534 
ROT IN SHEEP. 
we possibly can. When we have animals in this condition, 
there will be a great advantage arising from the employment 
of diffusible stimulants, and such, which to some extent, are 
also powerful anthelmintics. For example, we may use turpen¬ 
tine (which the animals must of course be dosed with) in con¬ 
junction with sulphuric ether as invigorating agents. If I were 
to take half a dozen sheep, and simply give them sulphuric 
ether with oil of turpentine, day by day, attending to the other 
things that I have mentioned, not neglecting salt as a stimulant 
to the digestive organs, I think it very likely that two or 
three of them (according to the stage of the disease) would 
be greatly benefited by the treatment. But that is really 
not the great question for us to consider. We are not to 
become advocates for the curing of rot in sheep ; but we are 
to become advocates for preventing the disease, and that is 
the reason why, as bearing upon this point, I detained the 
meeting so long with regard to the natural history of the 
fluke. It is well known that sheep do not rot on salt marshes; 
no matter how wet they may be, no rot takes place on them. 
But if sheep are affected with rot upon marshes which are not 
salt, it is then of very little use sending them to salt marshes, 
for you cannot in that way cure the disease. Now, what is 
the explanation of that fact? It is simply this. The infu¬ 
sorial creatures that we have been speaking so much of are 
creatures belonging to fresh water, and not to salt water. If, 
therefore, we were enabled to take a quantity of salt sufficient 
to render all these damp, swampy places in our meadows or 
pools completely salt, we should destroy the whole of these 
creatures, and so get rid of the cause of this affection. But 
we cannot do that. Some persons, being only partially in¬ 
formed on this subject, have been talking of late of strew¬ 
ing salt over the meadows, and letting the sheep go upon 
them. That would be of no advantage, for you could not 
use the quantity necessary for the purpose without destroy¬ 
ing the whole vegetation upon the meadows ; anything short 
of that would be positively of no benefit whatever to the 
sheep. Now, bearing in mind the transformations of the 
fluke-—bearing in mind the fact which I have mentioned, 
that the last change takes place in the stomach, and not in the 
liver; and the other fact, that salt is destructive of these 
infusoria, as we may call them—you will see that if you 
convey salt in sufficient quantity into the stomach, you may 
destroy them there before they undergo the last change, 
and then as flukes find their way into the biliary ducts. 
Thus, if the last metamorphosis is prevented, you get rid of 
the cause. I am therefore, bold enough to say—not that I 
