12 
On Lameness in Sheep and Lambs. 
pi'essure or movement extorts from the little creature an expres- 
sion of extreme torture. If the disease continues to affect the 
structures of the joints of the limbs, and the shepherd carefully 
attends to the patient, although it may hobble about for some 
weeks, it will ultimately recover. But frequently the joints of 
the spine are attacked when the lamb is down, and unable to 
rise ; or the pericardium may become implicated, and then death 
will soon terminate its sufferings. The pericardium is generally 
supposed to be affected when swelling of the joints suddenly 
subsides, and the lamb's health rapidly declines. 
Treatment. — Having so often observed cases of the rheumatic 
lamb, I am led to remind you of the old adage, " prevention is 
better than cure ;" therefore I must urge upon you to attend 
strictly to the comforts of the young flock during inclement 
seasons, and place them only on lands that are well under- 
drained. In the way of treatment little else can be done besides 
keeping the patient warm, and stimulating the joints that are 
swollen with a liniment composed of one part spirit of turpentine, 
one of hartshorn, one of laudanum, and eight of linseed-oil. If 
the swellings about the joints continue some weeks and feel soft, 
an opening may be made into them, and the joint bandaged. 
In the case of the adult sheep I have found the following treat- 
ment remarkably successful : first, administer four ounces of 
linseed-oil, and twice a day for two days three grains of opium, 
six grains of colchicum, two of calomel, and half a pint of gruel ; 
apply also to the joints the same liniment as recommended for 
the lambs : if in three weeks the joints remain swollen, strong 
blistering ointment may be applied to them. 
Causes. — I know of no other cause of rheumatism, or the joint- 
disease, than cold, and especially cold combined with moisture ; 
hence the reason why this disease usually prevails among lambs 
that are placed upon low undrained lands, and where proper 
fold regulations are wholly neglected ; such, for instance, as their 
bedding not being well supplied with straw, the lambs not being 
kept in fold a sufficient time after birth, and also where they 
are not put into warm comfortable folds during night. Flock- 
masters who lamb their ewes on dry gravelly soils provide com- 
fortable folds, and take every other precaution to prevent disease 
being produced by cold while the lamb is young and compara- 
tively inactive : these breeders scarcely know what the joint- 
disease is ; whereas those who lamb upon cold low meadows, or 
uplands abounding with springs, and vmdrained, lose annually a 
large proportion of their young flocks from this disease ; nor will 
such persons abandon their unscientific and absurd notions until 
the superior management and repeated success of some more 
intelligent and skilful neighbour stimulate them at length to 
