AT THE LONDON FARMERS’ CLUB. 
697 
to take the matter into your own hands : I am persuaded that you 
would thus, in the majority of cases, do more harm than good. 
But with regard to the other means— the means of prevention — ■ 
those do come within your province, and may, if properly applied, 
not only mitigate the disease in the animals attacked, but in a great 
many cases actually save animals from its influence. 
With respect to food, I would observe that that which is grown 
in low and wet situations is apt to produce disease of a similar 
character to that which I have described, and it is, of course, neces- 
sary that warmth should be more attended to in such situations 
than in high and dry ones : and I have very little doubt, that after 
such a summer as we have had this year, after so much rain has 
fallen, and with the prospect of a cold harsh winter, the disease 
will be more prevalent even than it has been, and you must look 
forward to greater losses than you have hitherto sustained. I 
would therefore suggest a resort to sheltering, as much as possible, 
as a means of preventing the ravages of the disease. It would be 
infinitely better to seek the assistance of one who has been in the 
habit of attending to the disease, than to go on tampering with it 
without the proper means. Long experience has convinced me 
that a great many more animals are lost by an indiscriminate re- 
sort to the drug-shop than from the natural operation of disease 
itself. Every druggist has a nostrum for all the diseases to which 
all the animals in his neighbourhood are subject. It very fre- 
quently happens, however, that this nostrum given is a poison in 
direct opposition to the real wants of the animal. When an ani- 
mal has suffered in lambing or foaling, it is by no means uncom- 
mon to pour burning matter into the excoriated parts ; this is done 
with the idea of giving relief. The question with regard to such 
treatment is, not how many animals live under it, but how many 
die under it. It is always bad to tamper in such cases. In the 
great bulk of instances it will be found that if proper attention 
were paid to the condition of the animal — if, when an animal was 
found looking rough in his coat, or beginning to loiter and keep 
away from his companions, it were at once concluded that some- 
thing was wrong, and the animal was at once taken away from the 
rest, sheltered, and nourished, he might in the course of a few days 
return in comparative health. It is vain, however, to leave these 
things to the shepherd or the herdsman : from this cause it is that 
the disease has been propagated, and has gone on until it has 
reached the present point. An eye a little more interested and 
quicker than that of a servant is required to carry out what is 
needed. 
As a matter of course, the greatest amount of disease will be 
found to exist at those two periods of the year when the greatest 
VOL. XXL 5 B 
