THE EPIDEMIC AND INFLUENZA AMONG SHEEP. 145 
we were therefore compelled to modify the general treatment, which 
then answered very well, both as regards the epidemic as well as 
the influenza. Instead of purging salts, we daily administered to 
each sheep from half a drachm to a drachm of saltpetre, dissolved 
in a wine-glass of water, to which was added a wine-glass of cold- 
drawn linseed oil. The mouth and feet were treated the same as in 
cattle. In cases of influenza, where there is quickness of breathing, 
half a pint of blood should be abstracted, and repeated the next 
day if necessary, either by bleeding at the nostrils, or under the 
eyes, or else at the jugular vein. Should the linseed oil not be 
adequate to remove the constipation of the bowels, ten grains of 
rhubarb may be added to the other medicine, and repeated every 
other day, or according to circumstances; but purging must be 
avoided, as it either, when once set in, becomes uncontrollable, or 
else the animal rapidly sinks under the debilitating effects of it. 
The most simple way of regulating the doses of saltpetre is, by 
putting into a quart bottle of water one ounce of the salt for half 
drachm doses, or else two ounces of it for drachm doses, dividing 
the quart mixture into sixteen doses. The above treatment will 
be found safe and effectual in the epidemic, and as successful as 
any in influenza ; but the latter disease is of a more complicated 
and dangerous nature, and there will be cases which will baffle all 
treatment. Where, in influenza, there is a discharge like glue, 
sticking to the nostrils, and very fetid, twenty drops of sweet spirits 
of nitre should be added to the daily dose of the mixture ; if di- 
arrhoea occurs, it must be stopped by giving wheat-flour gruel, thick- 
ened with starch, to which may be added chalk and a little cinna- 
mon. • The sheep should be penned at night, or put under airy sheds, 
so as to be kept dry and comfortable, with plenty of fresh dry straw 
under them ; they should be foddered with good choice hay, and 
those that will not eat must be kept upon oatmeal gruel horned 
into them. When fine, they must be turned out, but not until the 
frost or dew is off the ground, and the sun well up, taking care to 
•pen them up early in the afternoon, as soon as the sun is sinking 
down in the west. 
I forgot to state in my paper on cattle, that they should be dieted 
with nice choice hay, or, according to the season of the year, grass 
or young clover, cut turnips, and bran mashes; but when their 
mouths are so bad as to prevent their feeding, they must be nursed 
with oatmeal gruel and linseed tea, giving them oatmeal to drink 
in their water. 
In conclusion, allow me to return you thanks for your kind in- 
sertion of my papers in your valuable Journal. I trust they may 
be found of service to the parties they are intended for. At any rate, 
1 have had the pleasing task of attempting to do that duty which 
