510 
IiAMONT r AND FISCHER ON THE 
of leaves gathered too young, and given too early in the morn¬ 
ing without having been exposed to the influence of the sun. 
Certainly these causes may produce the disease now under 
consideration, but there is another cause unknown and unsus¬ 
pected, both by the Arabs and Syrians. When the mulberry 
trees, bein^r too vouns:, no longer furnish sufficient nourishment, 
the persons charged with the care of the worms give them, during 
seven or eight days, the tender leaves of the mallow'. This food 
is certainly injurious: the worm immediately suffers by it—it is 
soon attacked by the rot, and which never quits it except the 
food is speedily changed. 
Before we determine the immediate causes of the rot in sheep, 
it will, perhaps, be- necessary to enter into some detail of the 
peculiar conformation and habits of this animal. This, perhaps, 
will explain the reason why the rot attacks this animal oftener 
than and in preference to any other living creature, and will also 
elucidate the nature of the malady, and lead us to a rational mode 
of treatment. 
A skilful agriculturist, M. Gasparin, in a very instructive work 
on the contagious maladies of sheep, has entered into some 
interesting anatomical and physiological considerations. “ The 
sheep/ 7 says he, “ has a nervous system, possessed of little irri¬ 
tability : he is rarely attacked by spasmodic diseases ; his bones 
are spongy; the principle of vitality is very feeble in him; his 
muscles are weak, the fleshy columns of his heart are small; but 
the liver, and the digestive organs, and the lymphatic system, are 
developed. He has little blood compared with man, the horse, 
or the ox. A full grown lean sheep, weighing twenty-five kilo¬ 
grammes (55| pounds), has about two kilogrammes (nearly 4^ 
pounds) of blood, while, according to M. Richerand, an adult lean 
man, weighing seventy kilogrammes (154J pounds),has twenty- 
eight or thirty pounds of blood. The result of such a structure is 
that the locomotive powers of these animals are generally feeble, 
and this is proved by the difficulty with which a sheep can be 
made to travel four or five leagues per day/’ 
If this is true, it will be evident that the diseases to which, 
in the ordinary and natural course of his life, he will be subject, 
will differ from those of man or of the horse, whose organiza¬ 
tion is more complex. 
It will also be evident, that to make such an animal capable 
of rendering the services which man expects from him, and fur¬ 
nishing the products which are so necessary to our existence, the 
utmost care must be bestowed on him. In those countries 
where the management of the flock is confided to ignorant shep- 
