HOOF -ROT. 371 



dirt, moisture, etc., without contagion, may perhaps be more 

 doubtful. Some intelligent farmers take the affirmative of 

 this question. In a letter I have just received from Mr. 

 W. P. Greer, of Painesville, Ohio, he says: — "When in 

 Lorain county (Ohio) in April last, I was told by many of 

 the sheep men there that hoof -rot appears wherever sheep 

 are kept in taU, rank feed — in the form of fouls at first. 

 They were all of the opinion that it does appear sponta- 

 neously, and cited numerous instances to prove their theory." 

 Different countries and climates may probably be subject 

 to the appearance of the disease under different circumstances. 

 It is the prevailing view among English veterinary writers 

 that hoof-rot frequently originates without contagion in Great 

 Britain, though this opinion is not without its able dissentients. 

 I have repeatedly known it to commence in that portion of 

 the United States where I reside, without the owner of the 

 sheep being able to trace it to any contagion. I have at 

 page 165 mentioned two cases where my own sheep contracted 

 it from flocks brought into contact with them accidentally, 

 and for but a short period ; and any one who reads the facts 

 in those cases will readily see that the removal of the diseased 

 sheep which communicated the malady, might readily have 

 taken place without my ever being informed of the circum- 

 stances ; and then I might have imagined that it was caused 

 by " tall feed." But I never yet have heard of a case of 

 fouls becoming hoof-rot, or of the latter disease occurring 

 " spontaneously " in any new region where hoof-rot had 

 never been previously introduced by diseased sheep, or where 

 it was not at the time prevailing in a greater or less degree 

 in some flock in the vicinity, or within a few miles. And we 

 all know that there are very many regions where it has 

 never been heard of among the sheep, though the grass is 

 as tall, and all the other supposed exciting causes, except 

 contagion, are fuUy equal. 



