176 



DISEASES OF SHEEP 



distinguishing dysentery from diarrhcBa the following 

 diagnostic summary, drawn up by Professor Duncan, 

 will be found of service. 



1. Diarrhoea attacks chiefly hogs and weak gimmera 

 and dinmonts ; whereas dysentery is frequent among 

 older sheep. 



2. Diarrhoea almost always occurs in the spring, and 

 ceases about June, when dysentery only commences. 



3. In diarrhoea there is no fever or tenesmus, or pain 

 before the stools, as in dysentery. 



4. In diarrhoea the faeces are loose, but in other re- 

 spects natural, without any blood or slime ; whereas in 

 dysentery, the faeces consists of hard lumps passed occa- 

 sionally without any blood or slime. 



5. There is not that degree of foetor in the faeces in 

 diarrhoea which takes place in dysentery. 



6. In dysentery, the appetite is totally gone, in 

 diarrhoea it is rather sharper than usual. 



7. In dysentery, the animal wastes rapidly, but by 

 diarrhoea only a temporary stop is put to its thriving, 

 after which it makes rapid advances to strength vigour 

 and proportion. 



If dysentery continue to advance it will terminate 

 fatally within a fortnight. Death is generally preceded 

 by the " black scour*' which is only an aggravation of 

 the purging, the stools being mixed with shreds of dark 

 gangrenous matter from the decomposed interior of the 

 intestines. 



(136.) Causes of Dysentery. Many absurd opinions 

 have gone abroad regarding the contagious nature of 

 this affection. Contagion, however, has nothing to do 

 with the matter, the spread of the disease depending 



