The Rut in Sheep. 



farms where it prevailed to a great extent, by having the calves 

 kept off the pastures entirely throughout the first autumn, and 

 only turning them out in the following spring. In September 

 of 1867 I had eighteen cases under treatment, one of which 

 only died, the others slowly recovering. In this instance the 

 animals had only been turned out for a fortnight in September 

 1866." 



Mr. F. Blakeway, M.R.C.V.S., Stourbridge, has also met with 

 similar cases. In a communication to the pages of the Veteri- 

 narian, in April, 1879, on the subject of the death of some oxen 

 from, rot, he says that " the cattle were the property of Messrs. 

 Webb and Sons, seed merchants, and were pastured on the 

 Dunsley Farm, near Stourbridge, the meadows of which are 

 bordering on the River Stour. The situation is very low, and 

 the meadows are very damp, and have been noted for a long 

 time past as injurious to stock." The animals lost condition, 

 especially during the winter of 1875—6, which was attributed by 

 the owners to their being kept out night and day, and con- 

 sequently a change of management and feeding was made, but 

 without any material benefit. In February 1876, Mr. Blakeway 

 was called to a calving cow, which he found in a very weak and 

 prostrate state. She died soon after parturition, and her death 

 was quickly followed by that of two others. " On making a 

 post-mortem examination of these animals, I found that they 

 were affected with true rot. There were thousands of flukes in 

 their livers, associated icith thickening of the ivalls of the biliary 

 ducts. The flesh was in a very watery and blanched con- 

 dition. The viscera were also pale in colour, but there was 

 not much serous fluid in the abdomen." 



According to Kiichenmeister, the liver-fluke has likewise been 

 found in man by several persons, among whom he names Mal- 

 pighi, Chabert, Biddloo, Pallas, Brera, Mehlis, and some others. 

 In our own country similar cases of its existence are described. 

 Dr. Cobbold, in his ' Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and 

 Animals,' previously quoted from, says " that about twenty 

 instances of the occurrence of the Distoma hepaticum in the 

 human body have been recorded, and at least three instances of 

 the occurrence of the Distoma lanccolatum. Besides these cases, 

 Mr. Busk took fourteen specimens of the variety called the 

 Distoma crassum from the liver of a Lascar, one of which is 

 preserved in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons." 

 Dr. Cobbold, we may add, has also obtained several specimens 

 of the same fluke from persons who had long resided in China. 



To pass from these somewhat exceptional cases of the presence 

 of flukes, we repeat that the two causes which render the sheep 

 so remarkably susceptible to the entozoon, are its natural habit 



