388 
Parturient Fever in Eices. 
Brain and Sjnnal JSfarroic. — Dark- coloured sjiots variously 
disposed over the surface of the brain, and ■within the sheath of 
the spinal marrow. 
Prevention. — The most important feature connected with our 
subject is the prevention of the disease, for it most interests the 
breeder in a pecuniary point of view. I would recommend, as 
most important during the last five or six weeks' gestation, regular 
and nutritious feeding, regular exercise, dry and extensive fold- 
ing. If turnips be the article of food, let there be given in ad- 
dition a few oats, linseed cake, with hay and straw chaff ; let a 
well-sheltered dry fold be arranged at a short distance from 
where the ewes are fed during the day, wherein to lodge for the 
night ; the driving to and from these folds will give exercise — 
a circumstance tending much to promote health in the pregnant 
ewe : if the system of heath or pasture feeding is practised, night 
folding is then equally necessary. The night fold in common 
use — that formed by building straAV and stubble walls, with sheds 
attached, the front of which a southern aspect — answers admii- 
ably. Further explaining the comforts of the pregnant ewe, I will 
add, in the words of the poet. 
First with assiduous caro from winter keep, 
Well foddered in the stalls, thy tender sheep ; 
Then spread with straw tlie bedding of thy fold, 
With fern beneath, to 'fend the bitter cold. 
Parturient fever having shown itself, to prevent extension 
of the disease, I would recommend that no time be lost in remov- 
ing the affected sheep from the flock, and placing her in a fold 
suitable for her. It is then necessary the breeder should inves- 
tigate the cause of the affection. Has the flock been exposed to 
cold and moisture — to insufficient and improper food — to close 
and dirty folding ? If so, remove them to a dry part of the farm, 
where sand, gravel, or rough pasture forms the surface ; or if 
these cannot be provided, use the common straw-yard of the 
farm, and give food of a mild but nutritious nature, such as 
bruised oats, linseed cake, turnips, and hay chaff", with exercise 
during tite day, and the immediate removal of an affected sheep. 
I will now briefly state the conclusions at which I have arrived ; 
these are seven in number : — 
First. That parturient fever (giddiness accompanying parturi- 
tion) ought to have but one name — a name by which other 
diseases are not known. 
Second. That as the age of the ewe increases, so does the 
susceptibility to attack of parturient fever increase. 
Third. That seasons and soils influence the spread of parturient 
fever ; the disease being most prevalent in cold and wet seasons 
on chalk soils, and during the last twenty days' gestation. 
