5G8 
PLEURISY IN TIIE SIIEEP. 
ail the maladies of the sheep, inflammation of the lungs is least un- 
derstood, and yet very common. It usually appears in the months 
of January and February. The proprietors and cultivators of this 
country buy in lean sheep in October, November, and Decem- 
ber, in order to fatten and resell them in the course of the succeed- 
ing year. They had previously been much neglected and badly 
fed, and they had been driven from market to market, exposed to 
the intemperature of the weather. They are now suddenly placed 
in comfortable sheep-cotes, and have as much as they will eat, 
and that of stimulating food. Is it astonishing that inflammatory 
complaints should break out among them ? 
The cause of the complaint, then, is the state of poverty in 
which they are bought, and the improvement of condition rapidly 
and to a great extent, acquired by means of food too abundant 
and too succulent, and administered without discernment — their 
confinement in sheep-cotes hot and ill-ventilated, and the ema- 
nations from the dung and urine too long left in them. 
The symptoms are red and injected conjunctiva, hot mouth, 
accelerated pulse, and laborious breathing — the muzzle of the 
sheep rests on the side, and the animal makes frequent attempts 
to get rid of a yellow mucus with which the nostrils are clogged. 
One symptom is remarkable and alwa}'s present — namely, great 
tenderness of the loins. If the animal is pressed on that part, he 
will often fall suddenly to the ground. The duration of the ma- 
lady is from twenty-four to thirty hours, and its termination is 
always fatal, if medical assistance is not had recourse to without 
delay. The lungs are the chief or only seat of disease. The 
exterior lobes are those which are ordinarily or alone affected. 
If they are cut into they are found to be hard, and the knife creaks 
as it passes through them ; and if they are thrown into water, 
they sink immediately to the bottom. Sometimes it is found in 
the left lobe alone, but then the whole extent of that lobe is dis- 
eased, and the other lobe is perfectly sound*. 
Treatment . — This must be of an antiphlogistic character. Ve- 
nesection should be immediately resorted to, and repeated two or 
three times if necessary in the course of twenty-four hours. I 
have bled as often as three times, and in neither instance did I 
stop the bleeding until the animal began to stagger. I have al- 
ways succeeded when I have been consulted in an early stage of 
the disease, and adopted this course. To this were added, after 
the bleedings were ended, warm drinks in which a little nitre, 
* It is to be lamented that M. Seron has not described more accurately, 
and in detail, the morbid lesions of this disease. The appearances which he 
has recorded are plainly those of chronic and not acute inflammation of the 
lungs. 
