[MAGINARY CAUSES OF ROT. 



209 



may, that the eggs of the fluke worm sink in water, 

 and, consequently, that they cannot float in air.* 



2. The Rev. Dr Singer, to whom Scotland at large, 

 and Dumfries-shire in particular, is much indebted for 

 numerous and valuable papers on agricultural subjects, 



tates, in the third volume of the Hifjhland Societi/'s 

 transactions, page 478, that " The spawn or eggs of 

 the liver fluke are most probably conveyed upon the 

 grass by summer watering, and afterwards taken into 

 the stomach with it." A few lines further on, he speaks 

 of ihe eggs being " wafted thither by harvest water- 

 mgs." Now, as the fluke is only produced within the 

 sheep, I need only put the unanswerable questions — 

 How are they conveyed to the grass ? and from whence 

 are they wafted ? to refute at once this hasty notion. 



3. The eggs may be voided by the sheep, may fall 

 upon the herbage, and there remain till they are eaten. 

 Such is the supposition pubUshed by Mr King of 

 Hammersmith, in the Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 

 ture, No. XXXI. p. 331, in which, after showing the 

 vast number of eggs which must fall upon the grass, he 

 says, " We must cease to wonder that so many sheep 

 die of rot ; the miracle is, that every sheep does not 

 die of it."! I cannot, however, for my part, see a 

 miracle in the matter, for the simple reason, that the 

 eggs of the entozoa are not capable of retaining their 

 vitality when absent even for a very short time from 



* To obtain the eggs of the fluke worm for examination, hold a 

 saucer under the gall bladder, make an opening in it with scissors, and 

 the bile containing the eggs will flow into the dish. Pick out any fluke 

 worms that may be in the fluid, then dilute it with about twelve times 

 its bulk of water, agitate for a few minutes, and filter. The eggs wili 

 be found in the corner of the filtering paper. 



