The Rot in Sheep. 
141 
more wc understand of the nature of some diseases, the more 
we despair of being able to eradicate them, or even to mitiffate 
their effects. It is the possession, however, of this knowh'dji^e 
which marks the difference between the man of science and the 
mere empiric. The latter rushes in, and boldly declares his 
ability to cure that which is incurable ; while the former honestly 
declares his inability to do anything for good. Correct patho- 
logical knowledge will doubtless prove that the cure of rot can 
scarcely be hoped for, although much may, nevertheless, be 
done to arrest its progress. 
Many remedies of empiric origin have been forced on the 
notice of agriculturists from time to time, both in this country 
and also on the Continent, for the cure of rotten sheep — all of 
which have, however, signally failed in verifying the statements 
of their originators. At the commencement of the present 
century a remedy emanating from a Dutch source was lorudly 
extolled, and even largely used in this country as well as in 
Holland, but it soon fell into disrepute — following in this respect 
those which had gone before or have since succeeded it. 
Mills, in his work on cattle, after speaking of the employment 
of certain medicinal agents which are too commonplace and 
valueless to be here quoted, says that a Mr. Baldwin, of Clap- 
ham, Surrey, found humet to be a remarkably efficacious cure 
for rot, " as appears from a letter of his published in ' The 
Repository for Select Papers on Agriculture, Arts, and Manu- 
factures,' 1768." Mills adds to this statement the following: 
" A farmer in the north, in the autumn of the year 1766, when 
all his sheep were so far gone in the rot that he did not expect 
one of them to live the winter over, sent them into a field of 
burnet, which in a month's time restored them to perfect 
health." 
After diligent search we have been unable to find any other 
authority on the curative properties of burnet, nor do we believe 
in this power of the plant. All that could be hoped for would 
be that sheep feeding upon it, especially when mixed with good 
grasses, might be enabled to resist for a somewhat longer time 
the inroads of the disease. 
Martyn, a late Professor of Botany in the University of Cam- 
bridge, in his '■Flora Rustica,^ 1792, says : "Burnet is common 
in high pastures on a calcareous soil. It flowers in the beginning 
of May, and sometimes in April. The leaves, when bruised, 
smell like cucumber, and taste something like the paring of that 
fruit ; they are sometimes put into salads and cool tankards." 
He adds that " Some years since Mr. Rocque attempted to intro- 
duce it as food for cattle. It has one good quality, which is, 
that it continues green all winter, and affords some food earlv in 
