02 
The. Rot in Sliccp. 
tlepends, ah initio, on watery or innutritious diet, and allied 
causes, we cannot admit. 
Dropsy will doubtless arise from causes wliicli affect tlie quality 
ol the blood or the functions of tlie liver, and not only in slieep, 
but in all animals, man liimself not excepted. Dropsy, however, 
will not produce flukes in the liver, although the existence of 
flukes therein will produce dropsy. Until we cease to use such 
terms as "water rot," and begin to speak of rot as an entozoic 
disease only, we shall continue to impede the progress of veterinary 
pathology, by encumbering her with an unmeaning nosology. 
Rot, we repeat, is an entozoic affection, due to the presence of 
flukes in the biliary ducts of the liver, which early lay the 
foundation for structural changes of a special description in 
this organ, and ultimately cause the death of the animal from 
anannia. No author denies the existence of flukes in this dis- 
ease, although it may be that every one does not make mention 
of them. The accounts of their presence within the liver are 
some of them of early date. Thus Sir Anthony Titzherbert, in his 
Bookc of Hiishandrye, 1532, in describing the rot of sheep, says 
" if thou cut the lyver, there will be lyttle quickenes like flokes ; 
and also seeth the lyver, if it be rotten it will break in pieces, and 
if it be sound it will hold together." 
To those who object to the statement that flukes are the direct 
cause of the malady, may be addressed the question. How is it 
that sheep bred and reared on sound land have flukes in their 
livers in tvet seasons, and then only ; and that under such cir- 
cumstances they die from rot? It is admitted that they are so 
affected. Where, then, do the entozoa noiv spring from ? No 
combination of ordinary causes can produce them. No, their 
propagation and development are governed by fixed and unalter- 
able natural laws. 
When conversant with the natural history of the fluke, we 
see fewer difficulties in accounting for this fact than might 
be supposed ; but we will not now anticipate this division of our 
subject. 
Entozoic diseases have been much investigated of late, and 
every day's experience goes to prove that they are neither few 
nor unimportant. Hitherto it has been too much the custom 
to look upon entozoa as an effect rather than a cause of disease. 
Are they so in that condition of the flesh of the pig vulgarly called 
" measled pork," or in " gid " in sheep, or in " dyspnoea " in calves 
and lambs ? If not, why should they be so considered in rot ? 
Men who are unacquainted with the facts which have been 
brought to light through long-continued research into the natural 
history of the liver-fluke, and who probably may possess far more 
practical knowledge of the details of feeding and managing sheep 
