530 
ROT IN SHEEP. 
impaired appetite; subsequently there is a gradual wasting 
of the body, and this is a matter of some importance to us, 
because we find it takes place even before other symptoms 
which are looked upon as unmistakeable evidences of the 
existence of the disease show themselves, at any rate to any 
great extent. It is always a suspicious circumstance if you 
find that animals have done remarkably well, and then 
towards the latter period of the year, when they should be 
maintaining their condition, they begin to waste. If you 
put your hand upon them and find them “dean on the back/’ 
as it is called, that the vertebrae are sticking up, and are bare 
of flesh, if you find the animals “ razor-backed,” if I may 
use the expression, it is a pretty good indication that they 
are affected. This state of wasting being once established, 
it continues, and we then get a pale state of the skin, which 
becomes of a yellowish tint, and very frequently it may be 
said that jaundice to some extent becomes associated with 
dropsy. If you open a sheep which is in a somewhat ad¬ 
vanced stage of the affection, what will you observe with 
regard to its fat ? That it is particularly yellow; and if I 
were an inspector of the metropolitan markets, and were to see 
a number of sheep which were very deficient both in flesh and 
in fat, and that which existed was of a yellow colour, 1 should 
at once infer that they were affected with rot; and I know 
from experience that I should rightly come to such a con¬ 
clusion. We afterwards find that the inner angle of the 
eye becomes exceedingly pale, so that when we evert the 
lids and press forward the mernbrana nictitans , we find, in¬ 
stead of its being in a healthy condition, that is, covered 
with a number of’ red lines, marking vessels through which 
the blood flows, that, the blood being deprived of its red 
cells, the organ is colourless. Now, it may be said this 
is little more than shepherd’s knowledge. Well, we admit 
that it is shepherd’s knowledge, but it is nevertheless valuable 
to us as far as it goes, especially if we associate it with other 
symptoms. Next we have, generally speaking, a symptom 
which shows itself in conjunction with this wasting, this fas¬ 
tidious appetite, this yellow state of the skin and unhealthy 
condition of the wool, and blanched state of the vessels, 
namely, increased thirst. You generally find that the 
sheep, having the facility of getting down to the water, will 
very frequently be drinking to a much larger extent than 
healthy sheep will do. This evidently arises from the cir¬ 
cumstance that there is a great drain going on upon the s} t s- 
tem, that the blood itself is being deprived of its watery 
parts, and that water must be taken into the organism to 
