DISEASES OF SHEEP. 273 



this malady, and a contrary course of feeding is the best remedy 

 when the disease has not gone on too long. 



231. The scab, shab, ray or rubbers, are sometimes erysipelatoua 

 eruptions, and sometimes they are psoric or mangy ones. In the 

 former instance they are universal and very red, occasioning a great 

 heat and itching, and are thence called the rubbers : in such cases, 

 nitre administered quickly relieves, with change of food. The 

 eruptive scab is seldom cured without an external application * 

 either of those directed for mange, lowered to half the strength, 

 will relieve it once. (See Vet. Pha. 171 and 1720 



232. Foot rot sheep have a secretory outlet between the claws 

 peculiar to them, which is liable to become obstructed : their feet 

 are also liable to become injured, and then diseased, from travel, 

 ling or continued standing on wet soils : but the real foot rot is an 

 endemial affection which sometimes attacks half of the flock. It 

 must be attended to by removing all diseased portions, and then 

 dressing with the thrush paste, or foot rot application, (Vet. Ph. 

 133,) and afterwards wrapping up from external exposure. 



233. Staggers, gid, turnsick, goggles, worm under the horn, stur 

 dy, wateiy head, and pendro, are all popular terms for hydatids, or 

 an animal now known as the taenis globulus, which by some unac- 

 countable means, finds its way to the brain and settles itself there, 

 either in some of its ventricles or more frequently on its substance. 

 Their size varies from the smallest speck to that of a pigeon egg, 

 and the sheep it attacks are usually under two years old. These 

 animals are likewise occasionally found in all the natural cavities 

 of the body. 



234. The appearances of cerebral hydatids are, stupidity, a dis- 

 position to sit on the rump, to turn to one side, and to incline the 

 head to the same while at rest. The eyes glare, and from oval, 

 the pupils become round. An accurate examination will now usu- 

 ally discover some softness at a particular part of the skull, gene- 

 rally on the contrary side to that which the animal hangs the head : 

 when no softness of the skull is discernable, the hydatid usually 

 exists in some of the ventricles, and the destruction of the sheep 

 is certain and quick, from the greater disturbance to the functions 

 of the brain ; but when it is situated on the surface, it sometimes 

 requires many months to destroy; an absorption of the bone takes 

 place and the hydatid increases, which produces the thinness in the 

 skull opposite to the affected part. 



