366 THE DISEASES AND DISORDEES OF THE OX. 



teos of thousands of lambs lately dropped, have repeatedly been 

 lost in severe winter weather owing to the want of oare, and in 

 some cases to the entire absence of shelter. The only wonder 

 is that so few, comparatively speaking, are lost. After excep- 

 tionally cold nights some of the ewes and more of the lambs are 

 often found dead in the morning. In some cases, where no 

 more effectual protection can be had, the providing a simple 

 shed or other shelter— even a clump of trees is better than 

 nothing — to which the sheep could gain access during a storm, 

 would be sufficient for their wants. Again, in the case of sheep, 

 castration is attended with far more risk of tetanus than is that 

 operation in the case of horses. 



By way of treatment, one or more doses of castor oil or of 

 Epsom salts may be administered. If it is practicable to do so, 

 the patient may be placed in a warm bath, and then thoroughly 

 dried, wrapped in blankets, and then kept very warm. Gruel, 

 to which gin has been added in suitable quantity, may be given. 

 Alkalies, tobacco, and bromide of potassium, administered care- 

 fully and in suitable doses, are the most efficacious of the 

 remedies which have been recommended for cases of tetanus in 

 other animals ; but they have not been extensively tried in the 

 ^ase of the sheep. 



RHEUMATISM, OR FELON : JOINT FELON, CHINE 



FELON, COLD FELON. 

 In times past, when man had no knowledge of disease, and 

 'in his ignorance could find no light to guide him onward, he 

 believed, aS does the untutored savage still, the most 

 weird and grotesque conceptions of the maladies incident to 

 man and the creatures over which he dominates. The belief in 

 wizards and witches, in accordance with which thousands ol 

 innocent creatures, even men and women, have been cruelly 

 massacred outright, or tortured by slow degrees to agonising 

 deaths, is prevalent at the present time among most savage tribes, 

 and seems to have been evolved to account for the subtle agencies 

 which surpass man's power of comprehension and explanation 

 on any other hypothesis. In our country, indeed, the belief in 

 witches and wizards did not become extinct until comparatively 

 recent times. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that many 

 diseases to which creatures are subject have been put down to the 



