SPECIFIC DISEASES. 233 



suffered, the precaution should be taken of tying the navel-strings 

 as soon as possible after birth. To the tying should be added a 

 rapid painting with a mixture of one part carbolic acid to eleven 

 parts of collodion. This is destructive of the germs, and a fence 

 against their entrance, until the cord has time to dry off, after 

 which the danger is very slight. The lambing-pen should be upoft 

 a fresh site each year if possible, and the land salted and dressed with 

 soot, as these substances are inimical to the germs which are known 

 to cause the disease. The practice of lambing in small bartons 

 and in dirty enclosures is responsible for many diseases of ewes 

 as well as lambs. If compelled to use such places, the floor or 

 ground surface should be liberally sprinkled with lime, and clean 

 straw laid down. 



INFECTIOUS SCOUR. 



This has been referred to in the chapter dealing with diseases of 

 digestion, but belongs more properly to the specific infections. 

 The germs are believed to enter chiefly through the open umbilicus, 

 and this constitutes another reason for adopting the practice of 

 ligaturing and dressing the navel-string with such things as men- 

 tioned above for the prevention of oint ill. 



Treatment. This is very unsatisfactory, as sheep, and more 

 particularly lambs, do not respond to the ordinary astringents 

 such as chalk mixture and catechu, or those compounds commonly 

 sold by agricultural or veterinary chemists, and composed of 

 opium, chalk, bismuth, catechu, and oak bark infusions, or decoc- 

 tions of other astringent barks and roots. An aperient of castor 

 oil should be tried, and followed up with large doses of quinine 

 at one part of the day, and with scour mixture at another. Quinine 

 appears to act well in large doses by inhibiting the multiplication of 

 the germs, as in the case of certain malarial fevers. 



