DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 187 



"What is more, this lot were thoroughly " salted," that is, they had worked all 

 over South Africa, and so had become proof (comparatively speaking) against 

 " red -water," which so frequently destroys whole teams of oxen when they get on 

 to strange " veldt" (grass country). As for "lung sick," which is a dreadful 

 form of pneumonia, very prevalent in this country, they had all been inoculated 

 against it. This is done by cutting a slit in the tail of an ox, and binding in 

 a piece of the diseased lung of an animal which has died of the sickness. 

 The result is that the ox sickens, takes the disease in a mild form, which causes 

 its tail to drop off, as a rule about a foot from the root, and becomes proof 

 against future attacks. It seems cruel to rob the animal of his tail, especially 

 in a country where there are so many flies, but it is better to sacrifice the tail 

 and keep the ox than to loose both tail and ox, for a tail without an ox is not 

 much good except to dust with. Still it does look odd to trek along behind 

 twenty stumps where there ought to be tails. It seems as though nature had 

 made a trifling mistake and stuck the stern ornaments of a lot of prize bull- 

 dogs on to the rumps of the oxen. Next came the question of provisioning and 

 medicines. 



We may add that the ready method of inoculation here 

 described was formerly used in England, but inoculation is 

 highly dangerous unless performed with excessive care, though 

 it is said to have been fairly efficacious in some cases. 



The current of opinion in regard to preventive inoculation in 

 cases of epizootic pleuro-pneumonia has recently become some- 

 what adverse, and the more generally accepted and orthodox 

 belief now entertained in regard to this disease seems to be that 

 the stamping-out policy is alone to be advocated. Some of 

 those who, certainly not without good grounds for so doing, 

 see the unerring certainty of this course as opposed to the great 

 risks which cannot but belong to any other line of action, also 

 as a rule hold that not only is it advisable that such animals a& 

 are undoubtedly the subjects of disease should be summarily 

 slaughtered, but also that those which are likely to become affected 

 on account of having been exposed to risks of infection ought 

 likewise to be killed, and afterwards that their carcases should 

 be buried with due antiseptic precautions. 



This bold and clear policy, they contend, must be effectual, 

 whereas no other plan can be equally so. Probably this may be 

 the correct view, and at least it seems to have the recommendation 

 of certainty ; and, though the question of expense is apt to be a 

 rather serious one, we cannot but conclude, after very much 

 consideration of the matter in all its bearings, that the keen 

 reasoning which cuts its way to what appears to be this sure 

 solution is perchance, in the case of this disease, the best reason- 

 ing, just as it was indubitably so in the case of cattle-plague. 



