8 



The Rot in Sheep. 



the earth, and, as such, 1879 will stand prominently forward 

 as one most destructive to the best interests of the agricultural 

 community. 



Names given to the Disease, 



Various names, more or less expressive of certain conditional 

 states of the system, are used in different localities to designate 

 this affection. The one which is more generally applied is that 

 which we have preferred to use in these pages, namely, " rot." 

 It is not difficult to see that this term has had its origin in the 

 diseased condition of the animal during life, and in the fact of 

 the body undergoing quick putrefaction after death. Rot, how- 

 ever, like the majority of the names employed both in this country 

 and on the Continent, fails to convey a sufficiently exact know- 

 ledge of the pathology of the malady. It is by no means easy to 

 find a term which will do this, and which at the same time is also 

 one suitable for adoption by the public in general. The German 

 term " egelseuche " is certainly far more expressive than many 

 others ; but even this does not admit of a better translation than 

 the fluke-disorder or infection. French veterinary surgeons 

 usually designate the disease " cachexie aqueuse" which in part 

 explains the dropsical condition of the organism of the animal 

 in an advanced stage of the malady. By the common people of 

 France it is often called " pourriture" rottenness; and other 

 terms nearly allied to this are also similarly employed. In 

 Australia it is spoken of as the " sheep pest " or " fluke." 



In the western part of England, and particularly in Somer- 

 setshire, the disease is known as " bane ;" the probable origin of 

 this name being the baneful or injurious effects which attend its 

 progress. In Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall it is called 

 " coathe " or " coade" terms which would seem to be directly con- 

 nected with the Anglo-Saxon term " co^e," " cothe" or " codhe" 

 signifying a sickly or fainting condition.* CocSe may, however, 

 have been originally employed not merely to explain that a weak 

 or debilitated state of the animal was present, but that it arose 

 from a special cause, the word, according to our best authorities, 

 denoting the existence of " THE DISEASE," viz. the rot of sheep. 



It may here be remarked that there are other maladies affecting 

 sheep which even now pass by the common term " rot," a fact 

 which partly explains why various opinions are entertained with 

 regard to the nature of the disease by different persons. Such 

 persons in reality often describe two or more distinct affections 

 by the use of the term, and hence they are not likely to agree 



* Bailey's ' Universal Etymological Dictionary/ 1773. The Bev. K. Forby, in 

 his ' Vocabulary of East Anglia,' 1830, gives " Cothe, v. to faint." 



Cothe, pronounced Cothee, is much used in Norfolk to express that a person 

 feels sickly, poorly, or faint. 



