72 
The Rot in Sheep., 
"wrought up by the wormo, and most of all the slime that is left 
by the wormos ingenderinji^, which is a great cause of rottenesse." 
He further adds, that " others get it by feeding upon low 
levell ground, where, when a sudden raine cometh, the water 
standcth and cannot get readily away, and the shoepe that con- 
tinually useth that ground Avill slop much water with the grasse, 
which if the weather be cold will doe them hurt, but not so much 
as if it be warm : many shepheards say, that if the weather be 
hot, their sheepe will take the rot in four and twenty hours, 
therefore carefuU shepheards, as soone as they see the ground wet 
and the day hot, will remove them with all speede into higher 
grounds, for a space, till the water be dryed away." 
" A. S.," the anonymous author of The Hushandmans In- 
structor, 1697, remarks, that " in moist years sheep are subject to 
the rot, where in dry years they are exempted from it, and that 
not only from the moisture, for then would sheep rot in all moist 
grounds, but there is a certain putrefaction in the air, grass, 
or herb, or all of them, that cause it." 
Bradley, a distinguished Professor of Botany in the Uniyersity 
of Cambridge, iu his Gentleman and Farmer s Guide, 1729, after 
repeating most of the preceding statements, goes on to extend 
the observations of Gervase Markham respecting snails and slugs, 
and remarks that " in some pastures there are great numbers of white 
snails and slugs, which while they are small the sheep take in with 
the grass, and are distempered by them. The snails and slugs 
breed about April and August, or September, so that at the times 
when they are smallest the sheep are in most danger from them. 
They breed for the most part in damp and shady grounds, and 
retire from their feed (upon the grass or other herbs) to their 
places of shelter about nine or ten in the morning, if the sun 
shine strong ; but in wet weather they remain upon the grass con- 
stantly, so that sheep should not be turned into such pastures but 
in fair weather, or after the dew is off the grass ; for when there 
is no dew or other wet upon the grass, the snail or slug cannot 
feed, and therefore is never abroad in the dry part of the day ; so 
that in dry weather sheep are not in danger of the rot by these 
creatures." 
Ellis, in the work previously alluded to (1749), dwells particu- 
larly on the rotting of sheep by their being pastured in meadows in 
which swampy places exist, and also in such as have a clay subsoil, 
rendering the surface retentive of moisture. He speaks likewise 
of the injurious effects of the animals eating " rank, flashy grass," 
and a certain weed called " bean-weed, which grows in the mossy 
grounds of vales." He asserts that " sheep do not take the rot 
even when land is flooded, but they take the cause of it after the 
waters are abated ; for, as the sheep by this means have been kept 
off the grass for some time, when they come on it they meet with a 
