40 SHEEP. Class I. 



rious animal, is fond of any jingling noise, for 

 which reason the leader of the flock has in many 

 places a bell hung round its neck, which the 

 others will constantly follow. 

 Diseases. It is subject to many diseases : some arise 

 from insects which deposit their eggs in dif- 

 ferent parts of the animal ; others are caused 

 by their being kept in wet pastures ; for as the 

 sheep requires but little drink, it is naturally 

 fond of a dry soil. The dropsy, vertigo (the 

 pendro of the Welsh) the pthisick, jaundice, 

 and worms in the liver * annually make great 

 havoke among our flocks : for the first disease, 

 the shepherd finds a remedy by turning the in- 

 fected into fields of broom ; a plant which has 

 been also found to be very efficacious in the 

 same disorder among the human species. The 

 sheep is also infested by different sorts of in- 

 sects ; like the horse it has its peculiar Oestrus 

 or Gadfly, which deposits its eggs above the 

 nose in the frontal sinuses ; when those turn 

 into maggots they become excessively painful, 

 and cause those violent agitations in which we 

 so often see the animal. The French shepherds 

 make a common practice of easing the sheep, 

 by trepanning and taking out the maggot ; this 



* Fasciola hepatica, Lin. sy$t. 648. 



