BRAXY. 435 



SUGGESTED JIKASUUES FOR PREVENTION. 



Burning and cutting of long grasses, bracken, rushes, etc. 



Salt and sulphur given to the sheep. 



Inoculation. 



Kemoval of all diseased sheep to a separate inclosure, where hand- 

 picking and dipping are carefully attended to, the pasture is kept short, 

 and damp places are drained. The sheep to be confined to this in- 

 closure so long as the tick season lasts. 



Immediate slaughter and burial of all affected sheep. 



BRAXY. 



[The following is a very condensed account of a paper puljlislied by 

 C. 0. Jensen on the above disease. It first appeared in English in the 

 Vctrrinanun, Vol. LXIX., No. 825, p. 621, along with the original 

 illustrations.] 



The name Braxy is applied to a disease in some respects resem- 

 bling anthrax, which appears as an epizootic, and is best known in 

 Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and parts of Norway, though it also occurs in 

 Scotland and Cornwall. Krabbe describes the disease as infectious, very 

 acute in its course, and as proving fatal within a few hours of the 

 appearance of certain characteristic swellings about the posterior parts 

 of the body. Post-mortem reveals extensive dark purplish staining of 

 the abomasum and distension of the digestive canal with gas, while de- 

 composition of the cadaver occurs with excessive rapidity, the liver and 

 kidneys undergoing softening, the skin assuming a bluish tint, the wool 

 becoming loose, and the entire carcase giving off a most offensive stench. 

 Krabbe states that the disease was regarded as a form of anthrax — a 

 view, however, in which he does not coincide. Somewhat later Messrs. 

 J. Sigurosson, S, Jonsson, and Einarsson, all natives of Iceland, and 

 the Norwegian State Veterinary Surgeon, Ivar Nielsen, carefully de- 

 scribed the disease, throwing considerable light both on the conditions 

 in which it appears and on its etiology. 



According to them, braxy is an acute, or even exceedingly acute, 

 infectious disorder, which begins as a hsemorrhagic inflammation of the 

 mucous membrane of the abomasum, is accompanied by excessive de- 

 velopment of gas in the digestive canal, especially in the stomachs, and 

 proves fatal in some cases by a kind of general infection, in others by a 

 specific intoxication, or by dyspncea due to tympanites. 



Braxy commits its chief ravages during the winter months : ajjpearing 

 first in autumn, the cases increase as winter apjproaches, to diminish again 

 in spring ; in summer they are exceedingly rare. This fact explains why 



F F 2 



