76 
The Rot in Sheep. 
contributed to bring on this mortal ravafjer ; nay, in many cases 
with which 1 have been most intimately acquainted, it could 
neither be traced with the strictest scrutiny to this source, nor 
did this follow even as the consequence of the disease." 
D. Price, in his Sj/sfem of Sheep-qrazinq as practised in Romneij 
Marsh, 1809, coincides in opinion with J. Lawrence, a well- 
known and contemporary writer on the diseases of cattle, that the 
affectioir is due to debility produced by excess of moisture in 
''^either the earth, air, or food :" while R. Parkinson, author of A 
Treatise on Live Stock, 1810, favours the theory of flukes being the 
cause : but, like those who preceded him, gives no satisfactory 
account of their existence within the biliary ducts. 
The " Lammermuir Farmer," in his Treatise on Sheep, 1823, 
previously quoted, considers the pasturing of sheep during the 
autumnal part of the year on meadows, where from the combined 
influences of warmth and moisture a superabundance of grass 
exists, as the cause of rot, and remarks that, " if any person can 
come forward and prove that it is not so caused, 1 shall freely 
grant that, with our present knowledge, the true cause still lies 
hid in the dark recesses of nature." 
He also makes some observations with reference to the 
existence of flukes in the liver, which we transcribe, as thereby 
we have a distinct proof that the malady which he considers 
to be produced by luxuriant autumnal grasses is none other 
than the true I'ot. He says, " It is a curious and important 
fact that fluke-worms are found in the livers of all rotten sheep, 
and I have no doubt of these insects being the immediate 
cause of death, but how they come there has never jet been 
properly accounted for." He enters next on a dissertation as to the 
probable origin of the fluke, and concludes by remarking, " but in 
whatever way these worms are produced the fact is unquestion- 
able that they are always swarminy in the liver of every rotten 
sheep ; and in proportion as a sheep is far gone in the disease the 
more numerous do they become ; most certainly the two have 
some connection with one another, and that no small one, but 
whether they are the cause or the consequence of the rot remains 
yet to be determined." 
DaVy, in his essay read before the Bath and West of England 
Society, entitled Observations on the Disease u-hich has lately been so 
destructive to Sheep, called Bane or Coath, 1830, does little more 
than reiterate the statements of others with regard to the causes, 
but dwells chiefly on enormous losses which were sustained 
during the year, and on the nature and prevention of the malady. 
His views of the pathology of rot Avill be hereafter referred to, 
as we find that to a very great extent they were adopted by 
authors of repute who wrote subsequently to his time. 
