804 PARASITIC DISEASES. 



seasons are damp, tlie flocks are to be pastured on the hill sides, 

 or on dry pastures ; and if the grass be scarce, it is to be supple- 

 mented by artificial food. 



To cure the disease, or rather to destroy its cause — the para- 

 sites — inhalations of chlorine gas have been recommended. In 

 using this agent great care must be taken that it be sufficiently 

 diluted with air, so as not to destroy the patient as well as the 

 parasite, for I have heard of individuals who have applied it 

 sufficiently strong to destroy all their patients. It is therefore 

 better to compel the animals to inhale it from the chloride of 

 lime, to which sulphuric acid has been added, than to manu- 

 facture it in the ordinary way, namely, by the admixture of 

 common salt, peroxide of manganese, and sulphuric acid. Should 

 the animals be thought too weakly to stand the chlorine gas, 

 sulphurous acid may be substituted, and this is so cheap and 

 so much safer than the chlorine that I much prefer it. It is 

 made by burning sulphur, which, combining with oxygen during 

 the combustion, gives off" fumes of sulphurous acid. Of course it 

 will be understood that when animals are made to inhale either 

 of these gases, they are to be confined in some building. "When 

 the parasites are in the intestines, several doses of turpentine are 

 to be administered. The debQity from which the animals suffer 

 is best combated by stimulating food, as the cakes, to which the 

 sulphate of iron — from ten to twenty grains for each lamb — 

 has been added. Eock salt should also be allowed the animals 

 to lick, or a small quantity of common salt added to the food. 



Hoose in Calves. — This disease very closely resembles that in 

 lambs ; and is caused by a parasite termed the Strongylus 

 micrurus (Mehlis), which gains access to the pulmonary tissue 

 and bronchial tubes through the circulation, the ova being 

 absorbed from the digestive canal. This parasite is very 

 tenacious of life, and will be seen to be quite lively in the 

 pulmonary organs several days after the death of its host. It 

 is one of the armed strongyli, has a filiform body, and a mouth 

 with three papillae. 



This disease prevails in low-lying districts, on land near rivers, 

 more especially after heavy floods, and is mostly seen in the 

 months of August, September, and even October, in calves under 

 one year old, and very rarely in those rising two years old.^ 



^ I found this parasite in the lungs of several full-grown American oxen during 

 the spring of 1879. 



