8 MR. youatt’s introductory lecture 
and whose opinion would be accounted far more valuable than 
that of the theoretical surgeon, have written on the diseases of do¬ 
mestic animals. We do in truth derive from them most impor¬ 
tant information respecting the different breeds of cattle, sheep, 
and swine, their relative value , and general treatment. Here we 
may repose almost implicit confidence on them, and follow their 
directions strictly and advantageously. 
But what of the diseases of domestic quadrupeds ? Let the fol¬ 
lowing extracts determine. 
I will first take Mr. Parkinson, who stands at the head of our 
agricultural writers, and who has received a silver medal from the 
Sodety of Arts, for his discovery of a remedy for the “ foot-rot” 
in sheep. 
He shall first speak of the “ Foul in the Foot.” “ Cut up a ^ 
u sod where the diseased foot has trodden, and either turn it over 
“ sward-side downwards, or hang it up in a hedge in that posi- 
tion # .” Mr. Parkinson very sensibly adds, “ I am unable to ac¬ 
count for this cause ; to me it is incomprehensible: but in all the 
experiments I have tried, this remedy, so simple and so cheap, has 
proved the best, and I never mean to have recourse to any remedy 
but the sod.” 
Perhaps we shall like him better on the “ Green Skit,” or di¬ 
arrhoea of sheep. “Take a green willow twig, one of the last 
shoots, and having twisted it, put it round the neck of the sheep, 
and it will immediately stop the skitf.” 
Mr. Parkinson applied to the Society of Arts for another silver 
medal, as a very inadequate reward for this most wonderful and 
inestimable discovery. The committee, however, had not suffici¬ 
ent penetration or public spirit duly to appreciate his claims, al¬ 
though one of them very kindly and properly observed, that he 
had no doubt peeled willow, used in the same manner, would cure 
the white skit. 
- The fairest method, however, will be to select some disease of 
cattle, and bring into a focus all the light which veterinarians 
have thrown upon it. I will take “ Red Water,” inflammation 
of the kidneys, either primaiy, or connected with, or consequent 
on some other disease; a disease which admits not of a stimu¬ 
lating treatment, and least of all a stimulus applied to the parts 
principally affected. 
I take first Mr. Parkinson. “ I have known it cured with but¬ 
ter-milk and pigs' dung, and a frog with a large quantity of 
cold spring water. But the following remedy I have never known 
to fail. Take two or three handfuls of stinging nettles, and boil 
or stew them slowly in three quarts of water, until reduced to 
* Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i, p. 245. t Id. p. 411. 
