1066 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



broom, buniet, elder, and melilot, as diuretics, have also been recommended ; but it is necessary to ob- 

 serve, that there is seldom any ventral effusion but in the latter stages of the complaint. As long as the 

 liver is not wholly disorganised, the cure may be hoped by a simple removal of the cause, which has been 

 shown to be a variable temperature, with excessive moisture of pasturage, which may also be aided by 

 such remedies as assist the action of the biliary system ; salt acts in this way, and thus salt mashes are 

 good ; salt may also be given in the water. Salt appears the principal ingredient in Flesh's patent resto- 

 rative for sheep; for it states it to be composed of turpentine, sal ammoniac, turmeric, quicksilver, brim- 

 stone, salt, opium, alkanet root, bark, antimony, camphor, and distilled water ; but of tliis medley none 

 of the articles can be in sufficient quantity to prove useful but the salt. In the more advanced stages of 

 the disease, when the liver has become materially affected, it is prudent to rub the belly of each sheep 

 with half a drachm of mercurial ointment every other day for a week : give also the following, every 

 morning : Watery tincture of aloes, half an ounce ; decoction of willow bark, four ounces ; nitric acid, 

 twenty-tive drops. 



7264. The pelt rot, hunger rot, or naked disease, is a variety of the former, but with this difference, that 

 whereas the liver in the hydropic rot is principally affected ; in this the whole of the chylopoietic viscera 

 are injured ; the mesenteric glands are always swollen and obstructed, and from thence arises the ema- 

 ciation and' unhealthy state of all the secretions, by which the wool becomes incapable of receiving nutri- 

 ment, and fals off, leaving the body bare, and in the last stages the teeth and horns also loosen. In- 

 different, unhealthy keep is a very common cause of this malady, and a contrary course of feeding is the 

 best remedy when the disease has not gone on too long. 



7265. The scab, shab, ray, or rubbers, are sometimes erysipelatous eruptions, and sometimes they are 

 psoric or mangy ones. In the former instance they are universal and very red, occasioning a great heat 

 and itching, and are thence called the rubbers : in such cases, nitre administered quickly relieves, with 

 change of food. The eruptive scab is seldom cured without an external application ; either of those di- 

 rected for mange, lowered to half the strength, will relieve it at once. (See I'ct. Pharm.) 



7266. Foot rot. Sheep have a secretory outlet between the claws peculiar to them, which is liable to 

 become obstructed; for which soaking in warm water and afterwards wrapping up the foot, having first 

 dressed it with tar, is sufficient. The feet of sheep are also sometimes injured by long travelling, when the 

 same treatment is proper. The most serious foot rot is that which is, in some instances, simply produced 

 by a lonj^-continued series of humid weather, which predisposes the feet to this injury. In others it ap- 

 pears to be both epidemic and endemial, and has been thought contagious. When the season has been un- 

 favourable, house and soil under cover. The medical treatment consists in removing all diseased portions, 

 and then dressing with the thrush paste, or foot-rot application {Vet. Fharm. 6554 ), and afterwards wrap- 

 ping up from external exposure. Professor Stonig extols the following application : Take two parts of 

 tar, and one of oil of turpentine ; which having mixed, one part of muriatic acid, known as spirit of salt, 

 is to be added slowly, to which afterwards add four parts of blue vitriol, with which dress the affected 

 feet. {Journ, dc Med. VeL et Conip.) 



1261. Staggers, gid, turnsick, goggles, worm under the horn, sturdy, watery head, and pendro, are all 

 popular terms for hydatids, or an animal now known as the Ta;"*nias gl6bulus, which, by some unaccountable 

 means, finds its way to the brain, and settles itself there, either in some of its ventricles, or more fre- 

 quently on its substance. Their size varies from the smallest speck to that of a pigeon's eg^, and the 

 sheep it attacks are usually under two years old. These animals are likewise occasionally found in all the 

 natural cavities of the body. 



