646 
ON THE ROT IN SHEEP 
it, to have been the medium of much valuable information, as far 
as regards that most noble animal the horse, unto whom, and 
very properly so, its youthful pages have been principally ap¬ 
plied : but, gentlemen, would you allow so humble an individual 
as myself to suggest, that a few of its valuable pages w ould not 
be wasted in the investigation of that terrific (if 1 may be allowed 
so to express it) disease termed the rot in that valued animal 
the sheep, which has made such rapid strides within the last few 
years, that we may truly designate it a national calamity; but, 
at the same time, I think, I may add, there are not two agricul¬ 
turists, nay, I may say, professional men, w ith whom you will con¬ 
verse, but vary in their opinion on this important subject, most 
of them, at the same time, looking to cure instead of cause. In 
fact, there are few days pass but I am asked (and I dare say 
other country practitioners the same), can you cure the rot in 
sheep % What is the practitioner to say % If he answers in the ne¬ 
gative, he is supposed to know nothing of his profession; if, in 
the affirmative, he says more than his conscience dictates to him: 
but here I w T ould not wish to be misunderstood, as I am well 
aware that salt, tonics, such as preparations of iron and copper, 
w ill sometimes prove of service at the onset of the disease. Pro¬ 
bably I maj 7 be thought by some beginning* at the wrong end 
when I suggest, that we first direct our attention to the organs 
found principally affected on post-mortem examination. What 
are they ?—the liver and lungs. Our worthy professor, Cole¬ 
man, in his lectures, says that rot is an indefinite term, and that 
we have many sheep with sound livers, although the lungs are 
highly diseased, arising from being too many together in a fold, 
and breathing* the same atmosphere over several times, highly im¬ 
pregnated with excrementitious matter. I must say, that my 
humble investigations go completely to confirm those of this ac¬ 
curate observer. Now^, might we not term this pthisis pulmo- 
nalis of the sheep ? But we may have the lungs much diseased 
secondarily, or as a consequence of the disease of liver; and, I 
think, when such is the case, they put on a different appearance 
to what they do in what I have termed pthisis pulmonalis. We 
find the tubercles of a much larger size than when the liver is 
not affected. With regard to the causes of the disease much has 
been said, and many theoretical opinions offered: I mean the 
disease of the liver (considering that the disease of the lungs is 
accounted for in both instances). If I may be allowed an opi¬ 
nion, I would say the most plausible yet offered is that of my old 
preceptor Mr. Youatt, when I had the honour of attending his 
valuable lectures, viz., that some poisonous gas is exhaled from 
the influence of the sun on stagnant w r aters, causing a che- 
