THE CATTLE, SHEEP, &C, OF CORNWALL. 573 
well calculated to meliorate the quality and the quantity of their 
wool. At the period that this gentleman wrote, the loot-rot was 
not known ; and I believe that the disease was not seen in the 
county before the introduction of the Dishley breed : it is con¬ 
sidered contagious, and chiefly occurs upon good pasture. 
The scab is a prevailing disease, and is generally cured by 
rubbing upon the diseased parts a liniment, composed of sulphur, 
spirit of turpentine, and fish oil. 
The rot has engaged the attention of most of our scientific 
farmers; but I believe that neither its nature nor its cause have 
been discovered by them. The Cornish farmer calls this disease 
the “iles.” It is observed to attack those sheep that chiefly 
feed in moory and boggy places. On this sort of land grows 
abundance of “ rosa soils,” to which our country people also give 
the name of u iles,” to the eating of the leaves of which they 
attribute this disease. 
When we consider that the all-bounteous Providence has given 
to every animal its peculiar taste, by which it distinguishes the 
food proper for its preservation and support, it seems very diffi¬ 
cult to discover, on philosophical principles, why, or in what 
manner, the leaves of this plant should produce this disease; but 
the case appears very plain, if, as is generally believed, that the 
eggs of a certain worm are laid on the plant, which produces in 
the livers of those sheep that eat them great numbers of animals, 
flat and round, like a plaice: this is the prevailing hypothesis 
in my neighbourhood. 
I have conversed with several judicious farmers on the subject 
of hydatids. They appear to be at issue as to the cause; some 
believing them to be produced by animalculse, whilst others attri¬ 
bute their appearance in the liver and brain to their being gene¬ 
rated in those organs. A very important and interesting question 
arises from this, as to the power in deranged animal substance 
of forming other bodies, and those endowed with vitality; for 
there is no doubt of their being alive, having oftentimes seen 
them move when taken out of the liver and put into warm water, 
where they retain this power of motion for many hours after the 
death of the sheep. 
With respect to the cure of this disease,^ the vis medicatrix 
naturae is not sufficient to effect a cure, the patients mostly fall 
a sacrifice to their ravages. Our graziers chiefly depend on re¬ 
moving the sheep to a dry situation, or keeping them warm and 
sheltered, with dry food, in the farm-yard. Some who live near 
the sea turn their sheep affected with this disease into the salt 
marshes, when, if the disease has not long existed, they get cured. 
VOL. IV. 4 I 
