STURDY, OR STAGGERS. 351 



show that such confidence can lead to nothing but a waste 

 of life and capital. Even though the remedy is a harmless 

 one, it ought (unless calculated from known powers to arrest 

 disease) to be received with distrust, as incurring a loss of 

 time, during which other and better measures might have 

 been resorted to." 



DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND SPINAL MARROW. 



T^e Diseases of the Brain are Sturdy, or Dizzy, caused 

 ly Hydatids or Blobs ; Hydrocephalus, or Water in the Head ; 

 Trembling, or Leaping-ill ; Apoplexy. 



STURDY, OR STAGGERS. 



This disease is not of frequent occurrence in the United 

 States, but very common in Great Britain. It is caused by 

 Hydatids or Blobs. " These are animals, generally pear- 

 shaped, found in various animals where they are parasitic, 

 and resembling a vesicle or bladder filled with water. It 

 was for a long time doubted whether they had an indepen- 

 dent existence ; but as they have evidently a voluntary mo- 

 tion, and as they have the property of acting on matter in 

 such a way as to convert it into a substance like that which 

 constitutes the agent, (which, according to Roget, demon- 

 strates a vital power) there is no reason to doubt it has a 

 distinct animal existence. Hydatids occur sometimes in 

 man, but more frequently in animals. In hogs, it causes the 

 measles ; in sheep, in the brain, they cause the staggers, and 

 in the liver, the rot."* 



In England, according to Mr. Youatt, this disease is 

 nearly always confined to sheep from six to twelve months 

 old ; after that period sheep seem to have acquired an im- 

 munity from the attack of the hydatid. 



The symptoms are as follows : — " The sheep cease to 

 gambol with their companions — they are dull — they scarcely 

 graze, they ruminate in the most languid and listless manner 

 — they separate themselves from the rest of the flock — they 

 walk in a peculiar staggering, vacillating way — they seem at 

 times to be unconscious where they are, or they seek some 

 ditch or brook, and there stand until they appear to be com* 



* Die. of Terms ; Cultivator. 



