BOOK VII. IV. 8-v. 3 



absorbed this preparation, on the fourth day, if the sea 

 is near at hand, the sheep should be driven down to 

 the shore and plunged in ; but, if this is impossible, 

 rain-water, after being hardened for this purpose 

 with salt in the open air, is boiled for a short time and 

 the flock thoroughly washed with it. Celsus declares 

 that a sheep treated in this manner cannot possibly 

 suffer from scab for a whole year, and there is no 

 doubt that, as a result, its wool too will grow again 

 more soft and luxuriant than before. 



V. Since we have now considered the management The diseases 

 and care which sheep require when in good health, their cure,"'^ 

 we will now give directions how to come to the help 

 of those which are suffering from ailments or diseases, 

 although almost all this part of my treatise has 

 already been entirely exhausted when we were 

 discussing in the previous book " the medical treat- 

 ment of the larger cattle ; for since the physical 

 nature of the smaller and of the larger quadrupeds 

 is practically the same, only a few trifling differences 

 are to be found in their diseases and the remedies of 

 them ; but, however unimportant they are, we will 

 not omit them. 



If the whole flock is sick, we again prescribe in 2 

 this case also as the most efficacious remedy what we 

 directed before, because we regard it as the most 

 salutary, ntimely, to change both the fodder and the 

 watering-places and to seek another climate for the 

 grazing-ground as a whole, and to take care to choose 

 densely shaded country, if the malady which has 

 attacked the flock is the result of heat, but, if it is the 

 result of cold, to choose a sunny district. But it will 3 

 be advisable to drive the flock at a moderate pace and 

 not to hurry it for fear of aggravating its enfeebled 



263 



