The Rot in Sheep. 



85 



remedy, and should this not prove beneficial, they proceed to 

 slaughter the affected animals. 



We are informed by a gentleman long resident in Australia 

 that a similar plan is adopted in some parts of that country, 

 either to prevent rot, or to promote its cure in suspected cases. 

 The sheep are removed to districts in which the "salt-bush" 

 grows in abundance, and, if kept there, they do not contract the 

 disease ; or, if affected, are greatly benefited by feeding on " the 

 bush," which they do with avidity. 



To return to some of the systems of treatment which we have 

 quoted ; and first, a word with regard to Sir G. S. Mackenzie's 

 mercurial inunction. Apart from the arguments advanced 

 against it by Mr. Youatt, in the extract we have given, we 

 object to this method of employing mercury, as being per- 

 fectly useless. No amount of absorption of the agent from the 

 skin could possibly affect the vitality of the flukes ; and as the 

 cause of the malady would remain unchecked, so must its effects 

 necessarily continue. But even a greater objection could be 

 raised against it than this. Mercury is well known to produce a 

 particular effect on the blood, lessening the amount of its fibrine, 

 and rendering the fluid aplastic, and therefore effecting the very 

 thing which should be avoided. It is only by keeping the 

 blood rich in its proximate principles, as has been elsewhere 

 pointed out, that the animal is enabled the longer to resist the 

 progress of the malady. For similar reasons we dissent entirely 

 from Mr. Youatt's advice to use mercury in conjunction with 

 opium. This compound would be of great value if administered 

 after the withdrawal of blood and the exhibition of aperient 

 medicine in active inflammation of the liver, as it is found to be 

 in a similar condition of other organs of the body ; but it is posi- 

 tively injurious in rot. We are unable to reconcile Mr. Youatt's 

 treatment with a knowledge of the pathology of the disease, and 

 are only able to account for it by his having erred in considering 

 the affection originally to be of an inflammatory nature. 



With reference to Clater's prescription, Ave have explained that 

 it is but a type of many others of similar origin, and a good 

 proof of the want of scientific knowledge which generally pre- 

 vailed among those who wrote on the diseases of sheep and 

 cattle at the beginning of the present century. Whatever value 

 it may possess lies in the amount of salt it contains ; otherwise 

 it is not calculated to do any good. 



No treatment of rot can be considered as being more than 

 palliative ; still in carrying this principle into practice great 

 benefit may arise, as the owners of infected animals are often 

 thereby secured against losses which otherwise would be far 

 greater. The earlier the disease is detected the better, but 



