THE SCAB. 223 



SECTION XII. 



THE SC AB . 



This is a most troublesome and infectious disease, and generally 

 to be attributed to bad management. Sheep that have been too much 

 exposed to the inclemency of the weather, or that have been half- 

 starved, and thus debilitated, are most subject to it. The forest sheep 

 are particularly liable to the scab. It is first discovered by the animal 

 eagerly rubbing himself against every post, or gate, or bank, or, if the 

 itching is very great, tearing off his fleece by mouthfuls. He looks 

 thin and ragged ; and if he is caught, there will appear on various 

 parts, and particularly along the back, either little red pustules, or a 

 harsh dry scurf. The pustules speedily break, and the scurf succeeds. 

 The roots of the wool are matted together by it, and portions of the 

 fleece come off with almost the slightest touch. 



No one ever doubted the infectiousness of this disease, or suffered 

 a scabbed sheep to enter his flock without dearly rueing it. Every 

 post, or stone, or tree, against which it has rubbed itself, seems to be 

 empoisoned. Every sheep that comes in contact with it is infected. 



The itching of the eruption preys upon the sheep almost as rapidly 

 as the foot-rot. A scabbed sheep is a poor hungry-looking, half- 

 starved creature; his fleece is spoiled, and he is useless for the 

 butcher. 



Sheep proprietors used to be fond of various lotions for the cure of 

 scab. Some applied a strong solution of tobacco, others a solution 

 of sal ammoniac, and others one of corrosive sublimate. If these are 

 ever used, they should not be made too strong, for many an animal 

 has been destroyed by them all. Not more than a quarter of a pound 

 of tobacco should be boiled or infused in a gallon of water, nor more 

 than an ounce of corrosive sublimate, and which should be previously 

 dissolved either in muriatic acid or spirit of wine. The sal ammoniac 

 rarely did much harm, but on the other hand it more rarely did good, 

 and when used with the corrosive sublimate seemed to impair its 

 powers. There are those who have preferred a solution of arsenic to 

 either of the others. It is as efficacious as any of them, but it is by 

 far the most dangerous. 



A great tub or vat used to be procured, and half filled with either 

 of these solutions, and the sheep put into it one by one, and well 

 rubbed and washed until the fluid had evidently penetrated the fleece, 

 and come into contact with every part of the skin ; but even where 

 these lotions succeeded, they gave a peculiar coarseness and harshness 

 to the wool, which very much decreased its value. The scurfiness 

 likewise did not soon come off; or when it did, patches of the fleece 

 separated with it, and left the skin beneath it red, and chapped, and 

 ulcerated. 



