ROT IN SHEEP. 
543 
without entering into minutiae, surely it must be absurd to imagine, 
that in every case the diseases of the horse are precisely the 
same as those of sheep. The system which predominates in the 
first is comparatively weak in the second ; and can the animal 
which possesses scarcely two kilogrammes of blood be as sub¬ 
ject to inflammation as the horse and the ox, in which this fluid 
abounds ? 
The opinion of Hurtrel d’Arboval, with regard to the nature of 
this complaint, is the most generally known, and deserves notice. 
1. According to this author, “ the debility which always ac¬ 
companies disease in the sheep is a proof of internal inflamma¬ 
tion, and which inflammation he traces to the mucous membrane 
of the stomach and bowels. 
2. “ Water, taken in considerable quantity, impedes the di¬ 
gestive function—it irritates by its mass—it presses upon the 
epigastrium, where it produces a sedative impression on the mu¬ 
cous membrane of the intestines; but this is soon succeeded by 
irritation, and even by inflammation. 
3. “ Plants deteriorated in their quality—without juice—fer¬ 
menting—deprived of their pleasant and stimulating taste, rob 
the system of those nourishing and renovating fluids which it 
needs, and become the foundation of divers gastro-intestinal irri¬ 
tations, which re-act on other organs. 
4. “ The extreme warmth of the sheepcotes irritate the skin, 
with which the mucous membrane of the stomach sympathizes, 
and the irritation is propagated to the intestinal canal and the 
biliary passages.” And all these inflammations are produced 
where there are only four pounds of blood ! Excellent pathology ! 
But the sheep die. Behold the traces of all this inflammatory 
action. Let M. D’Arboval speak for himself: — 
“ The cellular tissue is infiltrated with serum, the muscles are 
discoloured, pale, macerated, softened—the substance of the 
liver is soft; it breaks between the fingers; sometimes it is 
scirrhous, and its vessels obliterated—in old beasts the kidneys 
are white, flaccid, infiltrated—it is the same with the stomachs 
and intestines. The peritoneal surface is smooth, transparent, 
and bathed with more or less serosity. The mucous membrane 
is thick set with dull coloured spots—there is hydrothorax and 
ascites. The blood does not coagulate—it is more serous than 
in health.” 
Behold, then, an inflammatory disease which scarcely leaves 
a trace of its existence in the organs which it attacked. 
According to the reasoning of M. Hurtrel D’Arboval, aqueous 
plants, and water itself, produces inflammation, of which ascites 
and hydrothorax can only be purely secondary consequences ; 
