78 
The Rot in Sheep. 
particular grounds. The extensive promulgation of the latter 
opinion is chiefly due to the labours of Mr. E. King, who pub- 
lished some papers on the subject, both in the ' Scotch (v)uarterly 
Journal of Agriculture ' and also in the ' Agricultural Magazine.' 
We have been unable to learn whether Mr. King, who seems to 
have resided in Oxfordshire, but who wrote from the " Steam- 
carriage Station, Hammersmith," had received a medical educa- 
tion or not ; nevertheless he writes like a person well informed on 
the structure and functions of the animal frame, as also on natural 
history in general. We give the following quotations from his 
writings : — 
"Flukes' eggs float in tlie gall, and go with it out of the gall-bladder into 
the intestine. Here they commingle abundantly with the contents of the 
intestines ; and if the sheep be xery lull of flukes, the eggs so abound in the 
contents of the intestines that the smallest portion of a sheep's droppings 
taken up upon the point of a penknife and placed uj)on the object-glass of a 
microscope and wetted with a drop of spring water will show several of them. 
A buyer of sheep for stores, if he can find one fluke's egg by this mode of exa- 
mination, would do well to decline purchasing such sheep. 
" Hasty rain liberates flukes' eggs from sheep's droppings, and sj^lashes them 
round about upon the circumjacent herbage ; but liealthy sheep, protected by 
their nose, are in little danger here of swallowing these eggs. The next 
shower, or perha])s the fag-end of the shower which liberates the eggs from the 
sheep's droppings, carries the eggs down to the earth or into the crowns of 
grass plants. If the soil be sandy or fi-om any cause porous, the water soaks 
into the earth and leaves the flukes' eggs upon the surface, where they perish 
either by frost or desiccation. Such ground is therefore called sozmd land. 
"If, on tlie contrary, the soil be very compact and clayey, so tliat the rain- 
water cannot soak into the earth, it draws oft' upon the surface, floating with 
it the flukes' eggs into the furrows, the ditches, the brooks, &c., and the flukes' 
eggs go wherever the flood-water goes. These eggs are so nearly of the some 
specific gravity as water that the least motion of the water keeps them moving ; 
but they will settle to the bottom gradually wherever water is perfectly at 
rest. Wherever flood-water, carrying lots of flukes' eggs, finds perfect rest, 
there these eggs will settle ; and many of them settle into holes, where, after 
the water has drawn away, they will perish in time by frost or desiccation, 
and then the meadow becomes safe pasturage for sheep ; but for a long time 
whilst they are moist, and for a short time after they arc dry, these eggs retain 
their vitality. The period at which their vitality becomes extinct I have been 
unable to ascertain. 
" This is, however, a point of considerable importance to flock-owners to 
enable them to judge with some precision when they may safely venture to 
depasture meadows subject to floods. If attention be directed to this point, 
accidental occurrences and casual observation may elicit facts which will 
throw light upon tlie subject." 
This theoiy of the introduction of the ova of flukes leading to the 
existence of the entozoa in the bile-ducts would certainly appear 
at first sight to have a good foundation ; but it has been fully 
ascertained that it 'also fails to account for sheep becoming rotten. 
Some ten years ago we put this to the test of direct experi- 
ment. We collected a far greater number of eggs, fresh from 
