148 THE FARMER'S 



is of considerable toughness, shoving it only a lit- 

 tle to one side ; the safest way, of course, is to 

 have the poir^ of the wire sharp and short. 



The shepherd must first feel with his thumbs for 

 the soft part in the skull, which invariably masks 

 the seal of his disease. If that is near the middle 

 of the head above, where, in two cases out of 

 three at least, it is sure to be, let him then fix the 

 animal betwixt his knees, hold the head with one 

 hand, laying his thumb upon the soft or diseased 

 part, and with the other hand insert the wire by the 

 nostril, most on a parallel with the seat of the dis- 

 temper, aiming directly at the point where his 

 thumb is placed. The operation is performed in 

 one second, for if he ^els the point of the wire 

 come in contact with his thumb let him instantly 

 set the animal to its feet; and if the weather is at 

 all cold, let it stand in the house over night. 



If the disease is seated exactly in thai, part 

 where the divisions of the skull meet, and conse- 

 quently in a right line with the top of the nose, he 

 must probe both nostrils; when, should he miss the 

 bulb on the one side, he will be sure to hit it on 

 the other. If the seat of the disease cannot at all 

 be found, and if the animal have all the symptoms 

 of the malady, the water is then inclosed among 

 the ventricles in the middle of the brain, and must 

 be treated as above. Nothing can be done in the 

 last case, save with the wire; but it is hard to cure 

 them when so affected . I have found, on dissec- 

 tion, the fluid contained in many little cells in the 

 centre of the brain; and though the wire had pen- 

 etrated some of those cells, it had missed others. 



By this simple operation alone, I have cured 

 hundreds; and though I never kept an exact regis- 



