380 HEEEDITAET DISEASES CUTS. 



usually show themselves at birth, and sometimes the tendency 

 remains latent for many years, perhaps through one or two 

 generations, and afterwards breaks out with aU its former 

 severity." 



Mr. Dun's omission of sheep from the list of animals 

 above named, as subjects of hereditary disease, is merely 

 accidental, for in a paper on the "Hereditary Diseases of 

 Sheep and Pigs," published in the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, 1856, he mentions, as among the hered- 

 itary diseases of the former, epilepsy or fits, hydatids in the 

 brain (or turnsick or sturdy), chronic cough, chronic diseases 

 of the respiratory organs generally, diseases of the digestive 

 organs, which produce diarrhea and dysentery, rheumatism, 

 scrofula, tabes mesenterica (a variety of scrofulous disease,) 

 and consumption. Mr. Dun says : — " When a scrofulous 

 constitution presents itself prominently in an adult sheep, 

 it is generally in the form of pulmonary consumption, or, as 

 it is technically termed, phthisis pidmonalis" He sulDse- 

 quently adds : 



"But these are not the only evils which assail sheep of a 

 scrofulous constitution. They are occasionally affected by 

 chronic swellings about the neck and throat, at first hard, but 

 afterwards softening, bursting externally, and discharging an 

 unhealthy pus. These swellings are analogous to clyers in 

 cattle, and like them are most apt to occur in scrofulous 

 subjects living in localities exposed to east winds. Scrofulous 

 sheep are likewise subject to intractable swellings of the 

 joints, to foot-rot in its most tedious and aggravated form ; 

 and to ricketSj a disease of the bones, occurring in early 

 youth, from perverted nutrition, and consisting in a softening 

 of the osseous tissue. They are ftirther of such a weak and 

 depraved constitution as to fall easy and early victims to any 

 ordinary or prevailing diseases which, moreover, are in them 

 developed with unusual severity." 



Cuts. — When a sheep has received a simple, clean cut, 

 the edges of the wound should be brought accurately together 

 and the skin confined by stitches. A bandage, if the situation 

 of the wound admits of its use, will keep the separate parts 

 better in place, and prevent the stitches in the skin from 

 tearing out, as they are apt to do when the cut is across the 

 muscular fibers, so that their retraction has a tendency to pull 

 the wound open. A little turpentine applied to the wool near 

 * he parts, or to the bandage, wiU prevent the attack of the fly. 



