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592. Symptoms. — The first symptoms to be noticed are that the 

 head is carried erect, with staring eyes, and there is a staggering jerky 

 gait, with muscular twitchings and trembhngs of the body. Next the 

 falling down and struggling of the animal will attract attention, and 

 this will be followed by convulsions, paralysis, and death. Many of 

 the animals die suddenly; others linger on for several days, and finally 

 recover, if removed at once from the disease-producing pasture and 

 carefully nursed. Now, if certain animals recover when removed from 

 an affected area, there appears to be some hope of preventing in some 

 degree an outbreak of the malady, and I would therefore recommend : — 

 1st. — That, at the back end of the year, the mowing niachine should 

 be run over the land, to cut down all the rough coarse grass, and this 

 should be allowed to lie on the ground to rot, and so act as a manure 

 for the succeeding year's grass. 2nd. — If practicable, apply from 10 

 to 12 cwt. rough crushed salt to the imperial acre, which will not only 

 kill the grass, but also the tick (providing it has its winter shelter 

 amongst the grass, and that it is the medium by which the disease is 

 spread). 3rd. — If this cannot be done, then lay large lumps of rock 

 salt all over the pastures, for the sheep to lick at their leisure. In the 

 West of Cumberland (Millom), a large park was for years notorious 

 for red water and dysentery in cattle, and sheep staggers (louping-ill) 

 in sheep; as many as 100 fatal cases of the last mentioned occurring in 

 one season. Yet by the application of 120 tons crushed rock salt to the 

 grazing portion of the park, these diseases were eradicated. The same 

 success has also attended the application of salt to disease infested areas 

 both in Surrey and Leicestershire, and the result of a 10 ton trial, on 

 a 20 acre field, at Leithen Hall, near Moffat, (which took place in i8g6,) 

 has clearly demonstrated that whatever be the cause, dressing land with 

 salt may now be regarded as a specific for louping-ill. 



593. Chorea, Shivering, Stringhalt, or Clicking, are modified 

 forms of a peculiar derangement of the nervous system, (characterized 

 by involuntary, spasmodic muscular jerkings, twitchings, and 

 tremblings,) that is analogous to St. Vitus' dance in the human subject. 

 The cause of the derangement is not really known ; some authorities 

 say it is due to lesions of the brain, and others, to an affection of the 