7268. The appearances of cerebral hydatids are, stupidity, a disposition to sit on the rump, to turn to one 

 side, and to incline the head to the same while at rest. The eyes glare, and from oval the pupils become 

 round. An accurate examination will now usually discover some softness at a particular part of the skuU^ 

 generally on the contrary side to that on which the animal hangs the head : when no softness of the skull 

 is discernible, the hydatid usually exists in some of the ventricles, and the destruction of the sheep is certain 

 and quick, from the greater disturbance to the functions of the brain ; but when it is situated on the sur- 

 face, it sometimes requires many months to destroy ; an absorption of the bone taking place as the hydatid 

 increases, which produces the thinness in the skull opposite to the affected part. 



7269. This disease is not incurable, as has been supposed, but it is only relieved by a manual operation. 

 In France it has been successfully treated by the application of the actual cautery : a pointed iron, heated 

 red-hot, is forced through the skin and skull, to the surface of the brain; the principal nicety of which 

 is in penetrating the hydatid with the hot iron without wounding the brain itself. In England, some shep. 

 herds are very dexterous in unring, which they do by thrusting a wire up the nostrils till it rests against 

 the skull. In the passage of the wire the hydatid is usually ruptured ; others elevate the skull (by means 

 of a trephine, or even a knife) opposite to the softened portion, and extract the hydatid, if possible, whole; 

 which a little care will effect, by drawing it away with a blunt pincer, gently moving it from side to side. 

 Tapping is merely letting out the fluid contents of the hydatid by an awl, which is practised by some shep- 

 herds with success; and if the instrument be not thrust to far, the sheep is not injured : to avoid which, 

 it is passed obliquely. A well hardened gimlet is a very proper instrument, with which the skull is easily 

 penetrated, and an opening by the twisting of the instrument is made, sufficiently large in the hydatid 

 itself, to discharge its contents, which is all that is sufficient to ensure its destruction, and which, if no 

 other exists, is followed by immediate recovery. A French author states, that when he fed his sheep on 

 cioquefoil he had less staggers than at any other time. 



7270. Frontal ivorms. Sheep are observed to gather together, with their noses thrust inwards to avoid 

 the attack of the ffi'strus uvis, or tly, that lays its eggs on the inner margin of the nose, which having be- 

 come hatched, the larva creep up into the frontal and maxillary sinuses, to the torment of the sheep, and 

 sometimes to their speedy destruction. The Continental shepherds trepan an opening into these cavities, 

 and effect their removal; but our shepherds have not succeeded in the operation. 



7271. Fluke worms are a parasitic animal, found in the biliary sinuses, not only of the sheep, but of the 

 horse, ass, goat, deer, &c., and whose existence is rather a consequence than a cause of morbidity. 



7272. Fining, the Vinquish in Galloway (languishing), is a disease described by Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick 

 shepherd, in a recent number of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, xi. p. 697. He says, " It is most 

 fatal in a season of drought ; and June and September are the most deadly months. If ever a farmer per- 

 ceives a flock on such a farm having a flushed appearance of more than ordinarily rapid thriving, he is 

 gone. By that day eight days, when he goes out to look at them again, he will find them lying, hanging 

 their ears, running at the eyes, and looking at him like so many condemned criminals. As the disease 

 proceeds the hair on the animal's face becomes dry, the wool assumes a bluish cast ; and if the shepherd 

 have not the means of changing the pasture, all those affected will fall in the course of a month." {Quar. 

 Jour. Ag. Highl. Soc. vol. ii. No. XI.) ^. ^ . ,. , 



7273. The diseases of laitibs are principally indigestion, producing sometimes colic, which is relieved as 

 in sheep, and sometimes diarrha'a, to be likewise cured by the means detailed for them. Sheep are also 

 liable to an eruptive disease which begins on the rump, gradually extending along the chine, and when 

 it becomes more universal, it usually destroys. The cure consists in giving daily drinks of half a drachm 

 of cream of tartar, and one drachm of sulphur, in four ounces of chamomile decoction. Anoint also with 

 mild mercurial ointment and Turner's cerate in equal quantities. Lambs droppetl in cold weather, or in 

 wet situations, become paralytic : bathe in warm water, hand-rub and house, giving milk and bean meal. 



