On Lameness in Sheep and Lambs. 
13 
adopt a system more in accordance with natural laws and the 
dictates of reason and experience. 
Diseased appearances after death. — The sheaths of the tendons 
about the affected joints are much swollen, and of a dark purple 
hue, containing a great quantity of bloody serum, or, as a shep- 
herd would say, of " black corruption :" this same kind of 
corruption is also frequently found in the cavities of the joints ; 
the capsular ligaments appear much thickened, and their structure 
altered from a tough to a soft pulpy consistence. Often we find 
the synovial membrane completely destroyed, also the cartilages 
and in some cases the joint ends of bones are exposed. 
II . — Sanguineous Congestion, or Set-fast, is characterized either 
by a local or general accumulation of blood upon the surface 
of the skin or within its textui'e. The texture universally im- 
plicated is the cellular tissue, within the upper part of one or 
more of the extremities ; or the head, the viscera of the abdomen, 
and chest, may be respectively or collectively involved. The 
duration of the disease is from two to four days. 
Sgmptoms. — The commencement of the disease is evinced by 
the sheep leaving its food, and becoming suddenly dull and 
restless ; it staggers in its gait, and takes a position apart from 
other sheep, where it will remain some time with the head and 
ears drooping. In time, varying from six to twelve hours, the 
disease will uniformly manifest itself in one shoulder ; the limb 
will become extremely stiff, and much pain will take place on 
pressure being applied between the shoulders ; occasionally the 
hind quarters are affected, and sometimes the muscles of the 
entire body ; the sheep at this juncture stands or lies like a 
block of wood. 
Treatment is both simple and effectual, the sheep generally 
recovering in two or three days, by having administered to it a 
half-ounce of nitre and half a pint of linseed-oil ; the same dose 
of nitre dissolved in a little warm water may be repeated twice a 
day for two days. In the case of the sheep whose whole body 
is hard and motionless, in addition to the previous treatment, it 
may be placed in hot horse-dung for a few hours (only exposing 
the head), which will afford marked relief. 
Causes. — The removal of sheep, too early in the autumn, from 
white turnip and pasture feed to Swede turnips, or having too 
large quantities of beans and other dry grain to eat, is a frequent 
practice and will create the disease. Some pastures particularly 
seem to produce sanguineous congestion, and in this case the 
lamb is found to be most susceptible. I recollect, when a boy at 
home, in Marshland, a piece of old rich pasture, that often 
destroyed two-thirds of the lambs placed upon it ; they did well 
for about six weeks after birth, and gained flesh ; then suddenly 
