The Rot in Sheep. 



7 



disease to the Irish Government in February 1863, says, " never 

 in the memory of the present generation has there been in this 

 country such mortality among the ovine tribe as there is at 

 present, and has been for the last few months, from what is 

 generally designated rot. . . . To decide with any degree of 

 accuracy the extent of the fluke-malady existing at present and 

 that which existed during the past year would be an impossibility. 

 . . . It, however, is my opinion that upwards of 60 per cent, of 

 the sheep in the island are at present unsound, though not all to a 

 fatal extent. . . . In 1861 there were 3,556,050 sheep in Ireland. 

 In 1862, last year, at nearly the same period, when rot had 

 not thoroughly set in on its work of destruction, there was a 

 deficiency of 100,163 from that number. That deficiency was 

 incalculably increased during the remainder of this year by the 

 ravages of rot. There will be a still far greater amount of 

 deficiency this year (1863) — an amount which I believe will be 

 found greater than ever previously occurred in any year within 

 the memory of the present generation, and certainly within the 

 period of the Government collection of agricultural statistics." 



In 1878 the disease again prevailed rather extensively in 

 Ireland, and several cargoes of infected sheep were exported to 

 England and landed at Liverpool and other ports. This out- 

 break in Ireland was quickly followed by that which may be 

 described as the existing recurrence of the malady in England. 

 Early in the autumn of 1879 complaints of the wide-spread 

 existence of rot became general, and from the beginning of 

 October numerous letters reached us, chiefly from the midland, 

 southern, and western counties, describing outbreaks of the 

 disease. Many of the communications were accompanied with 

 the livers and other organs of diseased sheep, an examination 

 of which showed the existence of large numbers of young flukes 

 within the biliary ducts. In most instances the liver itself was 

 enlarged, soft, and pulpy, arising from venous congestion, which 

 in several cases was associated with the giving way of the 

 vessels, and the extravasation of dark-coloured blood into the 

 connective tissue of the gland. As an example of the serious 

 devastation arising from rot in the western counties, we quote 

 the following from a correspondent to the Echo, January 1880. 

 " The losses of sheep in the three counties of Somerset, Devon, 

 and Cornwall may be counted by thousands. Of cattle," he 

 says, " more than one-half of those which have grazed in the 

 great basin of the Somerset levels are more or less affected by it, 

 but not seriously enough to cause their death. Scores of flocks 

 of breeding ewes have been sold at prices varying from 5s. to 

 25s. a-head, and hundreds of farms in these counties are virtually 

 denuded of sheep." The year also proved in many other respects 

 a sad parallel to 1860 in its disastrous effects on the fruits of 



