DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 517 



be occasioned in sheep as a result of cold, in consequence of 

 something being wrong with the milk of the mother, or owing 

 to the first eating of the grass by the lamb when it is being 

 weaned. Indeed, it is most natural that the bowels should be 

 liable to disturbance at the time when such a radical change in 

 the food is being undergone as that which then takes place, the 

 grass then suddenly being perhaps the only food of the lamb. 

 Moreover, it has been found, if lambs are exposed to great cold, 

 or if the milk of the ewes is not good, or, indeed, very frequently 

 if lambs, after being weaned, are incautiously placed on luxu- 

 riant keeping, that diarrhoea of a violent nature may be mani- 

 fested, and lead on to death in less than twenty-four hours* time. 

 As we have said above, diarrhoea is very frequently connected 

 with some deterioration in the quality of the milk of the ewes. 

 Also, it may be mentioned that, even when the lambs first begin 

 to crop the grass by their mother's side, they are liable to suffer 

 from occasional disturbance of their bowels, and naturally, as we 

 pointed out above, this danger becomes especially great at 

 weaning time. 



Again, it may happen that, no sooner is the milk of the mother 

 received into the true stomach of the lamb, than it is suddenly 

 transformed into a firm curd, on the one hand, and into the fluid 

 <3alled whey, on the other, in consequence of the action of the 

 gastric juice upon it. Further, if either the milk of the mother 

 or the stomach of the lamb be unhealthy, this conversion may 

 occur far more suddenly and decisively — indeed, to such an 

 extent that the curd may be retained and accumulate in a marked 

 degree, while the whey, on the contrary, rapidly passes through 

 the bowels, thereby imparting the appearance of a kind of 

 •diarrhoea, which is often spoken of as " white scouring." 



In these cases it may sometimes be found that the fourth 

 stomach is quite full of curd, all its normal functions being 

 entirely suspended. Although, then, the animal seems to be 

 suffering from diarrhoea, the exact reverse of this is in reality 

 the true state of the case, the sheep being, on the contrary, very 

 much constipated. Moreover, this particular derangement is 

 apt to come on when the lamb first commences to graze, at which 

 time the functions of the stomach are naturally somewhat 

 deranged. Under these circumstances the lamb is evidently 

 distressed, heaves at the flanks, is unwilling to move, is greatly 



