554 
Louping-ill in Sheep. 
contained a compact ball of wool and dried grass, and there is a strong 
presumption that this was the cause of the illness. In the same 
way it is probable that the sand found in the fourth stomach was 
at the root of the mischief in Case X. At any rate, it ought to be 
noted that no evidence was obtained from these cases to show that 
the disease was transmissible by inoculation. 
In Case III. the post-mortem revealed a variety of morbid con- 
ditions, which in combination may have been accountable for the 
symptoms exhibited. 
In Cases VIII. IX. and XIY. it must be confessed that the 
cause of the illness was not discovered. In two of these cases the 
cei’ebro-spinal fluid was unusually abundant ; but in all three cases 
inoculation experiments made with the fluid had a negative result. 
From what has been said it must be evident to anyone that 
the fifteen cases investigated by me in Northumberland were not 
all of one disease, and the question arises, which of them were 
cases of louping-ill 1 In one sense it may unhesitatingly be answered 
that the whole fifteen were cases of louping-ill. The object of my 
investigation was to discover the nature, and, if possible, the cause 
of what passes under that name among sheep farmers and shepherds 
in Northumberland, and every one of the fifteen cases was submitted 
to me as a case of louping-ill. All the cases had been diagnosed as 
examples of louping-ill by men of great experience, and, indeed, cases 
which the post-mortem afterwards proved to be beyond any doubt 
due to different diseases were presented as typical and unmistakable 
examples of louping-ill. 
This experience did not occasion me any surprise, as in previous 
investigations conducted in Dumfriesshire and Galloway I had 
found that the term louping-ill does not represent a well-defined 
pathological entity, but really covers deaths from a variety of 
causes. 
It is a very noteworthy fact that almost all the earlier descrip- 
tions of the disease should agree in according to it a remarkably 
complex and variable train of symptoms. In illustration of that I 
may quote the following account of the symptoms by Fair. 1 
“ On the animals being slightly attacked there is an evident falling off in 
condition, and a dull heavy appearance, with deadness of coat. There is a 
loss of power in one or more limbs, and sometimes of a whole side, or even 
the whole animal, as if struck with palsy or tetanus, of both which diseases, 
as well as apoplexy, it seems to participate in no slight degree ; the head 
and neck being more or less frequently, according to the violence of the 
attack, convulsively or spasmodically contracted or drawn towards the 
shoulders or back, with a violent tremor or constriction of the oesophagus, 
so as to endanger suffocation when any liquid, however small the quantity, 
is attempted to be conveyed into the stomach. This is also much retarded, 
or prevented from being accomplished, by a convulsive and spasmodic 
locking of the jaw, a frothy saliva being at the same time emitted from the 
mouth, more especially when the convulsive fits have come on, which, in 
severe cases, frequently takes place from once to twice every five minutes, 
1 The Veterinarian , Yol. xii. 1839, 
