352 ■ DISEASES OF THE SHEEF. 



pletely giddy, and suddenly tumble in. In the midst of their 

 grazing they stop all at once, look wildly around as if they 

 were frightened by some imaginary object, and start away 

 and gallop at full speed over the field. They lose flesh ; 

 the countenance becomes haggard ; the eye wanders and as- 

 sumes a singular blue color. This last circumstance, al- 

 though not observetl so carefully as it ought to be, is per- 

 fectly characteristic of the disease ; and a good shepherd 

 would select every sturdied sheep from the flock, guided 

 simply by the color of the eyes. 



By and bye the'sturdied sheep commences a rotatory mo- 

 tion, even while grazing, and always in one way, and with 

 the head on the same side, "When this occurs, he almost 

 ceases to eat or to ruminate (chew the cud), partly because 

 the disease, from its debilitating character, destroys the ap- 

 petite altogether ; and also because he cannot restrain those 

 circular motions, during which it is almost impossible to 

 graze ; but principally because he is rapidly becoming blind. 

 He begins to be unconscious of surrounding objects. The 

 habit of turning round increases ; he continues to form these 

 concentric circles for an hour at a time, or until he falls ; 

 and then scrambles up again, and commences the same 

 strange motion. At length he dies emaciated and ex- 

 hausted." 



The remedy sometimes for hydatids, as soon as discovered, 

 is by removal from all wet, low land, to dry pasturage. The 

 disease, however, is rarely cured. In some desperate cases 

 it has been effected by trepanning, and the extrication of the 

 hydatids. 



James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, says — " The sturdy 

 more commonly attacks sheep if exposed to a windy and 

 sleety winter. It*is always most destructive on farms that 

 are ill-sheltered, and on which the sheep are most exposed 

 ♦o blasts and showers." 



HYDROCEPHALUS, OR WATER IN THE HEAD. 



This disease, it appears, is more general with young 

 lambs, than with the adult sheep. " It is not confined within 

 a cyst — it is not a portion or part of a living animal, as in 

 the disease just treated of — but it accumulates between the 

 two inverting membranes of the brain, — ^the pia mater and 

 the arachnoid coat ; or it is found within the latter ; or, and 



