354 Veterinary Medicine. 



faulty fodder, such as an exclusive diet of roots, spoiled marc, or 

 ensilage, rank aqueous grasses, musty or sunburnt hay, or that 

 which has been injured by wet weather. 



Symptoms in Sheep. It was noticed by Bakewell and others 

 that when sheep were first infested, there would seem to be an 

 improvement in condition, lasting from one to two months, so 

 that shrewd flock-masters, who had sheep nearly ready for the 

 butcher would hasten the finishing off, by turning them into a 

 rotting pasture. The result is explained by the stimulating of 

 the liver function by the presence in the gall ducts of a limited 

 number of young flukes, by the encreased formation of glycogen 

 and sugar, by the more abundant metabolism of albuminoids, and 

 above all by the more liberal supply of bile and the consequent 

 improvement in digestion, absorption and assimilation. Not only 

 do the sheep encrease in bulk and weight but the mutton is said 

 to be specially tender and juicy. But this improvement may be 

 entirely obviated by the great numbers of flukes ingested and at 

 best it is very transient and fallacious. Even before the sheep 

 begins to lose weight, the apparently fatty deposits are found to 

 be of a very liquid and watery consistency, and when the balance 

 has once been turned, wasting goes on with a rapidity unequaled 

 in almost any other condition. Usually before three months after 

 the ingestion of the cercaria the sheep is already far on the road 

 to anaemia and dropsy. 



The early stage marked by improvement or even maintenance 

 of condition, may last from four to thirteen weeks, and may be 

 complicated with interdependent disorders, like the cerebral apo- 

 plexies noted by Gerlach. 



This is followed by a variable period of encreasing anaemia, 

 dropsy and emaciation which has secured for the affection the 

 term cachexia. This usually begins in autumn or early winter. 



The tendency to a dropsical effusion is early seen in the pallor 

 and puffy appearance of the skin and mucous membranes. Shep- 

 herds and flockmasters judge largely by the appearance of the 

 eye, which they examine by everting the upper lid over the tip 

 of the index finger. The mucosa on the lid, the protruding haw 

 and the sclerotic present a puffy infiltrated appearance, and in- 

 stead of the.bright, pink, branching lines of the blood vessels, 

 these appear of a pale, yellowish hue, or are altogether impercep- 



