508 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



Figs. 56 and 58 represent this parasite of its usual size and appearance, and its resem- 

 blance to a minute sole, divested of its fins, is very striking. The head is of a pointed 

 form, round above and Hat beneath ; and the mouth opens laterally instead of vertically. 



Fig. 56. 



Pig. 57. 



Fig. 58. 



Fig. 59. 



THE FLUKE. 



There are no barbs or tentaculae, as described by some authors. The eyes are placed on the 

 most prominent part of the head, and are very singularly constructed (fig. 57). They have 

 the bony ring of the bird. . . . The anastomoses of the blood-vessels which ramify over 

 the head are plainly seen through a tolerable microscope. The circulating and digestive 

 organs are also evident, and are seated almost immediately below the head. The situation 

 of the heart is seen in fig. 56, and the two main vessels evidently springing from it, and 

 extending through almost the whole length of the fluke. Smaller blood-vessels, if so they 

 may be called, ramify from them on either side. The convolutions of the bowels appear in 

 fig. 59, and the vent, both for the fasces and the ova, and probably for the connection be- 

 tween the sexes, is on the under part, and almost close to the neck 



In the belly, if so it may be called, ai-e almost invariably a very great number of oval 

 particles, hundreds of which, taken together, are not equal in bulk to a grain of sand. They 

 are of a pale red color, and are supposed to be the spawn or eggs of the parasite 



There can be no doubt that the eggs are frequently received in the food. Having been 

 discharged with the dung, they remain on the grass or damp spot on wliich they may fall, 

 retaining theix- vital principle for an mdefinite period of time. . . . They find not always, or 

 they find not at all, a proper nidus in the places in which they are deposited ; but taken up 

 with the food, escaping the perils of rumination, and threading every vessel and duct until 

 they arrive at the biliary canal, they burst from their sliells, and grow, and probably multi- 

 ply 



Leeuwenhoek says that he has taken 870 flukes out of one liver, exclusive of those 

 that were cut to pieces or destroyed in opening the various ducts. In other cases, and 

 where the sheep have died of the rot, there were not found more than ten or twelve. . . . 



Then, is the fluke worm the cause or the effect of rot ? To a certain degree both. They 

 aggravate the disease ; they perpetuate a state of irritability and disorganization, which 



must necessarily undermine the strength of any auimal Notwithstanding all this, 



however, if the fluke follow the analogy of other entoza and parasites, it is the effect and 

 not the cause of rot 



The i-ot in sheep is evidently connected v^ath the soil or state of the pasture. It is con- 

 fined to wet seasons, or to the feeding on ground moist and marshy at all seasons. It has 

 reference to the evaporation of water, and to the presence and decomposition of moist vege- 

 table matter. It is rarely or almost never seen on dry or sandy soils and in dry seasons ; 

 it is rarely wanting on boggy or poachy ground, except when that ground is dried by the 

 heat of the summer's sun, or completely covered by the winter's rain. On the same farm 

 there are certain fields on which no sheep can be turned with impunity. There aie others 

 that seldom or never give the rot. The soil of the first is found to be of a pervious nature, 

 on which wet cannot long remain — the second takes a long time to dry, or is rarely or 

 never bo 



Some seasons are far more favorable to the development of the rot than others, and there 



is no manner of doubt as to the character of those seasons. After a rainy summer or a 



moist autumn, or during a wet winter, the rot destroys like a pestilence. A return and a 



coutinuance of dry weatlaer materially ai-rests its murderous progress. Most of the sheep 



(948) 



