30 



The Rot in Sheep. 



natural. The animals have been little more than skeletons, and 

 their abdomens have contained a good deal of serous fluid. The 

 cause of death was obvious in these cases ; but in all this we 

 have only another proof that bad food will give rise to grave 

 affections of the liver, by first impairing the quality of the 

 blood. 



The influence of food — natural grasses in particular — when 

 surcharged with moisture, in producing a deranged condition of 

 the liver of sheep, was made the subject of special investigation 

 during: the wet summer of 1860. We found that the first ill 

 effects were a blanching of the lobules of the gland, — the structures 

 which are mainly composed of the secretory vessels, bile-cells, 

 and organs of the biliary ducts. Recently affected livers, apart 

 from any other pathological condition, snowed white spots and 

 streaks here and there, which were often not more than five or 

 six in number, and of a size not exceeding an inch and a half in 

 length. In more advanced cases, dirty white deposits and 

 blanched lobules co-existed in masses, more or less diffused, 

 imparting to the unassisted vision an appearance analogous to 

 tuberculous matter, while a continuance of the cause led to the 

 production of even further structural changes. 



No embryos of the fluke, however, could be detected even by 

 a microscopical examination of the contents of the bile ducts. 

 Had means not been adopted to prevent the further inroads of 

 disease, doubtless these animals would have ultimately sunk 

 from dropsy and other complications ; but food the very opposite 

 of that, on which they had been living, combined with a daily 

 allowance of salt, sufficed to quickly put a stop to the disorder. 



To the opinion held by most authorities that rot in its ad- 

 vanced stages is accompanied with general dropsy, we willingly 

 assent ; but that the anasarcous condition of the body in this 

 disease depends, ab initio, and simply on watery or innutritious 

 diet, and allied causes, we cannot admit. 



Dropsy will doubtless arise from causes which affect the 

 quality of the blood or the functions of the liver, and not only 

 in sheep, but in all animals, man himself not excepted. Dropsy, 

 however, will not produce flukes in the liver, although the exist- 

 ence of flukes therein will produce dropsy. Until we cease to 

 use such terms as " water rot," and begin to speak of rot as an 

 entozoic disease only, we shall continue to impede the progress 

 of veterinary pathology, by encumbering it with an unmeaning 

 nosology. 



Rot, we repeat, is an entozoic affection, due to the presence 

 of flukes in the biliary ducts of the liver, which early lay the 

 foundation for structural changes of a special description in this 

 organ, and ultimately cause the death of the animal from 



