312 WOBMS PINING. 



in long, and should be followed by plenty of gruel, vegetable 

 tonics and good nursing." 



WoKMS. — Sheep, says Mr. Spooner, are subject in rare 

 instances, in England, to a disease arising ftom the presence 

 of worms in the intestines. Mr. Copeman, of Suffolk, found 

 fifty lambs laboring under violent diarrhea. On examining 

 some which died, he found large patches of inflammation on 

 the villous^ membrane of the fourth stomach. " The small 

 intestines contained thousands of the folded tape-worm (Toenia 

 plicata,) and about twenty-five of the large round worms, 

 [Ascaris lumhricoides) with a large quantity — several ounces 

 — of sand. The villous membrane was in a stage approaching 

 to mortification." He ordered a total change in the diet, and 

 the following medicine : Castor oil, 1 oz. ; powdered opium, 

 3 grs. ; stai-ch, 1 oz. ; boiling water sufficient to make a 

 draught. Thin starch was given night and morning. The 

 lambs improved. After administering this medicine, for four 

 or five days, a stimulant was administered to destroy the 

 parasites : linseed oil, 2 oz. ; oil of turpentine, 4 drachms. 

 " One dose only was given to some of them, others required 

 two, and a few had three or four in the course of the following 

 month, and then all were well." I never heard but of a 

 single alledged case, in the United States, of worms proving 

 injurious in the intestines of sheep. 



Pining. — Under this name Mr. Spooner describes a very 

 destructive malady in certain districts of Scotland, and 

 particularly on the Cheviot Mountains. Mr. James Hogg, 

 the " Ettrick Shepherd," lost upward of nine hundred sheep 

 by its ravages, within the space of nine years. I do not think 

 this peculiar disease, or anything analagous to it, has yet 

 appeared in the United States, but as the limits of sheep 

 breeding are rapidly extending to fi-esh regions, embracing 

 new varieties and combinations of climate, soil and verdure, 

 it may be erring on the safe side to include it in this catalogue 

 of maladies. Mr. Hogg says : — "The distemper is a strange 

 one ; it may effect a whole flock at once. The first symptoms 

 to a practiced eye are lassitude of motion, and a heaviness about 

 the pupil of the eye, indicating febrile action. On attempting 

 to bleed the animal, the blood is thick and dark colored, and 

 cannot be made to spring ; and when dead there is found but 

 little blood in the carcass, and even the ventricles of the heart 

 become as dry and pale as its skin. On the genuine pining 

 fai-ms, the disease is more fatal in diy than in wet seasons ; 



