ROT IN SHEEP. 
531 
make up for the drain. We find further, that as the disease 
advances a variable state of the feces exists; sometimes the 
sheep will be scouring,' and at other times nothing of the sort 
will be observed; and it is always a suspicious circumstance 
to find sheep in the autumnal months occasionally scouring. I 
would rather see a sheep with a regular lax condition of the 
bowels, than one with a relaxed state to-day and an opposite 
state to-morrow, which may continue for three or four days, 
and then give place to a lax condition again. We can easily 
explain how this is. The bile will be poured out irregularly 
into the intestinal canal; and as it is now changed in its cha¬ 
racter it will act as an irritant to the mucous membrane or the 
intestines. Besides, the flukes frequently form mechanical im¬ 
pediments to the free flow of the bile, when they have so com¬ 
ported themselves as to crowd into the passage; but w hen this 
impediment is overcome, there is a great flow of bile, and the 
contents of the intestines are necessarily carried off in the 
form of fluid faeces. Of course, such animals lose their 
strength very quickly. They are dull, dispirited, and often 
found lying down. As the disease advances, the breathing 
becomes somew T hat difficult; the w r ool is easily removed; 
oedematous swellings, as they are called, begin to show them¬ 
selves and to accumulate in different parts of the body, more 
particularly under the lower jaw. These are nothing more' 
nor less than dropsical effusions; the animal is anasmiated ; 
the blood is surcharged with serum, and then these effu¬ 
sions finding their vray into the areolar tissue in different 
parts of the body, and passing freely through it, accumu¬ 
late particularly, as just observed, under the lower jaw. Why 
is this? Because the animal frequently has its head pen¬ 
dant, and in the act of feeding gravitation of the fluid takes 
place. This anasarcous condition marks a similar state of the 
in ternal organs; thus you get effusions into the cavity of the 
abdomen, and hence many a rotten sheep will have an en¬ 
larged, pendulous belly. The emaciation continues until it 
leads to the death of the animal. It may die within a short 
time—a few weeks; but even under the most unfavorable 
circumstances, it is rare that an animal will die in less than 
sixw r eeks or two months; death, however, may be protracted 
for a much longer period. I come now to speak of the 
treatment of the disease. The treatment of rot, speaking 
of it as curative, must have for its end and object the re¬ 
moval of the cause, and if we have these entozoa which are 
the proximate cause of the affection, all our efforts must be 
made to the displacing of them from the biliary ducts. It is 
to be borne in mind that we have to combat, not only with 
