156 
Report on Liver-Rot. 
part of the country is positive that lambs take the rot from their 
mothers before they are dropped. 
" I always give my stock plenty of rock-salt and dry food ; 
am now feeding my 800 ewes on beans, bran, sainfoin-hay, 
chaff, and swedes, and my hoggs on swedes, cake, and pease, and 
a little chaff." 
On Lord Leicester's estate at Holkham, Mr. Samuel ShcUa- 
hear stated that the outbreaks can all be traced to flooded or 
wet unsound land, often requiring draining. Many of the 
infected sheep have been run on salt marshes. These, how- 
ever, have not been the source of the rot, but the occasional or 
frequent grazing upon them has not afforded protection against 
rot, or arrested its development either in bought sheep or in 
those which have picked up flukes on the adjacent upper 
marshes. Mr. Shellabear further mentions that, whilst every 
effort is being made to dry the rotten pastures, anxiety is 
expressed as to whether other means cannot also be used to 
prevent the disease being spread by infected animals. 
Mr. Edrcard Nelson, Warham, VVells-by-the-Sea, out of a flock 
of 300 black-faced ewes, since October 1st, 1879, has lost 250 ; 
but the small crop of lambs which he got has hitherto escaped. 
The specialty of his case consists in his having 450 acres of 
salt marshes which are overflowed twice daily by spring tides. 
Previous to 1879 there had been no cases of liver-rot on the 
farm. Mr. Nelson reported : " I have lost 250 home-bred sheep, 
being nearly all my ewe flock, since October 1879, but never 
before heard of rot on this farm. My cattle are affected, but 
although doing badly none have died ; I have not known horses 
attacked. I believe two months elapsed from the grazing of the 
sheep on the wet meadows and their becoming evidently rotten. 
I found doses of salt, sulphate of iron, and stimulants strengthen 
the sheep for a time, but without much permanent good — they 
all died." 
Mr. Nelson further stated : " I do not for one instant think that 
my flock contracted the disease on the salt marshes, but on some 
enclosed meadows over which the salt water does not come. My 
case seems to prove that salt marshes will neither prevent nor 
cure rot, as sheep were running on them at least five hours a-day at 
the time they became affected. From October 1st, 1879, my flock 
of 300 ewes went on the salts every day, when the tides allowed, 
from 6 o'clock A.M. till noon, when they came on the enclosed 
marshes for one or two hours, always going to the high arable 
lands at night ; this course was followed till November 30th, 
when they were kept entirely on the arable land. I think there 
is no doubt that they got the embryo fluke on the enclosed 
fresh marshes — first, because none of my neighbours' sheep, 
