RECEIPT BOOK. 147 



ving of the animal, either from want of food, or 

 from disease. 



To cure the water in the heads of sheep. 



Of all the various operations by which this dia- 

 temper may be eradicated, I must, from experi- 

 ence, give the preference to one which will, per- 

 haps, astonish such of your readers as form their 

 opinions more from theory than practice. A num- 

 ber of medical men have already controverted the 

 fact; and, with the utmost presumption, disputed 

 my veracity to my face, after I had witnessed its 

 efficacy in a thousand instances. It is no other 

 than that of putting a sharpened wire up the nos- 

 tril quite through the middle of the brain, and by 

 that means perforating the bag which contains the 

 fluid causing the disease. This is, of all other 

 methods, the most certain to succeed: but it has 

 this unpleasant appendage annexed to it, if it do 

 not cure, it is certain to kill. 



This method of cure is not only the most expe- 

 dient, but it is in every shepherd's power, and 

 one which he can scarcely perform amiss, if he 

 attend to the following plain directions. 



The operation must be performed with a stiff 

 steel wire, such as isused for knitting the coarsest 

 stockings. It must be kept clean, and free of rust 

 oiled, and sharpened at the point. Care must be 

 taken, however, that its point be only one-eighth 

 of an inch in length, for if it is tapered like a nee- 

 dle, it is apt to take a wrong direction ift going up 

 the nostrils, fix in the gristle below the brain, and 

 torment the animal to no purpose. If blunt in the 

 point, it often fails to penetrate the bladder, which 



