506 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



thorax — nearly half pint of serum in latter. Other viscera apparently 

 normal. Lining of superior portion of oesophagus and nasal cavity as in 

 Case 8th. 



Case 10th. Three-year-old ewe. Drooping for several days : sleepy — 

 emaciated and weak: cannot Vise without help: appearances about nos- 

 trils and eyes as in Case 9tli : appetite considerable — rumination not ob- 

 served. March 17th. Exhibited ginger and gentian in gruel : blew 

 snuff in nostrils. Latter produced sneezing and a discharge of mucus. 

 18th : Morning. Weaker and would not eat. Noon. A little live- 

 lier : ate hay and grain ; exhibited ginger and gentian. Night. Evac- 

 uations thin: urine of a natural color. 19th. Morning: same. Noon. 

 Exhibited same remedies as before. The same course was pursued for 

 three days : the sheep appearing rather to gain, when one morning it was 

 found dead. No post-mortem examination made. 



Case 11th. Old ewe. Symptoms precisely as in Case 10th, except an 

 occasional grinding of the teeth. March 17th. Treated exactly as in Case 

 9th. Lived three days and appeared to rally a little, then brought forth a 

 lamb and died. Post-mortem examination. Abdominal parietes healthy 

 — gall-bladder filled with pale bile : liver normal in size but softened 

 throughout its entire extent, and pale : portions of it paler and more disor- 

 ganized than others : no parasites in its ducts. Thoracic viscei-a normal. 

 Sub-acute inflammation of the mucous lining of the nasal cavity, and of the 

 superior portion of the oesophagus. Slight ulcer in the ethmoidal cells. 



I made various other post-mortem examinations. Some of the viscera 

 in every case were in a more or less abnormal state ; but there was the 

 same variety in the locality of the diseased action as in the preceding 

 cases. But so far as the seat and character of the catarrhal affection was 

 concerned, it was uniform in every case. The only difference was in in- 

 tensity, as exhibited by the extent of the lesions. 



Not a single sheep recovered after the emaciation and debility had pro- 

 ceeded to any great extent ! One such only lingered along until shearing. 

 Its wool gradually di-opped off: it seemed to rally a little once or twice, 

 and then relapse ; and it perished one night in a rain-storm. In the gen- 

 erality of instances the time from the first observed symptoms until death, 

 varied from ten to fifteen days. A few died in a shorter time. 



In the three cases last detailed, the disease had evidently proceeded too 

 far to be arrested by any treatment. I much regret the loss of the I'ecords 

 of the other cases, which would throw farther light on the subject. I 

 thought that the treatment produced favorable effects in some instances — 

 particularly when resorted to at the commencement of the disease. At all 

 events, some of the sheep recovered under the treatment — particularly un- 

 der that including the exhibition of the bi-chloride of mercury — and very 

 few, if any, recovered without any treatment. Candor compels me to say, 

 however, that the results of the treatment were far from being highly sat- 

 isfactory — that the cases of recovery were much fewer than the deaths. I 

 have merely stated what I believe to be the facts in the premises ; I do not 

 feel prepared to make any recommendations. 



The epizootic gradually abated toward spring, and my flock have since 

 been in perfect health. 



Near spring, many farmers found what seemed to them an unusual num- 

 ber of grubs in the head (frontal sinuses) of the sheep which died of the 

 prevailing epizootic, and therefore they attributed the disease to this cause, 

 and this seems to be the prevailing popular opinion. In some of the latest 

 cases in ray flock, I discovered more or less grubs ; and, in two or three 

 instances, an unusual number. In other cases where the extenial symp- 



(S46) 



