12G Abstract Report on Rot in Sheep. 
is far too frequently not made until the autumnal period of the 
year, when external c ircumstances are much against the success 
of any system of treatment or management, and when also 
important structural changes are taking place in the liver. 
The animals must be carefully guarded against all vicissitudes 
of weather by being folded in the best sheltered situations, 
more especially at night. Their food should consist of a liberal 
supply of materials which are rich in flesh-forming principles, 
and which also contain a large proportion of sugar, starch, and 
similar ingredients, that the heat of the body may be kept up 
equally with nutrition. If placed on meadows or artificial 
grasses, the sheep should be often changed, care being taken to 
avoid those pastures which are wet and cold, or which contain 
inferior herbage. Manger-food must be supplied, and this should 
consist, in part at least, of crushed corn, of which beans, peas, 
lentils, &c., are to be preferred. Oats and maize are also good, 
and to these a moderate allowance of oil-cake may be added. 
Frequent changing of the food will induce the animals to eat 
more, for which reason, when they are on the pastures, no 
objection is to be taken to an occasional supply of turnips or 
other roots ; but, unless compelled by the character of the farm 
and the system of cultivation, continuous folding on turnips 
should be avoided. Where this has to be done, great care will 
have to be exercised in regulating the quantity of turnips, 
according to the condition of the crop, the state of the weather, 
&c. Under such circumstances an allowance of good hay, in 
addition to the other food, will be imperatively required. 
Medicinal agents will likewise have to be had recourse to, 
preference being given to those which impart tone and vigour 
to the system. 
Salt cannot be dispensed with. It does good in several ways. 
It is an agent which acts as a stimulant to the process of 
digestion, and, by its ready solution and free entrance into the 
blood, it supplies also the amount of soda which may be required 
for the secretion of bile. 
The other medicinal agent to which reference has been made 
as imparting vigour to the system is the sulphate of iron. As 
a tonic it is excelled by few, if by any, therapeutic agent ; while 
the readiness with 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 excel- 
lent agent for the expulsion of several of the varieties of intestinal 
worms. Its chief use, however, in rot is its powerful effect in 
