132 
The Rot in Sheep. 
Some of these belono^ to the conditional state of the animal 
itself, and others to the circumstances by which it is surrounded. 
Apart from such diseases as may co-exist with rot, the chief 
of the systemic causes are the number of distomata inhabiting 
the biliary ducts, the natural stamina of the animal, and its con- 
dition as to amount of llesh at the time of tlie declaration of 
the symptoms. Age also, and the purposes for which the 
animal is kept, exercise an important influence upon the progress 
of the affection. Thus breeding or nursing ewes, from the 
demand made on their systems for the development or support 
of their young, will generally succumb more readily than store 
sheep, and most assuredly much sooner, all other things being 
equal, than those which are being fattened for the market. Lambs 
also, when affected in the first few months of their age, for want 
of sufficiently matured strength of constitution, will soon sink 
under the malady. 
Among the external or surrounding circumstances few are so 
potent for good as a continuous supply of food rich in the ele- 
ments of blood, and containing comparatively a small proportion 
of water. Sheep thus fed. will long resist the progress of the 
malady. A notable instance of this is furnished by the follow- 
ing fact : — A gentleman residing in Norfolk, the occupier of a 
large tract of heath-land, purchased, a few years since, a number 
of sheep in the latter part of August. In the month of February 
of the following year he became aware for the jirst time that the 
animals were affected with rot. Subsequently to this they began 
to die, and a great number were soon lost. Being fully satisfied 
that the sheep had not contracted the disease while they had 
been in his possession, he sought out the dealer from whom they 
had been bought ; and on inquiry it was found that other sheep 
from which these had been selected were also the subjects of 
the malady. So satisfied was the dealer that the whole were 
diseased when sold by him in August, that he at once agreed to 
take them back and refund the money. 
The remarkably slow ptogress of the malady in this case was 
due to the circumstance that the sheep, after coming into pos- 
session of their new owner were placed upon a dry sandy soil, 
and were well supplied with food rich in nitrogenous materials, 
besides being protected in a great measure by folding from in- 
clement weather. Had causes the opposite of these been in 
operation, the disease, without doubt, would have declared itself 
at a much earlier date, and have run its course far more rapidly. 
For similar reasons many sheep which contracted the rot late 
in 1860 lived on through the winter, and, not only so, but far 
into the following year. The weather of 1861 proved the very 
opposite of that of 1860, and we are acquainted with numerous 
