The Cure of Sheep Scab. 
163 
ence to the request of the sheep owners of the Colony, among whom 
the outbreak had caused quite a panic. Little’s Dip had been 
strongly recommended as a cure for scab, but, after this experience, 
that and all other dips, with the exception of tobacco and sulphur, 
and lime and sulphur, have been prohibited in all the Colonies. 
Cooper’s Dip is used in Queensland for destroying sheep ticks ; 
but we have ample evidence to show that, in the conditions under 
which sheep are kept and pastured in Australia, it is a very unre- 
liable cure for scab. I notice, by an official report from New 
Zealand, that it had failed in that Colony. When in Sydney at a 
conference in June, 1891, the Chief Inspector there and myself 
were interviewed by Dr. Brown, of Cape Colony, who solicited in- 
formation as to the Australian scab cure, as Cooper’s Dip had failed 
to eradicate the disease there. A letter from a sheep owner in Cape 
Colony states that some stud sheep from Queensland, shipped to 
that Colony, got scabbed at Mauritius, where they were landed en 
route, and that the same dip had failed to make a permanent cure. 
Against such testimony we have the undeniable fact that tobacco 
and sulphur, and lime and sulphur, prepared and applied as here 
directed, have never failed, and that, too, without the sheep being 
turned out of the infected paddocks after dipping. I do not say 
that Cooper’s or any other dip does not kill the Acarus, and if the 
sheep can be turned into pasture where there is no chance of re- 
infection, the cure may be complete ; but such conditions do not 
exist here. 
We usually dressed the sheep twice at an interval of ten to 
fourteen days, on the assumption that although the dip killed 
the Acari, it might not destroy the undeveloped germs under the 
exterior cuticle ; but since the proper application of the dips has 
become well understood in these Colonies, one thorough dressing 
effects a complete cure. 
I am unable to recommend “ pouring,” or what in Australia is 
called “spotting,” for scab. To ensure a cure the sheep m.ust he 
immersed bodily in the dip, and the temperature of the bath main- 
tained up to at least 80° F. (110° by preference). 
As to the effects of lime and sulphur on the ivool If the sheep are 
shorn before being dipped, the deterioration is infinitesimal — such, at 
least, is our experience. When dipped in full fleece the deterioration 
was computed by the wool buyers at only 1 7 per cent. ; that is to say, 
when the average price of the wool of sound sheep was eighteen- 
pence per pound, the dipping depreciated it to the extent of only 
threepence p>cr pound. But what is that on one year’s clip com- 
pared with the loss occasioned by scab ? 
Next, as to the relative cost of the dips. The cost of labour in 
actually clipping the sheep must be the same with all clips. Lime 
and sulphur is incomparably cheaper than Cooper’s, McDougall’s, 
Little’s, Hayward’s, Thomas’s, or any other patent dip. 
Flowers of sulphur can be bought in the Colonies duty free 
at 22s. per cwt., and lime is cheap enough in all countries. 
Tobacco leaf being extensively grown in the Colonies is also cheap. 
