466 THE DISEASES AND DISORDEES OF THE OX. 



are liable to the attacks of flukes has been strongly recommended 

 as a preventive and curative agent. Salt should be given 

 together with dry food, but great care must be taken in the case 

 of breeding ewes that they do not get too much. The experi- 

 ment was tried by a Mr. Heath of giving to some sheep which 

 were feeding upon permanent pastures one quarter of an ounce 

 of common salt, well mixed with half-a-pint of oats every day. 

 Those which were thus fed had no flukes, while those which 

 were not treated in this way were afflicted with the worms. 



So far as may be possible, the eggs of the liver-fluke should 

 be destroyed, while the manure obtained from any animal which 

 is affected should never be put on wet ground. As a general 

 rule, all sheep which are infected should be sent to the butcher 

 at once; but if they are very valuable and very slightly diseased, 

 they may be isolated and put under treatment, and placed upon 

 high and dry pastures. All heavy or wet ground ought to be 

 thoroughly drained. Indeed, the paramount necessity of good 

 drainage cannot be too strongly insisted upon, since imperfect 

 drainage, coupled with general inattention to sanitary measures, 

 is the source of many different diseases, both of men and 

 animals. 



Dressings of lime or salt should be spread over the ground 

 at the proper seasons, for the purpose of destroying the 

 embryoes, the cysts of the fluke, and also the snail. Sheep 

 should not be allowed to graze closely, the fluke germs being 

 usually situated near the ground. When sheep are allowed to 

 graze on dangerous ground, they should have a daily allow- 

 ance of salt mixed with a little dry food. — (A. P. Thomas.) 



OTHER PARASITES FOUND IN RUMINANTS. 



Another Trematode worm, Distoma lanceolatum (or lancet- 

 shaped fluke) by name, not only infests the liver-ducts of 

 cattle and sheep, but also those of the deer tribe. This fluke 

 is soft and transparent, and its length is about one-third to 

 three-eighths of an inch, while its breadth varies from about 

 one-twelfth to one-sixth of an inch. The parasite is, in fact, 

 so small that it works very little mischief, although it is often 

 found together with the Fasciola hepatica in the liver ducts. 



Three instances of the presence of this parasite in human 

 beings have been recorded, one being that of a young girl 



