412 ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 
but somewhat modified to suit the altered state of things, 
were found equally efficient with them. The worms w'hich 
inhabit this part of the organism belong to the class Filaria. 
They exhaust the strength of the animal they attack by 
drawing largely upon the secretions furnished by the mucous 
membrane of the respiratory organs, in which also they soon 
produce diseased action. Besides this, they cause *a me- 
chanical impediment to the free entrance of air into the 
lungs, and thus frequently destroy the animal from asphyxia, 
or in less numbers interfere with the necessary changes of the 
blood in its passage through these organs. They are both 
oviparous and viviparous, as many of the young are hatched 
within the body of the parent worm, while others are only 
brought to perfection after the ejection of the ova. Further 
investigations of their development, and the changes which 
their ova may undergo when expelled from the windpipe by 
the coughing of the affected animal, may probably lead here- 
after to the adoption of means to prevent the frequency of 
their attack. 
Calcareous Concretions . — So many instances of the loss of 
rams, in particular, have occurred from calcareous deposits 
in the urinary organs, as to deserve a separate notice in this 
report. Experience has shown, that when sheep are kept 
too much on a nitrogenized diet, and allowed but a limited 
range, a perverted state of the digestive and assimilative 
functions ensues, which leads to the deposit of earthy salts 
in the urinary system. These deposits take place in all sheep, 
without reference to sex, but they are of more consequence in 
the male animal, arising from the fact that the urethral canal, 
much diminished in size, passes through the vermiform ap- 
pendage of the intromittant generative organ, and the deposit 
accumulating therein blocks up the passage, and leads to 
inflammation and often rupture of the bladder, from a re- 
tention of the urine. Preventive means are the most to be 
advocated, and these should consist in the adoption of a less 
forcing system to bring the animals into condition in so short 
a space of time ; the repeated exhibition of some mild aperient 
medicine, and also the use of mineral acids in a diluted form, 
chemistry having demonstrated that these urinary deposits 
in herbivorous animals are mostly composed of the earthy 
carbonates, with some traces of the phosphates. 
Concluding Remarks . — In bringing this report to a close, 
the Governors would express a hope that agriculturists, as a 
body, are beginning to find that through the efforts which 
have been put forth by the College in common with the 
Council of the Society, many young men, whose scientific 
