VETERINARY JURISPRUDEXCE. 
225 
send fifteen packets. Some conversation then took place. It seemed 
that soft soap was used in dipping, and Mr. Black said “ You will have 
to send me some soft soap,” or something of that kind. The young 
man said the quantity required would be two casks, at all events he 
would send the proper quantity; so that the order was given for the 
fifteen packages and the proper quantity of soft soap. The address 
was given to be left at the Lockhart Station. Mr. Black having given 
the order, went home to New Heaton; and shortly afterwards he did 
get fifteen packages, each labelled in the way he had mentioned. Bach 
package bad upon it the directions how it was to be used. It was 
headed—“ Superior bath for sheep, prepared by J. Elliott, chemist and 
druggist, Hyde Hill, Berwick. Pour upon each packet 3 or 4 gallons 
of boiling water, and stir well for the space of ten minutes ; add about 
45 gallons of cold water, and dissolve in the mixture 41b. of soft soap. 
The preparation will then be completed, and the quantity sufficient to dip 
50 hogs.” Then the direction proceeded—“The mixture must be put 
into a tub or other vessel sufficiently large to allow the sheep (except 
the head) to be immersed in it, without running over. YYhen the 
sheep is taken out, it must be placed in another vessel, and the liquid 
pressed from the wool and returned again into the dipping vessel.” 
Now, of course, that was an important document in the cause, because 
they had it there in print, so that there could be no mistake about the 
directions given by the defendant himself as to the way in which, and 
the quantity in which, that mixture was to be applied. Now, the order 
was given on the 7th of August. On the Saturday following, every¬ 
thing having been prepared for the operation of dipping, that operation 
was performed—on the 14th of August. They did follow the direc¬ 
tions most scrupulously, with—if he might call it so—the exception 
that they added more water, so that it might weaken the mixture instead 
of strengthening it; and therefore that exception—if it might be called 
so—could have no effect upon the parties who so used it. The sheep 
that were dipped consisted of, as he had told them, 86.9, and only four¬ 
teen of the packages were used; so that instead of anything being in 
excess, everything was the reverse; in one word, he might say that 
those directions were complied with. The sheep were brought from 
considerable distances to the sheds, and they were turned back into the 
sheds at intervals during the day, and all appeared to have gone on well. 
Nothing, he believed, occurred on Sunday; but on Monday, in the 
afternoon, the shepherd found one of the sheep dead. That was the first 
thing that attracted his attention. He took it home. He went back 
and found several more dead. The symptoms appeared to be stagger¬ 
ing, giddiness, and sickness, and then becoming faint and lying down, 
and very soon dying. The skin, soon after death, about the under¬ 
parts, became blue and discoloured; and there could be no doubt that 
these sheep died from poison. They continued dying on the Tuesday 
in large numbers, and a message was sent to Mr. Elliott, the defendant, 
informing him what was going on. He was from home. Some com¬ 
munication had been made to him from Berwick, and on the Wednes¬ 
day after he arrived, between three and four o’clock. He believed that no 
less than about 650 sheep had then died—all attacked by the same symp¬ 
toms, and most of them dying in the order in which they were dipped. 
That was the scene Mr. Elliott witnessed when he arrived. Mr. Brown 
had a great deal of conversation with him. He was of course exceed¬ 
ingly depressed about it. It was a fearful calamity for him, and so it 
was under any circumstances to the defendant. The defendant told 
Mr. Brown that he was satisfied that those sheep had died owing to the 
