The Rot in Sheep. 
91 
c<ato not. an ivjlammatory state of tlu; system, but a marled cMnlity 
and proxtratiun of the vital powers. We may lien?, liowever, leave 
the further consideration of this statement, more particularly as 
its fallacy will fully appear when we come to a detailed account 
of the symptoms of the disease. 
Thus far the opinions we have quoted on the patholog-j of rot 
may be reji^arded rather as exceptions than otherwise, since 
the majority of authors agree in considering it as a dropsic-al 
disease, associated with a disordered liver, depending on an 
impure, watery, or improper diet. 
In confirmation of this view it has often been said that both 
hares and rabbits take the rot in wet seasons and die therefrom. 
Our post-mortem examinations of these animals, when diseased, 
have not been many ; but, singularly enough, up to the present 
time we liave rarely failed to find flukes in the biliary ducts. The 
liver of the creature, however, has occasionally been enlarged and 
softened, and its vessels turgid with imperfectly clotted blood — 
very dark in colour. The general hue of the organ has varied, 
being in some places paler and in others of a deeper colour than 
natural. The animals have been little more than skeletons, and 
their abdomens have contained a good deal of serous fluid. The 
cause of death was obvious in these cases ; but in all this we have 
only another proof that bad food will give rise to grave affections 
of the liver, by first impairing the quality of the blood. 
The influence of food — natural grasses in particular — when sur- 
charged with moisture, in producing a deranged condition of the 
liver of sheep, was made the subject of our investigation during 
the wet summer of 1860. We found that the first ill effects 
were a blanching of the lobules of the gland, — the structures 
which are mainly composed of the secretory vessels, bile-cells, and 
origins of the biliary ducts. Affected livers, apart from any other 
pathological condition, showed white spots and streaks here and 
there, which were often not more than five or six in number, 
and of a size not exceeding an inch and a half in length. 
A continuance of the cause led to the production of further 
structural changes. No embryos of the fluke, however, could be 
detected even by a microscopical examination of the bile, &c. 
Had means not been adopted to prevent the further inroads of 
disease, doubtless these animals Avould have ultimately sunk 
from dropsy ; but food the very opposite of that they had been 
li^ ■ing on, combined with a daily allowance of salt, sufficed at 
once to put a stop to the disorder, which assuredly ought not to 
be regarded as being rot. 
To the opinion held by most authorities that rot in its ad- 
vanced stages is accompanied with general dropsy, we willingly 
assent ; but that the anasarcous condition of the body in this disease 
