5 22 
ON THE DRACONCULE OF LAMBS. 
lambs are put into other and lower grounds, they are still exposed 
to the disease, for plants may grow on the most elevated spots 
of them which are injurious to sheep. 
According to my observation, nothing is more likely to cause 
this diarrhoea than small red sorrel, which grows principally on 
high, sandy, and rich land : nevertheless, it is also found both on 
moist land and on dry soil; and every time that the disease ap¬ 
peared in my flock, I was persuaded that it was the feeding on 
this plant which gave my sheep the diarrhoea. 
Until the present summer my opinion has been, that the 
diarrhoea becoming chronic, produces a relaxation of the internal 
organic system; and that this relaxation favours the developement 
of the worms, and that to so great a degree, as at length to destroy 
the sheep. 
My opinion has a Little changed this year. I had weaned at 
Saint Jean six hundred fine lambs, and fed them every morning, 
before conducting them to pasture, on oats, hay, and straw. 
During the day I gave them a rich pasture, and, as a change, 
an excellent field of trefoil, on which neither sorrel nor any other 
hurtful plant grew. I was then, as I thought, in perfect security 
this year; for I had not only made use of all the preservative means 
with which I was acquainted, but I had avoided all those circum¬ 
stances connected with the keep of the animals which were be¬ 
lieved to be the occasional cause of the disease. 
I jmist now take occasion to mention, that it is the opinion of 
many, that the sand which the animals eat, and which covers the 
grass during hard rains, is sometimes a cause of the disease. 
This is erroneous. The sand which mingles with the silecious, 
clayey, and calcareous earths, cannot exercise any influence on 
the animal economy, on account of the small portion which is 
swallowed; the pellets of dung which are occasionally mixed 
with it are probably equally innocent. But, in all cases, these 
things are taken in such small quantities, that it is difficult to 
believe that they are hurtful to the animal frame: a much 
stronger reason is, that it is impossible they can produce worms ; 
these are already there. It is probable that it is the bad 
effects of the powder of musty hay which has given rise to this 
idea: but the evil here is neither in the dust nor sand; it is 
in the hay spoiled and decomposed, yet afterwards dried, and 
which turns into powder after it is stacked, and which is very 
little improved by the powder being beaten out. This operation, 
by which the dust and sand are well separated from the hay, 
does it but little good, because the quantity of that which is in¬ 
jurious is only diminished ; it is not entirely got rid of. If it was 
the sand on the grass which causes the disorder, it would, of 
