PARALYSIS IN LAMBS. 
229 
siderable benefit; and in a few days they were enabled to 
stand: at the expiration of a week we ceased to bathe them, 
when they became rapidly worse than before, and were killed. 
They kept their condition during the whole of the disease. 
Since this, more of the same flock (lambs two months old), 
have been attacked with a similar affection. 
This disease is not congenital, as the language of our friend, 
Mr. Garland, would lead us to suppose. It is the consequence 
of the ewes and lambs being too much exposed in severe 
weather. When a weakly lamb is just dropped, and passing 
from the temperature of the uterus to some degrees, possibly, 
below the freezing point, and unable at first to use his limbs, if 
he lies for an hour on a bed of snow, or on the wet ground, in 
a cold, bleak situation, he is seized with this complaint. It is 
a combination of rheumatism and palsy, occasionally affecting, 
as Mr. Garland describes, only one side, at other times, the 
whole frame. 
Breeders are not sufficiently careful of their ewes at yeaning 
time. Even a warm quick hedge in a field would considerably 
lessen the mortality among the lambs; but a shed, even of the 
rudest construction, composed of faggots and hop-poles only, 
and that can again be taken down when the lambing season is 
over, would more than trebly pay its expense. 
We know no remedy for this disease but warmth. The 
warmth of any closed place will often be sufficient. If the 
lamb be perfectly helpless, it may be put into a hamper 
or box, and covered with some coarse woollen substance. It 
should also be fed with warm milk ten or a dozen times a day. 
As soon as the lamb is able to toddle a little about, it may be 
returned to its mother, or placed in some diy and sheltered 
situation. If purging accompany the paralysis, a little sheep's 
cordial may be used ; but, otherwise, medicine is of little avail. 
The best formula we know for this empirical, but very useful 
medicine, is the following:— 
Prepared chalk .one pound 
Powdered catechu.half a pound 
Powdered ginger .a quarter of a pound 
Laudanum and peppermint water each a pint. 
Edit. 
