78 
GRASS-ILL, JUMPING-ILL, &C. 
indisposition since that period. This statement led me to 
suppose that the liver might be disorganized, and that a rupturo 
of that organ was the probable cause of death. On opening the 
abdomen, I found the contents covered with extravasated blood, 
which had issued from a deep rupture in the large lobe of the 
liver, extending nearly across it. The structure of this viscus 
was disorganized, of a reddish clay colour, with the thin parts 
dry and brittle. There was a coagulum adhering to the peri¬ 
toneum, which was formed into a sac. As the liver had lost its 
tenacity, it probably became slightly ruptured when the mare 
hung in the fence; and so long as the peritoneal covering was 
able to restrain the extravasated blood, the animal suffered no 
apparent constitutional derangement: but when that membrane 
burst, the texture of the liver easily separated; profuse haemorr¬ 
hage was a necessary consequence, and death the inevitable 
result. 
ON GRASS-ILL, JUMPING-ILL, 8cc. IN SHEEP AND 
OTHER ANIMALS. 
By Mr. Corbet, F.S., Simonburn, near Hexham. 
During the spring of 1830, a disease seized a great many o^ 
the sheep in the out lands in my neighbourhod denomi ated 1 
Grass-ill , Jumping-ill, Leaping-ill, fyc. : above one-third of 
many of the farmers’ sheep died of it. The disease paid little 
respect to any kind, and lambs and ewes died equally as fast as 
the fatting sheep: cows and cattle of all ages are subject to it; 
and hens, ducks, geese, swine, 8cc. I have every reason to be¬ 
lieve that a yearling colt, at present under my care, is labouring 
under the same complaint; but it is rarely met with in horses. 
The land most commonly producing the disease is such as can 
be remembered to have been covered with wood, perhaps, half a 
century ago; but our inland does not often produce such com¬ 
plaints. 
Many cattle, on being first affected, may be said to become 
completely mad, on account of their furious manner ; and some 
die in a very few hours, particularly sheep. 
The most conspicuous feature of the complaint in the colt is 
very obstinate costiveness, loss of the use of his limbs, and his 
being much inclined to fall backwards; but the appetite remains 
tolerably good. There was no great distortion of the eye, nor any 
peculiar throbbing of the temporal artery; the pulse was 70 ; the 
mouth hot; the extremities rather cool. The disease was proba¬ 
bly the consequence of indigestion. I was informed that dogs 
