OUR DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 9 



Only let him take advice in good time ; and if flukes be 

 suspected, the necessary indications for checking the 

 disorder are few and simple. If on low grounds, the 

 cattle must be removed to higher or drier pastures. 

 There must be a frequent change of fodder, and the sub- 

 stitution of good manger food for marsh-grown grass. 

 Beans, peas, and fine hay will be particularly suitable. 

 Every kind of palliative treatment should be adopted 

 that would be likely to restore the general health of the 

 animals, or prevent them from receiving fresh attacks. 

 Taken early, there is little need to administer drugs; 

 but the employment of salines will seldom fail to be 

 useful. Even as a means of helping diagnosis, I would 

 suggest the administration of a cathartic, because, if any 

 loose flukes occupy the intestines they are sure to be dis- 

 lodged, along with a greater or less number of their 

 already discharged eggs. 



From personal observation I can testify to the occa- 

 sional prevalence of flukes in the livers of bullocks des- 

 troyed for the markets ; and in the report on the parasitic 

 diseases of quadrupeds used for food, issued by the Privy 

 Council in 1865, it is stated by Dr. Thudichum that 

 during his visits to the slaughter-houses in Copenhagen- 

 fields he found " nearly every bullock's liver infected 

 with these parasites." We need not, however, be unduly 

 alarmed at this statement, for I have it on the best autho- 

 rity that the beasts there slaughtered are chiefly derived 

 from foreign sources. 



