4 



The Rot in Sheep. 



the surface of the earth for some time : and, as I have elsewhere 

 observed, the dead bodies of rotten sheep were so numerous in 

 roads, lanes, and fields, that their carrion stench and .smell 

 proved extremely offensive to the neighbouring parts and to 

 passant travellers. 5 ' 



Ellis also describes another visitation in 1747, depending on a 

 wet summer which succeeded a very mild winter. The rain, he 

 says, began to fall at the beginning of May, and continued with 

 but few intermissions throughout the month, as also that of June 

 and part of July. " From all which," he remarks, " I would 

 observe to my readers that a Midsummer rot ensued, and great 

 numbers of Vale-sheep became tainted by it, as did many also 

 in the Middlesex grounds." 



The year 1766 witnessed another and far more serious outbreak 

 than that of '47. It is thus spoken of by Mills in his Treatise 

 on Cattle, 1776; — "Too rainy a season is very prejudicial to 

 sheep, as was remarkably experienced all over England in the 

 summer of 1766, when whole flocks perished with the rot." 



The next visitation in the order of time, of which we have 

 been able to collect some particulars, is mentioned by Dr. E. 

 Harrison in his Inquiry into the Rot in Sheep and other Animals, 

 1804. He says that "in the year 1792 the country was uncom- 

 monly wet from the great quantities of rain which fell in the 

 summer months, and this was a most destructive year to sheep 

 and other animals : in the human subject, agues, remittants, and 

 bilious autumnal fevers were also prevalent in many places. 

 Graziers soon took alarm and became very solicitous about their 

 flocks. A breeder of rams informed me that to save his finest 

 sheep he put them into closes, which, during an occupation of 

 40 years, had never been known to rot ; but he had the misfor- 

 tune to lose them all. He was equally surprised to find that 

 other pastures which had frequently produced the rot were this 

 season free from it." Harrison adds that, " upon inquiry I 

 found that the suspected land was so much under water this 

 year that the sheep were obliged to wade for their food ; and 

 that pastures of a higher, and consequently of a dryer layer, were, 

 from the deluge of rain, brought into a moist or rotting state." 



We come next to 1809-10, which appears likewise to have 

 been a period of great fatality in some localities. 



Fairbairn, who writes under the nom de plume of a " Lammer- 

 muir Farmer," states, in his Treatise on the Cheviot and Black- 

 faced Sheep, that in 1810 his stock consisted of 2000 ewes, hogs, 

 and dinmonts [shearling wethers], out of which he lost by rot 

 during the winter and spring following above 800. He also 

 says that in 1816 and '17 the Lammermuir farmers suffered in 

 many respects from the severitv of the seasons. He describes 



