The Rot ill Sheep. 
75 
on tlu! diseases of sheep, lii the mean time, we give the views of 
some other writers. 
lloirjr — The Ettrick Shepherd — observes in The Shrjfhcrd's 
Guide, 1<S07, that " it is a curious circumstance tliat of all other 
diseases of shcej), the greatest variety of opinions prevail with 
respect to the real cause of this, and amongst sucli a luunber it 
may reasonably be suspected that it is very diflicult to alight 
upon the right one ; but I have stuck to a theory laid doAvn by a 
few of the most sensible men on the Duke of Buccleuch's estates, 
who have had abundance of experience that way, and wliich 
seems to account at once for all the diflerent opinions. Yea, 
I hope to make it appear that all the various causes assigned 
for the rot only serve more fully to prove this the real and 
ultimate one. But, not to keep the reader in suspense, I hold it 
as an incontrovertible fact that a sudden fall in condition is the 
sole cause of rot." 
Sir George Steuart Mackenzie in his Treatise on the Diseases 
and Manafjement of Sheep, 1809, combats the Ettrick Shepherd's 
opinion, and asserts that "all the species of rot may be reduced 
to one, and all the sipnptoms may he referred to unwholesome food" 
He says that " Mr. James Hogg and othei's assert that the rot is 
caused by ' a sudden fall in condition.' As these gentlemen 
do not mention what in their opinion occasions the fall, we may 
safely presume that it is not meant to ascribe it to any other 
cause than hunger. But hunger is not properly a disease, and 
its effects on the animal economy are very different from rot, 
whether the privation of food be sudden or gradual. Besides, 
we often hear of sheep having been buried in snow for weeks 
together, a situation in which they must be subjected to a fall 
in condition for want of food ; but we never hear of sheep 
which have been so buried becoming rotten. This of itself 
is sufficient to overset Mr. Hogg's theory, notwithstanding that 
it is announced with an unusual degree of confidence. We 
learn from Mr. Hogg, himself, that sheep die of the rot while in 
good condition and even when vei-y fat, and the whole account 
he gives of this disease seems to contradict his ideas respecting 
the cause of it. A sudden fall in condition may accompany the 
disease without having induced it. A sheep may continue to 
fill its belly and yet fall off. It is the cause of the transition 
from fatness to leanness, and not the transition itself, that ought 
to be looked to. If that cause be hunger, rot will not be the 
consequence, but the usual effects of starvation will follow." 
Fairbairn, the " Lammermuir Farmer," likewise combats 
Hogg's opinion at considerable length, and among other things 
he remarks that " in no case that has hitherto come under my 
observation has ' a sudden fall in condition ' in the smallest degree 
