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in certain places again in October, seeming to be greatly favoured by 

 cold, showery weather. For years, great loss has been sustained by its 

 ravages, and numerous investigations have been carried on for the 

 discovery of the cause, yet there is still a great difference of opinion 

 on this point. Farmers and shepherds, living on the disease-producing 

 or affected farms, say, that wherever the rough, coarse, white grasses, 

 (principally the dead and decaying foliage of the previous year's growth 

 of sweet-scented vernal (anthoxanthmi odoratum), known as " tath,") are 

 in abundance, the complaint is rife, and they have an idea that these 

 grasses have something to do with the malady. The late Principal 

 Wilhams, of the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh, from investiga- 

 tions carried on by him for some considerable time, was of opinion 

 that the malady is due to a 'specific microbe, and that the tick (ixodes) 

 plays a very important part, in acting as host for some of the trans- 

 formations of the germ. Dr. Klein, in 1893, investigated the matter 

 for His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, K.G., and reported that— 

 " The disease has a seasonal and local epidemic character,'" and that " the 

 malady strongly pointed as belonging to the class of infectious diseases, and was, 

 apparently, communicated from one animal to another;" yet, he says: — 

 ^' The causa causans of the disease is contained on, or in the soil;" also 

 " When the disease prevails, a fence between one sheep farm and the next, was 

 occasionally found to be the boundary between the infected and non-infected area." 

 Now, if the soil be the cause of the first case, why should it not be the 

 cause in all the succeeding cases that are susceptible to its influence, 

 seeing that as many as from seven to ten sheep will die in 24 hours ? 

 My view is, that louping-ill is allied to certain enzootic diseases, and, 

 like red water in cattle, is common to certain localities and soils, from 

 the same common cause. I think it is due to the indigestible and 

 innutritious nature of the decaying grasses, producing derangement of 

 the digestive organs, and deterioration of the blood, and this in turn 

 acts on the nerve centres, inducing a want of co-ordination of 

 movement; hence, trembling and imperfect action of the limbs. Or, 

 the complaint may be from some reflex nervous action, arising from 

 the irritating effects of the innutritious herbage on the stomach, 

 producing the symptoms pecuUar to the malady. 



