130 
The Rot in Sheep. 
sound sheep. His maxim was, ' I never like a man if I don't 
like his face ! ' So say I of a sheep." 
An examination of the eye will materially assist in determining 
the question of disease. If the lids are everted and the membrana 
nictitans pressed forward, it will be found that in the early stages 
of the malady, and especially if the animal has been excited by 
being driven a short distance, the vessels of the conjunctiva are 
turgid loith pale or yellowish coloured blood, and that the whole part 
has a peculiar moist or loatery appearance. Later on, the same 
vessels are blanched, and scarcely to be recognized ; excepting 
perhaps one or two which present a similar watery condition, 
or are turgid with dark-coloured blood. The state of the con- 
junctival membrane is held to be a symptom of importance ; 
and rightly so, because it affords a good means to determine 
the extent of the changes the blood has undergone. It marks 
the amount of loss of the red cells of the fluid, and shows also the 
diminution of the relative quantity of the albumen and saline 
materials, upon which its specific gravity depends. It is only in 
blood of proper density that the red cells can be developed. The 
loss, therefore, of albumen and salts will lead to a relative decrease 
of the cells, and a corresponding increase of the watery element. 
This blanching of the vessels of the eyes has been commented 
on by some of our earliest writers. Sir Anthony Fitzherbert thus 
spoke in 1532 : "Take both your hands and turn up the lid of 
his eye, and if it be ruddy and have red strings in the white of 
the eye, then he is sound ; and if the eye be white like tallowe, 
and the stringes dark-coloured, then he is rotten." 
Gervase Markham, in his Cheape and Good Husbandly, pre- 
viously quoted from, has a curious epitome of the symptoms, 
which we here transcribe : " If a sheepe be sound and perfit, his 
eye will be bright and cheerefull, the white pure without spot, 
and the strings red ; his gummes also will be red, his teeth white 
and even, his skinne on his brisket will be red, and so will each 
side betwixt his body and his shoulder where the wool grows 
not ; his skinne in general will be loose, his wool fast, his breath 
long, and his feete not hot ; but if he be unsound, then these 
signes will have contrary faces, his eyes will be heavy, pale, and 
spotted, his breast and gummes white, his teeth yellow and foule, 
and his wooll when it is pulled will easily part from the body," 
In addition to the symptoms we have named it will be found 
that the animal's appetite becomes fastidious. To-day it feeds 
pretty well ; to-morrow it will scarcely touch food of any de- 
scription. An increased thirst, however, is now present, and 
continues till the end. The animal is often going to the brook 
or pond, or, if prevented from doing this, will omit no oppor- 
tunity of drinking from the little hollows which may exist on 
