534 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



navel is swollen and flabby, and the eyes have a yellowish hue. 

 The patient is not capable of standing ; but, if lifted up to its 

 dam, it will suck. The result of the malady is that the lamb 

 will dwindle away and die — unless, indeed, effectual remedial 

 measures are applied — perhaps even in a few hours' time, or 

 perhaps after a week or so. After death, if an examination be 

 made, dark blood will be found present in the viscera, the 

 umbilical veins will be swollen, the liver engorged and studded 

 with abscesses, and the tissues of the body frequently yellow. 



By way of preventive measures, the flock should at once be 

 supplied with a diminished quantity of food, and either aperients 

 or neutral salts, especially those of an antiseptic nature, such as 

 the sulphite or the salicylate of sodium, may be tried in suitable 

 doses, and these remedies should be given to the ewes as well 

 as to the lambs. The most important point is that only a 

 moderate supply of food should be given to the ewe, it being 

 very requisite that the condition of the auimal should be 

 maintained without there being any excess of fat internally, or 

 any undue richness of the blood. Indeed, this question of 

 over-indulgence in food is one of great moment, and, in fact, is- 

 as important in the case of animals for their welfare, as it is in 

 that of man himself, for his. 



It is nothing like sufficiently realised that a great many of the 

 evils to which living beings are liable are due to errors in dieting,, 

 and there are many men and women, as well as lower animals,, 

 who bring themselves to an early and premature grave by that 

 single excess. We need not say, for it is now being preached, 

 so to say, from the house-tops, how necessary it is that men 

 should avoid indulgence in alcoholic drinks ; but in passing we 

 may just remark that these two evils of over-drinking and over- 

 eating account for a very great deal of the sufferings with which 

 human beings are afflicted. Very closely coupled with this 

 important consideration is the advisability that a due amount of 

 exercise should always be taken by all kinds of living beings. 

 There is little or no danger that animals running wild in the 

 natural state will not have sufficient physical activity. In the 

 state of domestication, however, and far more markedly in that 

 of human civilisation, there is room for the greatest fear in this 

 respect. A highly-educated man usually lives purely on the 

 financial results of mental work. In fact, instead of actual 



