260 How THE FARM PAYS. 



by this parasite, and measly pork is therefore exceedingly dangerous: 

 food. 



THE FLUKE OF SHEEP. 



The most disastrous disease among sheep is known as the liver rot. 

 Thousands of sheep perish every year from this disease in this 

 country, and millions have died in a year in England, where the 

 almost constant moisture tends to encourage the pest greatly. 



The pest is a species of worm (see engravings) which exists in the 

 sheep, embedded in the liver, or free in the gall bladder and gall 

 ducts. It is also found in other parts of the body, but it is most mis- 

 chievous in the liver, because there it interferes with the distribution 



LIVER FLUKES OF SHEEP. A SHEEP WITH LIVER EOT. 



of the bile, and so causes bilious disorder and fever, of which the ani- 

 mals die. The worm produces a large quantity of eggs, which are 

 carried with the bile into the bowels , and ejected from these in the 

 dung onto the grass, or into the manure heap, and from thence into 

 grass fields. From thence some of the eggs find their way into low 

 places, ponds or streams, and are taken into the sheep's stomach with 

 the grass to which they adhere, or to which the young, newly hatched 

 flukes cling, or are swallowed in the water drank from such places; or, 

 the young flukes find their way into the bodies of snails, and these 

 being swallowed with the water, the sheep thus become infested and 

 diseased. The effect of the disease is to cause the eyes to appear 

 yellow and dull, a watery swelling forms under the jaws, the fat and 

 skin become of a yellow color, as that of a person suffering from 

 jaundice. In time the sheep presents a wretched appearance, as is 

 shown in the engraving; the back is bowed upwards, and the back- 

 bone appears like a sharp edge; the wool hangs in tatters, and the 

 sheep, worn out with exhaustive diarrhoea, soon perishes. The mere 

 avoidance of low pastures for the sheep, and the use of well water for 

 drink, will entirely prevent the loss of sheep from this pest. 



