ROT IN SHEEP. 
275 
England, probably from the baneful effects which attend its 
progress. It is also occasionally called “ coathe,” a term which 
seems in part to describe, if not the nature of the affection, 
certain symptoms which attend its progress. It is somewhat 
difficult to trace out many of the local terms given to 
affections; but I have been enabled, I think, satisfactorily 
to find the origin of this term “ coathe. 5 ’ It appears to 
come from the old Saxon word <c cothe,” which signifies to 
swoon or faint; and it is well known that animals affected 
with rot are exceedingly weak and debilitated, and some¬ 
times so exhausted as to be liable to faint or swoon. I shall 
not intrude upon the meeting to any extent with regard to 
these names, but it will be necessary for me to refer for a 
moment to another term which is used, not in England, but 
on the continent, to express this affection, namely, 
<£ cachexia/’ or, as it is called in French, <£ cacliexie aqueuse ” 
to signify a dropsical condition of the body. And this, again, 
sets forth somewhat the pathology of the malady, for we find 
that in its advanced stages there are dropsical effusions 
which take place into the different structures; hence the 
origin of this name. With regard to the term cachexia, by 
itself, it simply signifies in medical language a bad habit of 
body, and it is not, therefore, by any means an appropriate 
one to be used for this affection. None of the names I have 
mentioned, in reality, at all show the nature of the disease; 
they simply describe certain conditional states of the body 
and the effects which follow upon these conditional states; 
and it would be very desirable, if we possibly could, to 
employ such a term as should express the pathology of the 
malady. 1 may also observe that there are a great number 
of different diseases affecting sheep which pass by the 
common term “ rot and this of course will explain why 
various opinions are entertained with regard to the disease 
by different persons. These persons, in reality, describe 
two or more distinct affections, and hence they are not 
likely to agree as to their nature and symptoms. You oc¬ 
casionally hear such terms as “water-rot” and “ fluke-rot,” 
leading one to suppose that with one variety of rot you have a 
dropsical condition of the body, and that with another you 
have certain entozoa located in a part of the organism, com¬ 
monly designated flukes. I would rather, however, confine 
the term rot, if we are still to use it, to that affection in 
which we have flukes, as they are called, in the biliarv ducts 
of the liver, setting aside entirely every other disease that has 
been classed under that name. I shall have to show you, per¬ 
haps, in the course of my remarks, that dropsical affections, 
