82 
The Rot in Sheep. 
Again, he observes — " Some time since he (Mr. Young) pur- 
chased a close in his neighbourhood which was reputed to be 
unsound. Before any sheep were turned upon it, he permitted 
the grass to grow till it would cover a man's ankle, and during 
the whole summer he took care that it should remain an exceed- 
ing good pasture. The rot did not appear in the field, though 
an adjoining close in his own occupation, and another in the 
tenure of Mr. Thorpe, suffered more than usual during the 
year." 
Harrison adds some further instances of a similar kind, and 
says in explanation of them, that " luxuriant pastures seldom 
rot unless they be eaten bare in hot weather. Whilst the yround 
is well concealed, it is so completely defended and protected that the 
sun exerts no deleterious effects vpon it." * Now, allowing this 
explanation to be correct, merely for the sake of argument, we 
may ask how was it that the miasm, which was engendered in 
the adjoininfj fields to an extent sufficient to rot all the sheep 
placed therein, did not cross the boundary fences and exert its 
prejudicial effects upon the sheep in these "luxuriant pastures," 
seeing that, being mingled with the atmosphere, it must be 
wafted hither and thither by every gentle breeze ? 
Harrison makes one remark, however, which may perhaps 
help us to explain the immunity of these animals in quite 
another way. He speaks of the danger of pastures being " eaten 
hare." Now, it is well known, that sheep are remarkable for their 
close biting, for which their lips and incisor-teeth are beautifully 
adapted, and hence probably their greater liability to receive the 
cause of rot than the ox which crops the longer grasses. Hold- 
ing the opinion which we do that rot is none other than an en- 
tozoic disease, referable to the entrance of the penultimate forms 
of the liver-fluke into the digestive system of the sheep, we con- 
ceive that an explanation is to be found in the circumstance that 
these creatures are in greater abundance at the lower portions 
of the stems of the grasses — the parts eaten by the sheep — than 
elsewhere on the plants. 
Cleeve, in his Essay on the Diseases of Sheep, published in 
the first volume of the Journal of the Royal Ayricultural Society, 
p. 310, narrates a fact singularly corroborative of the view we 
have taken. He says that in the parish of Seaton, in Devon- 
shire, all the sheep that were depastured in the marshes one year 
were attacked with rot and died, only exceptiny four; on exam- 
ining these four, it was found that they were hoy-Jawed, and, 
from the under jaw being much shorter than the upper, they 
could not bite near the ground." 
* These italics are our own. 
