SHEEP DISEASES : CAUSES, NATURE AND PREVENTION. 353 
but that it is fungoid in origin is almost a certainty, and it is 
probable that the fungus belongs to the spherical form of bac¬ 
teria—that it is a micrococcus. 
Dysentery appears usually among sheep in hot summer 
weather with excess of moisture, and on rank pastures or on 
overstocked and consequently befouled pastures; and in droughty 
summer on lands upon which there are stagnant pools of water 
with rank growth of grass around their borders. Even in the 
1 I dysentery of man the exact nature of the disease has not been 
determined, but it is generally thought that it is due to a fungus. 
Shepherds entertain such strong views as to its contagious char¬ 
acter as, in many instances, to lead them to smear tar on the 
noses of their sheep; they had better smear it on the skin under 
their tails, or remove them from the contaminated pastures and 
apply a top-dressing of lime or salt. 
Anthrax —so-called from a 44 live coal ” owing to the dark 
color of the local lesions—is the most deadly of all this class of 
diseases, and does not confine its ravages to one particular kind 
of animal, but distributes its favors impartially. So-called “ red 
braxy ” is often nothing more or less than anthrax. The labors 
of biologists have made us intimately acquainted with the nature 
of this disease, and its literature is simply enormous. Moreover, 
it is the disease the discovery of the character of which has led 
to such important results in reference to other germ disorders. 
It is due to a minute staff-like organism, termed from its 
shape a bacillus , and belonging to the class of fission fungi. It 
is, on the whole, the largest of this class of fungi found in ani¬ 
mals and in the blood streams and tissues multiplies only by fis¬ 
sion, but when cultivated in proper media, or, what is of more 
I I importance to farmers, when it gains access to suitable soils, it 
multiplies rapidly by spores which by various agencies find their 
way on to vegetables grown on such soils and into drinking water, 
and produce the disease in other animals that may take in the 
contaminated food and water. These organisms, and particularly 
their spores, are possessed of a wonderful vitality and retain their 
destructive properties for a very considerable period in the earth; 
hence the necessity of thoroughly destroying every part of the 
