open the bowels, half an ounce of the salts should bs 

 DC given, say, twice a day. 



In the milder cases which I have mentioned as occurring in my own 

 fiock, I think had I bled more thoroughly, in the very first attack, and 

 given a mild aperient of Epsom salts, most of the sheep would have re- 

 covered. 



PHRENITIS, TETANUS, EPILEPSY, PALSY, RABIES. I never have seen a 

 well-defined case of either of these maladies among our sheep, though, 

 in a few instances, something which struck me at the time as somewhat 

 analogous to paralysis or palsy. Palsy is a diminution or entire loss of 

 the powers of motion in some part of the body. I have occasionally 

 seen, in the winter, poor lambs, or poor pregnant ewes, or poor feeble 

 ewes immediately after yeaning in the spring, lose the power of walking 

 or standing rather too suddenly to have it satisfactorily referable to in- 

 creasing debility. The animal seems to have lost all strength in its loins, 

 and the hind-quarters are powerless. It makes ineffectual attempts to 

 rise, and cannot stand if placed upon its feet. 



Treatment. Warmth, gentle stimulants, and good nursing, might raise 

 the patient, but in nineteen cases out of twenty it would be more econo- 

 mical and equally humane, to at once deprive it of life. 



COLIC. Sheep are occasionally seen, particularly in the winter, lying 

 clown and rising every moment or two, and constantly stretching their fore 

 and hind legs so far apart that their bellies almost touch the ground. 

 They appear to be in much pain, refuse all food, and not unfrequently 

 die, unless relieved. This disease is popularly known as the " stretches" 

 and is erroneously attributed to int.rosusception of an intestine. Some 

 farmers worry the sheep with a dog, and others hold it up by the hind 

 re i I consider it a sort of flatulent colic induced by 



to effect a cure ! I consider it a sort of flatulent colic induced by 

 costiveness. 



Treatment. ftalf an ounce of Epsom Falts, a drachm of ginger, and 

 sixty drops of essence of peppermint. The salts alone, however, will 

 effect the cure, as will an equivalent dose of linseed-oil, or even hog's lard. 



