212 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



Treatment. This form of simple aptha readily yields to medica- 

 tion ; all that is necessary is to give two or three small doses of 

 salts, with bicarbonate of potash, and dress the membranes with 

 borax and honey, in the proportion of one of the former to seven 

 of the latter. If healing does not rapidly take place, a solution of 

 alum may be substituted, such as a quarter ounce dissolved in a 

 pint of rain water, and mopped on to the sores daily. 



MALIGNANT APTHA. 



This is a much more serious matter. It is not only very in- 

 fectious but rapidly lowers the vital powers and in many cases 

 proves fatal. Suckers convey it from the mouth to the teats and 

 udders of their mothers, and this leads to complications and some- 

 times garget. 



Symptoms. Those described in simple aptha, but greatly 

 exaggerated. Pustules take the place of simple vesicles, and 

 badly ulcerated surfaces are left. The trouble extends to, if it 

 does not actually originate in the stomach (stomatitis), and the 

 whole body is sick. 



Treatment Immediate isolation of the sick and of all suspects. 



Disinfection. Dressing of the sores with a weak carbolic lotion, 

 such as a dram of carbolic acid, two drams of glycerine, and a 

 quarter-pint of water; an adult may be given half a dram of 

 chlorate of potash, with a dram of hyposulphite of soda twice a 

 day, dissolved in water ; lambs, in proportion to their size and 

 age. Sulphate of magnesia in half to two -ounce doses at intervals 

 of a few days may be advisable. The food should be moist and 

 nutritious and easily mouthed and swallowed. Cooked linseed 

 and bran and sharps and the like being suitable for sustaining 

 the patients, but it must never be forgotten that ruminants cannot 

 get their cud without some bulky food. Scalded hay will serve this 

 purpose, without hurting the tender membrane. 



It has been said in another place, that a good deal of confusion 

 exists about sheep diseases, and this unfortunately applies to 

 these eruptive diseases of the mouth. The reader will not insist 

 upon correct classification a thing at all times difficult but 

 may be helped in his diagnosis if we here refer to another malady 

 which is often mistaken for the simple and the pustular or stomatitis 

 above mentioned. It is called by many names and among them 



CONTAGIOUS PUSTULAR DERMATITIS, LIP AND LEG DISEASE. 



It is one of those maladies which the bacteriologist has thrown 

 light upon that enables us to apply his knowledge to its cure. 



Symptoms. Fever to a varying extent. The lips and face, 

 and very likely the legs and feet show an eruption of a painful 

 nature, which is disposed to spread rather than to heal. Its 



