570 
ON THE LATE EPIDEMIC DISEASES OF CATTLE, 
SHEEP, AND SWINE, IN LINCOLNSHIRE. 
Compiled by W. Youatt. 
[Continued from page 391.] 
Mr. Hutton, of Gate Barton, near Gainsborough, Lincoln- 
shire, says that the epidemic of 1841 prevailed in all the 
farms adjoining to his, and among some yearling heifers, and 
spread through all his cattle excepting four, and nearly all his 
sheep and pigs. It first appeared during the fine weather in 
October. A communication probably took place between his 
cattle and some diseased ones, for a road very much frequented 
by drovers was close by the field containing his sheep. This 
is the only cause to which he can trace the disease, for his 
cattle had never been off his farm. They were yearling heifers, 
in good condition for breeding. These were first attacked, and 
the disease afterwards gradually spread to all the others. They 
were all affected in the mouth, and more than half of them in 
the foot. In sheep and pigs it was most prevalent in the feet, 
in cattle in the mouth. 
As soon as they appeared to be attacked, aperient medicines, 
consisting of one pound of Epsom salts and two ounces of ginger, 
were given, and their mouths were washed, sometimes with strong 
salt and water, and at other times with a mixture of chloride of 
lime and water. When they got a little better, they were fed with 
boiled linseed and chopped hay and turnips and carrots. The 
sheep had smaller doses of medicine, but with no difference in the 
food. 
Out of seventy beasts of all ages he lost a yearling steer, that 
was much affected in the head and eyes, and a sucking calf about 
ten days old. Out of 200 ewes he lost four, and out of 200 
lamb -hogs five — out 200 ram-hogs none — out of a litter of eight 
pigs, seven weeks old, four — and, out of twelve older pigs, nine. 
The milk invariably diminished for a time. In some it ceased 
altogether, but in the greater part it returned. 
Pregnant females were not exempt from the disease. There was 
no case of abortion. One calf exhibited the disease at a week 
old, and died in three days. 
The sheep were generally left very weak, and particularly the 
lamb-hogs. Among the cattle the milch cows suffered most, and 
the feeding bullocks the least. 
The cattle got clear of it about Christmas, and the sheep could 
only be considered as recovered for a considerable period after- 
wards. 
