The Rot ill Sheep. 
67 
(load bodies of rotten sheep were so numerous in roads, lanes, 
antl fields, that their carrion stench and smell proved extremely 
offensive to the neighbouring parts and to passant travellers." 
Kllis also describes another visitation in 1747, dependiiig on 
a wet sj)rlHg which succeeded a very mild winter. The rain, he 
says, began to fall at the beginning of May, and contiruied with 
but few intermissions throughout the month, as also that ol June 
and part of July. " From all which," he remarks, " 1 would 
observe to my reader 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 17()6 witnessed another and far more serious outbreak 
tlian 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 JEuf/land in the 
summer of 176G, 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 uncommonly- 
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 Hocks. 
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 misfortune 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." H arrison adds, that, " upon inquiry I found that the sus- 
pected 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 Clieviot 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 severity of the seasons. He describes 1816 as 
being very wet and cold, but comparatively free from rot in 
consequence of the low temperature which prevailed. He says, 
F 2 
