343 
A FLOCK OF RABID SHEEP. 
“We are sorry to record a severe loss that has beei 
sustained by a hard working farmer named Willis, oi 
Nuffield, near Nettlebed. It appears that on the morn- 
ing of the 17th of February last, Willis’s son went to the 
fold, which contained seventy-two very fine ewes heavy in 
lamb. He discovered a large wiry-haired lurcher in the 
fold, and two ewes dead ; the dog came growling at him, but 
after pelting him with stones, he made off towards Nettle- 
bed. Willis and his father then found that two more sheep 
were so greatly torn by the dog that they were compelled to kill 
them ; the four ewes had seven lambs when opened. It 
was further discovered that about twenty more were bitten, 
more or less, about the nose and ears. These they dressed, 
and put in a fold by themselves ; but two or three weeks after- 
wards, several of them began to show symptoms of madness, 
and fifteen of them lambed, the lambs being brought up by 
hand. The ewes that went into a rabid state, trotted backwards 
and forwards by the sides of the fold, and repeatedly bit 
at the hurdles, and tore mouthfuls of wool out of each other, 
foamed at mouth, &c. Twenty-two are since dead, and there 
are five more that were slightly bit, which no doubt will 
also die before many days. The mad lurcher afterwards at- 
tacked two dogs, which were soon shot ; it next ran to 
Mr. Corderer’s farm at Lashbrook, and fell on his dogs ; but 
that gentleman, suspecting the dog to be mad, shot him, and 
then his own dogs, and consigned their bodies to the river 
Thames .”— Reading Mercury. 
EXPERIMENTS ON T11E TRANSMISSION OF RABIES. 
“ M. Lecoq inoculated, at the Veterinary School of Lyons, 
on the 23d of September last, two dogs ; the one with the 
saliva, and the other with the bronchial mucus of a man who 
had fallen a victim to hydrophobia at the Hotel Dieu. The 
latter dog died very lately, without any outward signs of the 
disease, though presenting some of the post-mortem appear- 
ances of animals which die of rabies. The former is now 
alive, and presents nothing particular. From these facts, 
M. Lecoq is inclined to think that rabies is transmissible 
from man to animals ; though he is far from venturing, as 
yet, upon a decided opinion on the subject.” 
