Merino-Ryeland Breed of Sheep. 507 



(blue vitriol and verdigrease) mixed up with crab verjuice to the consistence of a 

 pulp. The disorder will generally disappear in from two to four dressings, espe- 

 cially if the sheep be kept on dry and hard ground, or boards, so as not to rub or 

 wash out the application to the feet. 



In the shab, scab, or itch of sheep, which is evidently infectious, still greater care 

 is necessary immediately to separate the unsound from the sound. The latter should 

 not even be suffered speedily to follow the former in the same field, or yard, or to 

 eat and drink out of the same racks or troughs. The infectious matter, like that 

 of the itch in man, is capable of being rubbed on, and adhering to, that which it 

 touches. It may even long stick to the wool or skin, without producing any ap- 

 parent disease. For this reason, the itch itself is seldom contracted by the better 

 classes of people, who frequently change their garments, and use constant ablu- 

 tion, while it is common among the lower orders, who are incapable of the former 

 measure, and careless of the latter. It could only have been from an expe- 

 rimental conviction of the truth of this principle in sheep, that the Romans 

 directed their Oves molles, or Merinos, to have the skin, after shearing, well im- 

 bued with a mixture of equal quantities of the lees of oil and wine, and a decoc- 

 tion of the lupine ; and, on the fourth day afterwards, to be thoroughly washed in 

 the sea, or, if that was not pracdcable, in salted rain water. Cato and Columella 

 relate that, by this process, the sheep were certainly guarded against the Scabies 

 for the whole ensuing year. * They must, however, have supposed them to be, at 

 the time, free from all actual eruption, and to be interdicted from all subsequent 

 communication with infected sheep. 



This advice of the Roman writers appears to me so sensible, that I shall twtvy 

 year, in future, follow it with regard to my whole flock, so far as to wash therh 

 well in clear running water, during the first warm and dry weather which occurs 

 after shearing. This process, at the same time that it must clear the skin and short 

 wool from infectious matter, and from sweat rendered acrid by long stagnation, 



* M. Caton. de re rustica cap. xcvii. Verum ea, quandocunque detonsa fuerit, ungl debet tali 

 medicamine : Succus excocti lupini, veterisque vini faex, et amurca pari mensura miscentur, eoque 

 liquamine tonsa ovis imbuitur; atque ubi per triduum delibuto tergore medicamina perbiberit, 

 quarto die, si est vicinia maris, ad littus deducta mersatur; si minus est, cxlcstis aqua sub dio 

 aalibus in hunc usum durata paullum decoquitur, eaque grex perluitur. Hoc modo curatum 

 pecus anno scabrum i^eri non posse Celsus afiirmat. Columella vii. 4. 



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