70 
Tlie Rvt in Sliecp. 
and in tlio fact of the body undorjjoing quick putrefaction after 
death. Rot, however, like the majority of the names emph^yed 
both in this country and on the Continent, fails to convey a suffi- 
ciently exact knowledfje of the patholoj^y of the malady. It is 
by no means easy to find a term which will do this, and which 
at the same time is also a suitable one for adoption by the 
public in general. The German term " egelseuche " is certainly 
far more expressive than many others ; but even this does not 
admit of a better translation than the fluke disorder or infec- 
tion. French veterinary surgeons usually designate the disease 
carhexie aqueiise," which points to the dropsical condition of the 
organism of the animal in an advanced stage of the malady, 
referable to a bad habit of body. By the common people of 
France it is often called "powrrzVM/Y," rottenness ; and other terms 
nearly allied to this are also similarly employed. 
In the western part of England, and particularly in Somersetshire, 
the disease is known as " hane ;" the probable origin of the name 
being the baneful or injurious effects which attend its progress. 
In Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall it is called " coathe " or 
" coadc,''^ which would seem to be derived directly from the Anglo- 
Saxon term " co^e," " cothe" or " codhe" signifying a sickly or 
fainting condition ;* and may have been originally employed to 
show that a weak or debilitated state of the animal exists, which 
renders it incapable of exertion without tiring or fainting. 
It may here be remarked that there are several diseases 
affecting sheep which pass by the common term "rot," a fact 
that explains why various opinions are entertained with regard 
to the disease by different observers. These persons in reality 
often describe two or more distinct affections, and hence they 
are not likely to agree as to their nature or cause. We occa- 
sionally hear such terms as " water-rot " and " fluke-rot," which 
would induce a belief that in one variety of the disease a dropsical 
condition of the body existed, and tlmt in the other certain 
entozoa, commonly designated flukes, are located in a particular 
part of the organism. We desire, however, to confine the term 
" rot," if it is still to be used, to that affection in which flukes are 
present in the biliary ducts of the liver, setting aside entirely every 
other form of disease that has been designated by this name. 
Assigned Causes. 
There are few affections respecting which so great a diversity 
of opinion exists with regard to its cause, as rot. All kinds of 
* Bailey's ' Universal Etymological Dictionary,' 1773. The l\ev. R. Forby, in 
his ' Vocabulary of East Anglia,' 1830, gives " Cothe, v. to faint." 
Cothe, pronounced Cothee, is much used in Norfolk to express that a person 
feels sickly, poorly, or faint. 
