26 



The Rot in Sheep, 



was in hand, consequently too late to produce early spring food ; and if the 

 meadow was mown for hay last summer, the fatal result, wilt have arisen from 

 the sheep eating the autumnal lattermath or fog, and not from the land having 

 been more perfectly drained. 



"Much more matter of a similar purport might be stated in support of my 

 argument, but I trust I have already said sufficient to show that the querist 

 has come to a hasty conclusion in supposing, as he states his case, 'that land 

 when less well drained may be fed by sheep with impunity and rot them when 

 much better drained.' " 



In concluding this portion of our subject we would remark 

 that neither water — pure or impure — innutritious herbage, nor 

 noxious plants partaken of by an animal, nor exposure to rainy 

 weather, location on damp and ill-drained pasturage, nor on 

 water-meadows, in the abstract, can be regarded as the cause of 

 rot. Singly or combined, if long enough continued, these influ- 

 ences exert their baneful effects upon the vital force, and by 

 diminishing it render animals more susceptible to diseases in 

 general, especially those of an asthenic nature. They fail, 

 however, to produce rot, because, even if united with any other 

 causes of a similar kind, they are incapable of calling into 

 existence the entozoa which are found in the biliary ducts of 

 affected sheep. 



We are not insensible of the injurious results which spring 

 from the partaking of improper food, knowing full well that the 

 due nutrition and integrity of every organ will depend very much 

 upon this alone. We do not lose sight of the effects of a long- 

 continued elevation or even diminution of temperature, a humid 

 or dry atmosphere, on the quality as well as the quantity of the 

 food itself. Neither are we unmindful of the consequences of a 

 long exposure of the surface of the body of animals to the vicis- 

 situdes of weather ; nor of the impaired function of respiration 

 over the oxidation and decarbonization of the blood when the 

 air is both warm and humid. The blood, we know, will be 

 rich or poor, pure or impure, in proportion to the completeness 

 of the change it undergoes by the process of respiration, and to 

 the amount of albuminous and saline materials which enters it 

 in a given space of time from the assimilation of the food. And 

 further we are aware that it is by these means that it can alone 

 maintain — assisted by the secretory and excretory organs — that 

 purity of composition and proper specific gravity necessary for 

 its free circulation, and the yielding up of its nutritive and vital 

 properties to every tissue of the body. 



But we object that many persons both write and speak about 

 animals, and endeavour to explain the normal and abnormal 

 functions of their several organs — particularly those employed 

 in the digestion and assimilation of the food — entirely on 

 chemical principles, as if an animal were merely a chemical 



