The Rot in Sheep. 



95 



May and after, as you see cause, according to the drynesse or 

 wetnesse of the weather. If you be careful] to follow this prac- 

 tice," he says, " you shall keepe your sheepe from rot." 



Our chief object in quoting this passage is to show that, 

 as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, some 

 persons had great fear of a wet spring producing the disease. 

 The placing of the period of danger, however, as early as April, 

 we conceive to be an error ; but we agree, nevertheless, if not 

 with the manner, at least with the principle of giving to shoe]) 

 a saline and saccharine mixture during the continuance of wet 

 weather. The quantity of salt here ordered might possibly be 

 sufficient, as a destroyer of the penultimate forms of the fluke, 

 but the same commendation cannot be bestowed on the malt 

 liquor, either as a heat-giving element or as a vermifuge. 



Bradley recommends two drachms of powdered juniper-berries 

 to be mixed with a quarter of a pint of sea-salt, and added to a 

 bushel of oats, for feeding sheep in wet weather ; and he remarks 

 that where the juniper grows naturally " sheep never are subject 

 to rot." 



Few sheep would eat food containing even a small quantity 

 of juniper-berries, and if it were otherwise, we can see no 

 advantage resulting from their use. The observation of sheep 

 being free from rot where the juniper-tree is indigenous seems 

 to us to be putting effects for causes. The plant luxuriates in a 

 dry and sandy district, and in such a soil the true cause of rot 

 is not encountered. 



Ellis's remarks point to the protective influence of the turpen- 

 tines as existing in the Scotch and other fir-trees, and he re- 

 commends their cultivation both "in moist and barren gravelly 

 land." " Sheep," he says, " may be preserved in a great measure 

 from rot by having enough of the loppings of this tree to browse 

 on, for the quality of this evergreen turpentine-tree is hot, dry, and 

 balsamick, and is a purifier of the blood, and an utter enemy to 

 the breed of worms and other insects in the bodies of animals." 



After the statements we have made with reference to turpen- 

 tine when speaking of the treatment of rot, it is unnecessary to 

 comment on this recommendation. We take no objection in 

 the abstract to sheep being allowed to eat of the leaves of the 

 Scotch or other common varieties of fir, but unless far more 

 efficient means be adopted, rot will not be prevented thereby. 



With these selections from the older authors we shall be con- 

 tent. The prophylactic measures which possess the greatest 

 variety have been chosen as examples, .and as such we ma\ now 

 give our own view of the means which should be adopted. It 

 is to be remembered that security depends upon the placing of 

 sheep under circumstances which are calculated to prevent the 

 develojmicnt of flakes within their digestive 1 organs. In other 



