40 
ON THE FOOT HOT IN SHEEP. 
ments have been tried by the French and others, by a direct appli¬ 
cation of the matter to the feet of sheep, on abraded and non-abraded 
surfaces; but the results have not been satisfactory. Now, if a 
direct manual application of the discharge to the feet of sheep 
scarcely, if ever, produces the malady, how can sheep acquire the 
foot-rot from one another by walking or treading about while feed¬ 
ing, Avhen it is with so much difficulty produced by the actual con¬ 
tact of matter discharged from feet having the disease 1 The dis¬ 
charge issuing from feet in any stage of the disorder is not in a 
very considerable quantity, and must be lost on the land on which 
they are roving about. Neither are they infected while being folded 
so close in contact as to render it almost impossible that they should 
avoid inoculating themselves. 
Shepherds and sheep-breeders, however, cannot be dissuaded 
that if a piece of land, or an enclosure, which gave their flock the foot- 
rot seven years since, should, at the end of that period, have some 
sheep turned upon it, and again—although none had been pastured 
there during those years—contract the lameness—they cannot, I 
say, be dissuaded from the belief that it must have remained in 
the ground with all its virulence the whole time, not thinking that 
the same soil which produced it seven years ago is capable of 
producing, for ages to come, and under favourable circumstances, 
the same disease. 
There are, however, many stubborn facts recorded as to its 
infectious nature. Should these happen to be true, can there be 
given off from the feet of sheep labouring under the disease an 
animal effluvium, which, on a soil predisposed to it, is still rendered 
more contagious by uniting with any exhalation from the earth ? 
then, on the other hand, sheep with the foot-rot, put on a sound 
farm, oftentimes cure themselves and do not infect the others. 
Such may be the case, as exhalations vary on different soils in their 
constituent parts as the land does in quality. Now, if empoisoned 
effluvia from the feet, or any malaria from the soil, uniting, be¬ 
come the cause, the effect must be produced on the local part by 
means of respiration whilst depasturing. We all know that there 
' are many local diseases produced through atmospheric agency, 
and of a specific nature, capable of being again produced by inocu¬ 
lation. 
All I can say is, that if any of us were to tell a shepherd it is not 
infectious, our skill as to curing it would be held by him in a rather 
dubious light: however, I will leave all this, and proceed to detail 
my plan of treatment, which consists in the proper application of 
the bichloride of mercury in a state of solution. There is no agent 
in Mr. Morton’s valuable “ Veterinary Pharmacopoeia” which so 
disposes the exhalents to throw out lymph from sinuses, or de- 
