ACUTE DROPSY, OR RED WATER. 359 



large quantities. It should be fed moderately at first, and 

 the quantity gradually increased. 



Fourth : Feeding unripe hay. This is not generally- 

 known as an inducing cause of scours ; but the compiler 

 knows it to be so from sad experience, and the fact has been 

 repeatedly confirmed by the experience of farmers living in 

 the vicinity of his residence. In this country, it is prob- 

 ably the most prominent cause of the disease. 



Fifth : Exposure to sudden transitions of weather ; shel- 

 ters are therefore needed as a preventive. 



Sixth : Eating of irritating weeds ; the flock in this case 

 cannot be removed too quickly to another field, and salted. 



Diarrhoea can be easily arrested, by mixing a small quan- 

 tity of pulverized alum in wheat bran, and fed for a day or 

 two. If this should not succeed, there is a tendency to 

 dysentery, and a purgative of castor oil (a table-spoonful) 

 should be administered, accompanied with dry food, and lit- 

 tle drink. The reader is also referred to Mr. Youatt's re- 

 cipe, already stated. A decoction of hemlock bark, after 

 boiling, is a powerful astringent, and has been used with 

 success. 



ACUTE DROPSY, OR RED WATER. 



Red water is a common disease in American flocks. 

 Sheep that are destroyed by it present no premonitory symp- 

 toms of any disease whatever ; the shepherd leaves his 

 flock at night after a minute examination, and on his return 

 in the morning, a sheep will be found dead, lying nearly in 

 the usual posture, the legs bent under them, and the head 

 protruded. Apparently there has not been any severe strug- 

 gle, and on examination the belly contains a greater or less 

 quantity of bloody fluid. Often a change of pasture, espe- 

 cially from a dry to a cold one, and especially if accompa- 

 nied with white frost, will induce the disease, which origi- 

 nates in excessive inflammation of the enveloping membrane 

 of the intestines. The animal becomes chilled by this sud- 

 den change of situation. The belly, coming most in contact 

 with the damp and cold ground, is first affected ; the peri- 

 toneal coat of the intestines becomes chilled — reaction, in- 

 flammation, soon follows — its natural function, the secretion 

 of a fluid to lubricate the cavity of the belly, is morbidly and 

 strangely increased — the fluid accumulates, and it is red and 

 bloody from the rupture of the small vessels of the periton- 



