The Rot in Sheep. 
123 
ewes in the road and tlie lame ewe in tlie cart ; here was found to be a most 
rottini;- district. Tiio residt was that the whole of the nineteen ditid rotten 
before lanibing-tinie, and the ewe in the cart lived for years and bred and 
did well. 
"The second case I would mention occurred to a very intimate friend and 
neighbour of mine who placed his 'tegs' (viz. young sheep of the first year) 
on a piece of seeds adjoining a meadow by the river Leam, which in wet 
seasons is sure to give the rot. Such was the case in the year in question. 
Some trees had been felled between the seeds and the meadow, and, the gaps 
in the hedge not having been projierly made up, the shepherd was sent after 
harvest to stoj) them. Having done a part of them he went home to his 
dinner, aud to his surprise when he returned he found all the tegs in the 
meadow. He pxit them out immediately, and they never got in afterwards, 
and no one on the farm had ever seen them in before ; but the consequence 
was, that the whole of the tegs were rotted, and most of them died before the 
next shear-day, and those poor wretched creatures which remained to that 
l)eriod cast otf their wool and subsequently dwindled away and died. This 
iaiTn is a perfectly sound one, with the exception of the meadow in question." 
How, it may be asked, are we to account for such facts as 
these ? The defenders of the theory of innutritious diet, exposure 
to wet, or allied causes, being the source of rot, surely will not 
be bold enough to assert that the feeding on watery food, for 
a few hours, would be so far permanently prejudicial to the 
functions of animal life as to produce a fatal disease of this kind, 
notwithstanding that the sheep are removed from such food to 
that which is in every way unobjectionable. We see no satis- 
factory solution of the problem, except that which is obtained 
by a knowledge of the natural history of the liver-fluke. This 
imravels the mystery, and leaves the mind free from doubt as to 
the cause of these occurrences. Nothing is easier to understand 
than that the partaking of grasses growing on low-lying and damp 
places, even for an hour or two, whei'e the penultimate forms of 
the fluke abound, would convey a sufficient quantity of these 
organisms into the digestive system of the sheep — their now 
proper habitat for further development — to perfect flukes enough 
to lay the foundation for the disease. 
The Period of Greatest Danger. 
It is considered by many and probably by the larger propor- 
tion of sheep-owners, that the months of September and October 
are by far the most fruitful in causing the rot. Especially does 
this opinion prevail among those who see in a luxuriant growth 
of after-grass the chief cause of the affection. Thus the " Lam- 
mermuir Farmer " states that in October of 1810, he " bought a 
lot of wethers in fine condition from land of a good sound bottom, 
where the rot was altogether a stranger. They came on the 
farm about the middle of the month, and in a short time were 
observed to be diseased. The stock on the farm whence they 
