206 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



alterative doses, such as we have advised in connection with anaemia 

 or wasting diseases. Gruelling of individuals drawn out of the 

 flock (large numbers are seldom attacked), and tonics of one to 

 three drams of Peruvian bark and gentian, may be given at one 

 end of the day, and thirty or forty drops of spirit of turpentine, 

 in a tablespoonful of linseed oil, at the other. Recovery is the 

 rule when placed under favourable conditions. 



ANTHRAX. 



The first intimation of the disease is, too commonly, a dead 

 sheep, much blown up, and with a blood-stained discharge escaping 

 from the natural orifices of the body. The cause is definitely 

 known to be the anthrax bacillus. It may enter by a variety of 

 portals, but probably most often by the mouth, in the food. 



Symptoms. The illness is of such short duration that signs are 

 seldom observed. Standing apart, with flanks filled up like a 

 blown animal on wet clover, and the appearance of being struck 

 for death ; a fatal blow has been struck at the animal's vitality, 

 and a person who has not seen it before would form the opinion 

 that the animal must die. A state of collapse, yet often fearing to 

 lie down, on account of the tympany or hoven referred to above. 



Treatment. Anthrax is a notifiable disease, and treatment is, 

 therefore, out of the question. It is doubtful if it ever succeeded 

 when it was permissible. Preventive measures are generally 

 believed to be worth a trial, and this emphasizes the importance 

 of correct diagnosis when a sheep is found dead or fatally struck. 

 They consist in lowering the blood tension, as it has been previously 

 stated in remarks on the blood that a full and rich -blooded state 

 of the sheep predisposes to anthrax. A purgative then should 

 be administered first, the ration reduced, or a change made 

 to comparatively bare pasture. The hyposulphite of soda has a 

 reputation as a preventive, and may be given in doses of hah 5 

 to one ounce for each sheep, in the powdered form, mixed with 

 the trough feed daily. 



QUARTER-ILL, SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX, STRIKE. 



By these and other names a somewhat similar disease to anthrax 

 is known. It is not caused by the same bacillus. Is not so rapidly 

 fatal or disposed to spread; more often affecting an individual 

 from time to time than occurring as an outbreak. No treatment 

 is of use when the struck animal is discovered, but the same measures 

 above advised for the prevention of anthrax can be used against 

 the strike. There is much confusion about these blood diseases 

 among sheep, and it may yet prove that there is some connection 

 between those already considered and the two last mentioned. 



