THE DISEASES OP ^HEEP. 2*79 



writer promptly diagnosed the disease as 

 "gid" or "turn sickness" caused by the en- 

 cysted parasites called Taenia Coenurus; This 

 devil is the fruit of a tape worm that infests 

 dogs or wolves. The eggs pass from the dogs 

 or wolves and are taken in by the sheep on the 

 grass or in their drinking water. They hatch 

 within the sheep and the young worms pierce 

 the walls of the stomach, gaining the blood 

 where they travel until they reach the brain, 

 where they undergo a change, developing heads 

 and making large bladders in which to live. 

 It is necessary that the sheep should die after 

 these cysts have reached a certain stage of 

 development so that some dog, fox or wolf may 

 feed upon the affected heads and thus take into 

 their own systems the parasites which become 

 esta.blished there as regular tape worms. Thus 

 the round is continued, the tape worm within 

 the dog or wolf reinfects the grass, the sheep 

 becomes affected, dies, to infect more dogs (if 

 there are any). Now the way this hydatid 

 aff'ects sheep is by pressing upon the brain 

 substance and absorbing it until the nervous 

 syst^tn is quite deranged, the sheep is stupid, 

 it turns steadily round and round, always the 

 same way, neglects food and dies. 



'Thie disease is somewhat prevalent in Eng- 

 land and Scotlahd some years but is probably 

 i-are in America, at least in a rather long ex- 

 perience the writer is hot sure that he has ever 

 seen aH instance of it, and frotn his book lore 

 he advised his neighbor to dissect the next 

 ailing sheep and look for the brain bladder 



