LOUPING-ILL, 553 



upon all these, provided old grasses were allowed to remain on 

 the ground. (By old grasses is meant the growths of the last 

 and previous years.) 



Mr. Brotherston was the first to promulgate the opinion that 

 the cause of the disease was contained in the withered grasses, 

 as these grasses were extensively covered with a variety of 

 micro-fungi ; and that these fungi acted upon the animal body 

 in a manner similar to that induced by ergot ; that, in short, 

 " louping-ill " was a species of ergotic intoxication or nervous 

 excitement. This was a very reasonable conclusion, for, as 

 before stated, the disease was not found unless portions of the 

 ground were more or less thickly covered by grasses of last 

 year's growth, all of which were covered with micro-fungi. 



It was important to set this question at rest, and on 9th May 

 1882 four one-year-old sheep were obtained from a district 

 in which louping-ill was unknown, and were fed at the College 

 up to the 15th day of June, tliirty-six days in all, upon 

 these withered grasses, carefully collected by Mr. Brotherston in 

 the Hawick district. After that, six ewes and lambs were 

 added to the number, and fed upon the same grasses, and 

 remained quite free from disease. Later on, the grasses were 

 mixed with ergots, but no effect was induced beyond a slight 

 loss of appetite and some degree of purging. 



By introducing a small portion of fungus-covered grass into 

 a cultivation fluid, long thread-like filaments could be grown, 

 but these differed from what is to be hereafter mentioned, and 

 the above experiment almost conclusively proved that neither 

 the grasses nor the fungi then seen were capable of directly 

 inducing the disease. 



Doubtless animals fed upon such poor food, particularly if 

 compelled to range over the hills in search of it, are rendered 

 feeble and incapable of resisting the influence of disease-exciting 

 causes, and in consequence the mortality is thus rendered much 

 greater than where the pastures are richer and more nutritious. 



II. The injiucnce of the weather. — The minority of those ac- 

 quainted with the disease hold the opinion that a sudden change 

 of weather of any kind, whether from good to bad or from bad 

 to good, is sufficient of itself to induce the disease ; whilst 

 others maintain that it appears only during the prevalence of 

 cold east winds. 



