146 
The Rot in Sheep. 
and, by its ready solution and free entrance into the blood, it will 
.supply also any amount of soda which may be required in the 
secretion of bile, the saline constituents of which include the 
chloride of sodium — common salt — with that of potassium, and the 
phosphates and sulphates of soda, potash, lime, and magnesia. 
Another advantafje is connected with the exhibition of salt and 
its entrance into the blood, namely, that it contributes with other 
saline and albuminous matters to preserve that proper specific 
gravity of the fluid which ought to l3e " equivalent to that of the 
contents of the red corpuscles, as it is only in this condition that 
the formation of the latter can duly take place." — (Caj-pentcr.) 
The other medicinal agent to which we refer as indispensable 
is the sulphate of iron. As a tonic it is excelled by few, if by 
any, therapeutic agents ; while the readiness by which it can be 
obtained, and the lowness of its price, give it an advantage over 
many others. Sheep also do not object to take it with their food 
when mixed in proper proportions ; nor is it a matter of much 
moment if one animal should get rather more than his fellow, by 
more rapid or longer feeding at the trough. Sulphate of iron is 
likewise an excellent anthelmintic, quickly leading to the ex- 
pulsion of several of the varieties of intestinal worms. Its chief 
use, however, in rot is that it is a powerful agent in the repro- 
duction of the red cells of the blood — iron entering largely into 
the contents of these cells — the hcemato-glohuline. In all diseases 
therefore in which there is a diminished power of producing red 
cells, the sulphate of iron is a valuable remedy. 
Stomachics or carminatives are likewise required ; of which 
medicaments we give a preference to aniseed in this affection. 
A good compound of these medicinal agents with some highly 
nitrfigenized alimentary matters we have in the following formula. 
Take of 
Fincly-gromKl oil-cake (linseed) . . 1 ^^^^ ^ ^^^j^^j 
,, pea-meal ) 
'''^l* I each 4 lbs. 
„ aniseed ) 
„ sulphate of iron .. .. lib. 
Let the salt, aniseed, and sulphate of iron be mixed together 
first, and afterwards well incorporated with the cake and pea- 
meal. 
We have the authority of eminent chemists for saying that 
even v:hen solutions of salt and sulphate of iron are mixed to- 
gether in the proportions here recommended they undergo but 
little change. The products of the change are sulphate of soda 
and protochloride of iron, the therapeutic action of which, espe- 
cially in the quantities in which they are formed, will not mate- 
rially interfere with the undecomposed common salt and sulphate 
