ON THE DRACONCULE OF LAMBS. 
523 
course, be much more violent in rainy seasons; while, on the con¬ 
trary, experience proves that the malady rages most in the dryest 
vears. 
1/ 
As to the pastures in which my lambs were fed, the clover and 
grass were this year so thick, that it was scarcely possible they 
could be covered with sand even by the hardest rains; neverthe¬ 
less the disease made its appearance in the latter part of July, 
but with new symptoms. It was first marked by a cough, which 
I had never observed before. In the first lambs that died, and 
w r ere opened, the liver and lungs were perfectly healthy, and w y e 
could find no worms : in those that afterwards died we found a 
great quantity in the stomach and intestines; and at last we 
found them in the lung's and liver, which had now the same dis- 
eased appearance I have before described. 
The only remedy then known for this disease (better pasture) 
could not be given to the sheep, for the red and white clover, and 
the stubble field of wheat and rye, which I had provided, were of 
no more avail than the pastures which they then were in. They 
would not eat oats, and preferred fine straw to all other food. As 
they were but little thirsty in succulent pastures, they drank only a 
very small quantity of the water mixed with spirit of wine, which 
I knew had been efficacious in many cases : we gave them regu¬ 
larly a certain quantity of salt, and, as I had made use of bitter 
plants for their food without success, I was unwilling to try them 
again. 
In the meantime the disease increased ; diarrhoea shewed it¬ 
self much later, and as the consequence of that disease of which 
before it had appeared to be the cause. By the 1st of Septem¬ 
ber I had lost nearly two hundred lambs ; and I already regarded 
as lost my six hundred lambs which had before been my pride 
and delight. 
Meanwhile I considered the disease in a new light. I could 
no longer regard it as the consequence of diarrhoea. I began to 
perceive that the draconcule existed in sheep as the ascarides in 
children ; and that certain kinds of food, not yet sufficiently 
known, nourished the animals less than they did the worms; 
that they weakened the former, while they so far increased the 
worms, that they compromised the health and even the life of the 
lambs. 
I knew that spirit of turpentine was often used to destroy the 
tapeworm. It could not be absolutely hurtful to ruminants, 
since it was administered in various diseases : all vermin were 
destroyed by it, and the idea occurred to me to try it with my 
sick lambs. 
I accordingly mixed one part of spirit of turpentine with three 
parts of rectified spirit. I selected six of the most miserable 
