350 DISEASES OF TIIE SHEEP. 



But, should the several remedies proposed, in every case 

 prove inadequate to perform a cure, let the reader, before he 

 condemns, remember that diseases of the human family are 

 sometimes fatal from their extraordinary virulence, and at 

 other times from neglect of timely treatment. This remark 

 is applicable to sheep, as well as all other domestic animals. 

 Again : diseases are often fatal from want of the necessary 

 knowledge of their origin and locality, confounding those 

 peculiar to the brain and spinal marrow with those of the 

 air passages, or the sto?nach and intestines. Therefore, with 

 a view to avoid mistakes of this character, the various dis- 

 eases have been properly classified under appropriate heads, 

 as will hereafter be noticed. 



The following remarks of Mr. Blacklock, inculcating 

 " caution in prescribing," are very just : — " Great reliance is 

 in general placed upon prescriptions, which profess to suit 

 diseases in every stage and circumstance. Than this, how- 

 ever, scarcely anything can be more absurd. It is an opin- 

 ion engendered not so much by ignorance as by laziness, a 

 determination not to be put about by thinking of a remedy 

 for the evils which surround us, but, while we continue to 

 soothe ourselves by doing something, to leave everything to 

 the hit-or-miss practice of charlatans.* There are many 

 "who, on being informed of the presence of disease in a 

 neighbor's flock, confidently advise the employment of a 

 favorite nostrum, on the empirical supposition that because it 

 cured, or was thought to cure, one flock, it will cure another. 

 Nothing is taken into account, saving that, in both cases the 

 affected animals are sheep ; and it is at once concluded, 

 that what benefited one will benefit another. The many 

 niceties in prescribing are never thought of: oh, no, that 

 would be of no use ! Of course it can be of no importance 

 to give a moment's attention to age or sex, pasture and situ- 

 ation, or to leanness or fatness, or to the presence of preg- 

 nancy ! These are of trifling moment, and only to be de- 

 spised by a person armed with a recipe, which some one 

 has shown to be capable of walking like a constable through 

 the body, and bearing off the intruder ! But enough of this : 

 sufficient has, I think, been said to prove the utter folly of 

 confiding in things of the above nature or intention, and to 



* Whenever we hear a person recommending a medicine of universal 

 virtues, we may safely set him down either for a fool or an impostor. 

 Things which are good for everything are good for nothing. 



