Disemes of Sheep, 



303 



inflammatory affection of the eyeSj causing, as its name denotes, a 

 partial or total loss of sight. It sometimes appears an epidemic 

 disorder, as most of the flocks in the neighbourhood are attacked 

 with it about the same time. Nature generally effects a cure in a 

 few days. I have found it necessary, when the complaint is more 

 obstinate, to bleed from the vein formed in the angle of the eye, 

 and bathe the eye with the zinc lotion, as recommended for the 

 preceding complaints ; but nothing can be more injurious than 

 the application of any irritating substance to this tender organ, 

 such as glass, or even powdered sugar. Wherever inflammation 

 is found, all such applications have a direct tendency to increase 

 it ; for, although the eye itself is not possessed of much sensi- 

 bility, the lids are particularly susceptible of the least approach 

 of any particle of dirt or other substances, nature having endowed 

 them with this peculiar sensitiveness to make them rapidly shut, 

 for the better protection of the sight. 



Another disease, allied to the scab in its outward appearance, 

 but not springing from the same cause, nor yet contagious, has 

 been called Black-muzzle. It is an erysipelatic eruption on the 

 nose, sometimes extending up the face. In lambs it has been 

 attributed to a cutaneous affection of the udder or teats of the 

 dam, v/hether justly or not I have never had an opportunity of 

 observing; but, as it is always confined to the face and generally 

 spreads from the nose, it is probable that it proceeds from some 

 cause connected with the feeding ; it is not peculiar to lambs, 

 nor is it of common occurrence at any age. The mild mercurial 

 ointment given in the Appendix (No. 1) will cure this com- 

 plaint with very little trouble. 



A complaint known in the midland counties by the term black- 

 leg, which I never met with, has been described to me as an en- 

 largement of the legs occasioned by the deposit of a fluid, of the 

 consistency of jelly, immediately under the skin. It is probable 

 that this is a dropsical effusion of serous fluid, and merely symp- 

 tom-atic of general debility ; I cannot, however, pretend to give 

 any satisfactory explanation of either the cause or the nature of 

 this complaint. It would be best treated by mild purgatives 

 and tonics. 



Sheep are sometimes liable to a disorder in the mouth, occa- 

 sionally extending to the fauces, that has been called the Thrush. 

 It has been supposed by some persons to be intimately connected 

 with the foot-rot, the thrush often appearing at the same time 

 that the foot is affected. This is plausible, for the sheep being in 

 the habit of licking its foot when sore, may suck in some of the 

 acrid discharge, and thereby occasion those vesicles in the mouth 

 that constitute the complaint ; the symptoms of which are refusing 

 food and general lassitude, arising perhaps from inability to feed. 



