226 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOu , H. 



as far as the knowledge of the uninstructed practitioner will safely admit 

 of- — and if, even in cases of constitutional disease, it should sinijily cause 

 him to do no hurt hi/ his interference, and prevent him from resorting tc 

 some miserably ignorant empiric* — the most important object, peihaps, 

 would be attained. It is infinitely safer in such diseases to rely on unaided 

 Nature to effect the cure, than to submit a sheep, or any other animal, to 

 the drugging and dosing of a person ignorant of the true nature of the 

 disease, and of the remedies which he employs. It is better to do too lit 

 tie than to do too mtich ; and in all cases where it is not known what to do, 

 it is better to do nothing. 



Lord Western, in a letter to Mr. BischofT, says :t 



" I have little to say on the medical treatment of sheep ; my study is prevention by suffi 

 cient wholesome food, with a coustant and abundant sapply of salt in every yard and every 



field When sheep are taken ill, there i^j littlo hope for them, and rarely any use in 



a<lministering medicines." 



If the latter portion of this remark is true among the educated, intelH 

 gent and experienced veterinarians of England, how much more must it 

 be so among those destitute of even the first rudiments of veterinary sci- 

 ence ! In relation to some of the more sejious constitutional maladies, af- 

 ter considerable experience and observation, I feel constrained to express 

 the opinion that the remark is, to a considerable extent, true. The sheep 

 is almost as unsatisfactory a patient to deal with, in some such cases, 

 as the hog, of which it is frequently said, with no great exaggei-ation, 

 " that if he is seriously sick he is sure to die, and the more you do 

 for him the sooner he will die ! " *' Then why give a therapeutic system 

 at all in a class of diseases where it will do so little good 1 " In the first 

 jvlace, the cases are perhaps few where judicious prescriptions will not 

 somewhat diminish the tendency to a fatal result ; but the great reason, 

 after all, is, that every man having a sick animal will dose and physic it, 

 or will permit some officious neighbor to do so, or will call in that most 

 dangerous of all ej)izodtics, the cattle-doctor. It is therefore better in the 

 most hopeless cases, to give a few simple directions, based on sound med- 

 ical principles, which will not, at all events, aggravate the disease, and 

 which will tend, to alleviate or suppress it, rather than to surrender the 

 helpless animal over to the additional tortures inflicted by ignorance and 

 quackery. Fortunate it is that well-managed sheep, in this country, are 

 so little subject to such diseases ! 



In classifying diseases, I shall depart from the system adopted by You- 

 dtt, Spooner, etc., who arrange them with reference to the parts of the sys- 

 tem they more especially attack, as, for example, " diseases of the brain," 



* The SPlf-mHtricwlated " cattle doctor " is a Hecidecily interestinc perFonnpe. His quslificHtiono are nu- 

 merous, and it is somewhat difficvilt to find them all brilliantly combined in the same person. He should 

 be the most ifrnorant man in the town, paiticiilarly in everything relating to the anatomy and physiolopy 

 of man or lie«?t. He should be equally iOTorant of the chemical and medicinal properties of nearly all the 

 dniffs used by him. His prescriptions, to pve them due potency, should consist of a creat number of in« 

 eredients — a l^irpe portion of them bearing very "hard namis." He should flank and fortify these, at leas! 

 &i all difficult cases, with substances possessing rare occult virtues, entirely unknown to "human phyai- 

 cians," such as the '• blood of black cats," the " entriiils of fowls," " human fKces." simples culled under f«. 

 euliar circumstances — 



"Root of hemlock, digged i' the dark, 



* * * slips of yew, 



Slivered in the moon's eclipse." 



tte should decidedly affect the mysterious, and should always repel the attempted intrusions of ordiniiry 

 humanity— the profane vulvar- -into the arcana of his high art. He should have half a dozen maladies, such 

 HS'-baked in the manvfolds," " overflow of the gall." " kidney disease." "rising of the lights," "strained 

 across the loin." etc.. to which he can promptly assign all the Ills which beasts are heir to. He should 

 never mistake a disease or a remedy. If the patient dle^ U should invariably be In consequence of • 

 •Jevlafion 'rom his directions 1 

 » BUchfU: VDl U. 



