SHEEP DISEASES : CAUSES, NATURE AND PREVENTION. 265 
undue accumulation of albumen and fibrinous elements in the 
blood, thus taxing the cells to their utmost to appropriate the 
nutritive matter offered to them and so overpowering them, as it 
were, as to prevent their normal function : in this way imperfectly 
formed tissue is produced and the result is the advent of congestive 
and inflammatory conditions (so-called inflammation) and also 
extravasations of blood into the tissues, producing one form of 
so-called red braxy. 
Milk may be briefly alluded to here seeing that it contains a 
relatively large amount of proteid matter as well as fat. It is a 
well-known fact that milk contains all the elements necessary to 
the nourishment of the animal body and it is, practically, the only 
food of which this can be said. If, however, milk is deficient in 
nutrient materials and in salts, owing to some inherent defect in 
the blood of the animal that produces it, we cannot expect, that 
the consumers of it can either retain their health or grow; and, 
as a matter of fact, nearly every disease from which young animals, 
whether lambs or otherwise, suffer, is due to impoverished or to 
excessively rich milk. Moreover, milk is most certainly a con¬ 
veyancer of disease-producing germs and other injurious matters 
from the mother to the offspring, as is seen in anthrax (though 
this is denied by some) and in the case of vegetable and animal 
poisons. In the artificial rearing of young animals, skim milk, 
mixed with lime water, may be substituted for sweet if the latter 
is found to be too strong. 
Innutritious food is injurious in a twofold sense—1st, animals 
require to take in an excessive quantity in order to obtain a 
sufficient amount of nutritive matter and thus the digestive organs 
become overtaxed and weakened, and indigestion results; 2nd, 
the tissues of the body do • not gain sufficient nutrition, and 
weakness and debility follow, a matter of the last importance in 
pregnant ewes, as they cannot, under such circumstances, provide 
sufficient nourishment for two lives, or it may be for three or four. 
Dirty foods , i.e., dirty turnips and fouled or sanded grass, are 
injurious, as the dirt and sand collects in the pouches of the 
stomachs and in the blind gut (caecum), mechanically interferes 
with their action, and produces irritation and inflammation, and 
even ulceration. 
