VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
373 
John Hellier said : Last spring I was in defendant’s house, and I looked 
through his flock with him. I told Mr. O’Borne his sheep had the scab. 
He said he was not aware of it; some of them had “ the worms," and 
some stuff had been put about them to cure them. I told him then it 
was the scab, and recommended him a man to cure it. I said I would 
send him a man, and did so at his request. I remember having 300 ewes 
affected with the scab one year ; in January and in February they lambed 
down. The lambs did not break out till six months afterwards. If the 
ewes suffer from disease, the lambs must have it. I should think the loss 
was 15,?. a head. 
Cross-examined: We supposed the ewes cured before they lambed. 
The disease is in the system, and the lamb inherits it from the mother. 
There were only three bad at the time I saw them, and I recommended 
the defendant to put one by itself—it was almost naked. 
Re-examined: It is in the blood, not derived from sucking the mother. 
Edward Mear , dealer and jobber: I have cured the scab in sheep. Last 
spring I went to the defendant’s house. Mr. Hellier sent me. I ex¬ 
amined defendant’s sheep. I found they had the scab very badly. 
About eighty were so affected. They had then about ten lambs. I 
dressed the sheep for six weeks or more. Just before Taunton fair I 
went there, and defendant was picking out the lambs to show them to 
Mr. Brown, the butcher. He said he was going to sell them as fat lambs. 
I told him that they had some spots of scab upon them. I caught one 
and showed it him. I recommended him to sell them as fat lambs, as the 
meat would not be fit for food if I dressed them. There was a little rig 
sheep which I dressed, and I afterwards dressed the same sheep at the 
plaintiff’s. In December I was sent for to dress some sheep for the 
plaintiff. I agreed to cure them at Is. a head. The other score lambs 
sold to Mr. Perrin appear to have been dressed. 
Cross-examined: It was just before the lambs went to Taunton fair 
that I dressed the little rig sheep in defendant’s presence, and when I 
saw it in December it was all over spots. 
William Emms , veterinary surgeon, proved being sent for on the 1st of 
December by the plaintiff, and dressing some scabbed sheep. The disease 
is contagious, but does not come in a lamb from having been dropped 
from a diseased ewe. The cause may exist in June , and not appear until 
December. It is quite necessary to have all gates and farm material 
washed and cleansed after having affected sheep upon it. 
Charles William Blake, veterinary surgeon, said: I obtained a prize at 
the Royal Veterinary College for a work on cutaneous diseases. Scab is 
both unsoundness and uncleanness. It is highly contagious. The disease 
is caused by mites in the skin. The mites may be in the animal in the month 
of May , and the disease not appear until December. One dressing is not 
sufficient to cure. You may kill the insect, but not destroy its ova by 
one dressing. 
John Jeffery, farmer, proved buying some sheep in May, and their 
having the scab break out in October. 
William Goodland, butcher, proved buying seven lambs of defendant in 
July last, and re-selling the same to Mr. House, of Stoke St. Gregory. 
They had scab in them, and I was threatened with an action, and made it 
up by paying Mr. House £5. I shall ask defendant for its repayment. 
Mr. Francis Jennings proved selling the plaintiff, during the past year, 
twenty-four lambs ; Mr. Matthew Lang, fifty; Mr. Christopher Born, 
twenty-four; Mr. David Symes, thirty-two; and William Harris, two. 
All these gentlemen deposed to their being sound, and added they had 
never had the scab upon their farms. 
