CHAPTER IX. 



H Study of Disease in 6eneral. 



Before defining the word disease it wovild be as well to un- 

 derstand what constitutes health. Prof. A. H. Baker of the 

 Chicago "^'eterinary College defines health as follows: "When 

 the lungs, heart and abdominal vestments, with their functions, 

 attendants, and adjuncts, causing respiration, circulation and 

 digestion, all presided over by the brain and nervous system, 

 working harmoniously together are each performing their func- 

 tion rythmically, one with the other, the condition is known as 

 health." 



Disease is the opposite to health, or a deviation from the 

 healthy condition, some organ or organs failing to perform its 

 proper functions. 



The general symptoms of disease in a sheep are the want of 

 sprightliness, acting in a dull manner, an inability or indifference 

 to remain with the flock, a rough, dirty, dry condition of the 

 fleece, assuming unnatural recumbent positions, a desire for its 

 own company, leaving the herd, and moping by itself. The dis- 

 eases of sheep are numerous, and frequently fatal, being influ- 

 enced by the nature and habits of the animal as well as by its 

 constitution. As stated previously, when considering the digestive 

 system, the organs of digestion are excessively developed in the 

 sheep to permit it to extract nutrition from coarse and seemingly 

 innutritions foods; to supply this complicated digestive machin- 

 ery an excessive nervous development is required, and hence it 

 ■will be found that the brain is small and the intellect poorly de- 

 veloped, the nervous energy being expended on the stomachs 

 and intestines. 



