36 



cm (if turpentine is recommended as au application for external parasites. 

 Imt should not be applied to the skin of horses, thongh when suitably mixed 

 it is sometimes prescrilied for bots in these animals. 



Coal tar is ii.seful as a barrier to mites and lice in the ponltry-honse. 



Dust and ashes are natural remedies used by fowls. 



Lime, in form of fme slaked dust, mixed with carliolic acid and scattered 

 throughout the buildings or applied as whitewash, is one of the best remedies 

 for chicken pests, as well as for the lice and mange insects of other animals 

 which infest stables and fences. It is also used as one of the ingredients in 

 sheep dips. 



Pi/retliruni pinnUr. known also as Persian insect powder. " Ruliach " ( tlie 

 California brand), and Dalmatian insect powder, is a most excellent para- 

 siticide, and the powder dusted in rooms troubled with fleas, lice, or bed-bugs, 

 on dogs, cats, chickens, etc., is very effective. It has been found to be the only 

 satisfactor.v remed.v for lice and ticks on slieep in winter, when the long wool 

 prohibits other treatment. 



Sulphur, as a fumigating material, or dusted on tlie skin, in ointments and 

 in dipping solutions, Ints a great range of usefulness. 



Tobacco is a very effective agent against parasites and in fumigation, in 

 dipping solutions, and in form of snuft', dusted among hairs or feathers, is 

 aijplicable to many external parasites. — ['. S. Bulletin, Xo. J. Dcpt. of Aijricul- 

 tarc. Die. of Entoinolo(/ij. 



LivEK Fluke in Sheep (Dictoma Itepaticum) . 



This is caused by an insect which attacks the livers of sheep, and is 

 described in the Journal of the Koyal Agricultural Society of England. \'ol. 

 07, as follows : — 



The mature fluke is flat and about an inch long. While in the liver, the 

 female deposits her eggs, which ai'e carried out and distributed over the 

 ]iastiire with the dung. If the fresh water snail (Liunoca truncatula) is avail- 

 able, the embryo enters it. 



It will be seen that the egg must get into water and there develop into 

 an embryo capable of boring into the body of a snail. This snail lives only in 

 fresh and not in salt water. In the body of the snail the embryo develops, in 

 three generations, many more, each of which passes out of the snail, and if 

 taken in liy the sheep with its food or water, becomes the sexually mature 

 hermaphrodite fluke. The parasite, having gained the liver of its host, defies 

 I'emoval by any known means. 



Prevention. 



As tliere are no known means of expelling tlie llukcs from the bile ducts, 

 the importance of preventive measures is paramount. Moisture is essential 

 to the development of the free-swimming embryo and of the snail (Limnaea 

 truncatiila) into which it bores. Without the snail, the embryo can advance 

 no farther. The surest and probably tlie easiest way to prevent liver rot is 

 to prevent the existence of this and all other fresh water snails. The .snail 

 will not live without water and that water must be fresh. All means should, 

 therefore, be taken to prevent water standing in ditches, pools, etc., while the 

 application of .salt to infested pastures (5 to 10 cwt. per acre), in the autumn. 



