29 
ON MURRAIN, OR THE VESICULAR EPIZOOTIC. 
butchers well, being very full inside, which is a great point in 
fat lambs. Leicester ewes, crossed with Southdown tups, pro- 
duce good lambs. A ewe lamb of this cross, killed in 1846, 
weighed seventy lbs. 
The Southdown ewes have been crossed with the Cotswold 
tups with great success; but both Leicester and Cotswold tups, 
with the Southdown ewes, make fine sheep, and the fleeces of 
this cross produce a valuable combing wool, the tup giving the 
length and the ewe the fine texture. This cross also comes to 
maturity at an early age — reaching great weights, and selling at 
from id. to fd. per lb. more than Leicesters or Cotswolds. 
“ The Southdowns have now been tried in most of the 
northern and eastern counties of Scotland, as far as Caithness, 
and have done well. There can be no doubt, therefore, of its 
being one of the most useful breeds in existence, not only as a 
pure breed, but for crossing other breeds. Many breeders ob- 
ject to them from the shortness of the wool, not being fit for 
combing, and the fleece being lighter than most other breeds. 
This could be remedied by forming, as it were, a new breed of 
sheep, which has not yet been tried, and regarding which some 
observations will be made in another place.” 
Home Extracts. 
ON MURRAIN, OR THE VESICULAR EPIZOOTIC. 
By Mr. Finlay Dun, Jun., V.S., Edinburgh. 
[Concluded from page 695, vol. xxiii.] 
Incidental circumstances influencing the severity of the dis- 
ease . — The vesicular epizootic attacks animals of all ages, and 
of all temperaments. The calf, when only a few days old, is 
frequently affected by it, doubtless receiving the contagion from 
the sores on the udder of the mother. Young cattle at pasture, 
or in the straw-yard, animals tied up for final fattening, milk- 
cows, cattle of every breed, are all liable to be affected by this 
disease. All, however, do not suffer alike severely. In young 
animals the attack is generally milder than in the case of heavy 
bullocks in high condition. In these, the feet are generally 
very painful, and, from the weight of the animal, the cure is 
tedious. The constitutional symptoms also run high, and the 
animal is much reduced in condition. In pregnant cows, the 
interdigital ulcerations are also very troublesome. But the 
