342 Diseases of Sheep. 



weak structure not resisting a violent attack but sinking be- 

 neath it. Hence their maladies are what physicians call of 

 ^^a low type," and hence, also, bleeding, purgatives and de- 

 pressing medicines, as aconite and tartar emetic, are very 

 rarely indeed required in their medication. According to 

 eminent sheep breeders in this country, these characteristics 

 are yet more marked in our breeds. "The American sheep," 

 says Col. Eandall," which has been kept in the common 

 way, sinks from the outset or after a mere transient flash of 

 inflammatory action; and in any stage of its maladies active 

 depletion is likely to lead to fatal prostration." 



Parasites are very common both on and in the sheep. Its 

 thick wool and comparatively thin skin offer a most favor- 

 able lodging place and feeding ground for the class of 

 vermin which dwell on the surface of the body. While of 

 its internal organs, not only the stomach and bowels, but the 

 liver, brain and nostrils are the chosen habitat of various 

 lower forms of animal life. 



The American sheep has up to the present been wholly or 

 almost wholly exempt from a number of epidemic diseases and 

 local affections which have decimated the English and conti- 

 nental flocks over and over again. The sheep-pox, so far as we 

 are aware, has never appeared anywhere in the United States; 

 malignant braxy or charbon, while of occasional occurence, 

 has rarely developed into an epidemic, and then but locally ; 

 red water seems unknown ; hydatid in the brain, or turnsick, 

 although reported from ^N'ew York and other States, is a curi- 

 osity rather than a scourge ; and the true rot, caused by the 

 liver fluke, has never assumed the proportions of a destruc- 

 tive malady, although the parasite that causes it is known in 

 this country, especially on the Pacific coast. 



Indeed, the mortality of sheep is remarkably low in most 

 sections of the States which are occupied w^ith wool grow- 

 ing. It has been estimated as Ioav as two per cent, pel 



