362 
DISORDER AMONG SHEEP. 
black, oily, and of the nature of pitch. There was also pulmo- 
nary congestion, which was well explained by the frequency and 
difficulty of respiration. 
Rec. de Med. Vet., Fev. 1840. 
DISORDER AMONG SHEEP. 
[We extract the subjoined accounts from the Mark Lane Express 
of May the 3d and the 17th. Can they require one word of 
comment ? — Y.] 
May 3 d . — His Grace the Duke of Rutland communicated to 
the Society the report of his farm bailiff, at the Belvoir Castle 
Farm, on a new disease which had, within the previous fortnight, 
appeared among the hogs of his Grace’s flock of sheep, and 
which he regarded as distinct from any disorder he had ever wit- 
nessed. The animals appeared to lose their condition gradually 
during the course of a fortnight or three weeks, and then they died. 
The bailiff, on examining their livers, found them to be more 
or less affected, some of them having become so very tender as 
not to be able to bear their own weight, and in one case the liver 
was nearly wasted away : in none of the livers, however, were 
found any of the flukes that are so common in those of rotten 
sheep. The bailiff further stated, that the sheep had always fed 
on dry healthy land — that the hogs in question had not been at- 
tacked by the ordinary distemper, and that, a month ago, they 
were looking very thin, and, to all appearance, affected in the 
same manner as those which had died. 
The following report on these symptoms was transmitted to 
the Council by Professor Sewell, of the Royal Veterinary Col- 
lege : — 
“ No disease exactly resembling that which has lately shewn 
itself in the Duke of Rutland’s flock having been reported to the 
Society from other districts, it is requisite, with a view to ascer- 
tain its true character from the commencement, to select a few, 
and place them under the care of a veterinary surgeon for obser- 
vation and treatment. To attain this object, three or four might 
be sent to the Veterinary College. 
“ The disease appears to terminate in a degeneracy of the 
structure of the liver, and, consequently, its functions ; and pro- 
bably originates in inflammation of that viscus. 
“ The variable temperature which has prevailed of late, and 
probably some peculiar state of the situation, may favour a tend- 
ency to the disease. A change of place and aspect, and food to 
