536 
ROT IN SHEEP. 
And I may go further, and say that even on farms where we 
have what are called rotting pastures on which the sheep are 
placed, the animals might be preserved to a very considerable 
extent simply by giving nitrogenized food and salt, to destroy 
these creatures within the stomach, and prevent their final 
change ; alternating with the salta tonic andinvigorating agent, 
such as sulphate of iron. I do not depend on the salt alone, 
far from it ; but it is a valuable agent, and its value depends 
more upon putting the infusorial creatures and young flukes 
into salt water, as it were, in the stomach, than anything else. 
This is the course I recommend. You have to look to the 
condition of the liver in a wet season; you have to look to 
the necessity of laying the foundation for a good quality of 
blood, by giving the animals nitrogenized food, and throwing 
sulphate of iron into the organism. Every practical patho¬ 
logist, human or veterinary, knows very well that if you have 
an anaemiated or bloodless state of the system—if there is a 
deficiency of the red cells, upon which the invigorating pro¬ 
perties of the blood depend, those cells will rapidly multiply, 
and the blood regain its proper colour by the use of iron. 
This is the reason why sulphate of iron should be employed. 
It should be given in fine powder, about twice or thrice a 
week, and in doses of about half a drachm a day; not, however, 
that a larger quantity would be prejudicial. The sheep should 
be divided into small lots ; and if you have about a score 
feeding in one trough, there should be ten drachms of 
sulphate of iron mixed with the food for the day; and then, 
if one should get a little more, and another not quite so much, it 
will be of very little importance; alternately with the sulphate 
of iron we must also employ salt. There are matters of 
detail which, of course, every individual farmer must carry out 
for himself; but if he will adopt the leading principles that 
I have attempted to lay down this morning, although in a 
very imperfect manner, he will save a considerable number 
of his sheep from falling a sacrifice to the affection which 
is commonly designated “rot.” 
