548 
THE VETERINARIAN, AUGUST 2, 1880. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.—CiCEBO, 
THE NEXT OUTBREAK OE “ ROT.” 
All that has been said and written respecting the causes 
of liver rot or, as it has become fashionable to call it, the 
fluke disease, has need to he repeated under the present 
circumstances. Farmers are naturally a hopeful race, or the 
last six seasons must have crushed them out of all agricul¬ 
tural life, and notwithstanding the experience of years, 
many of them are preparing to keep ewes which have suffered 
from flukes through another lambing season, simply because 
the treatment which we recommended through the Royal 
Agricultural Society has been so far successful, that the dis¬ 
eased sheep have passed safely through the lambing time, and 
have brought up the lambs without suffering in condition. 
In our last report to the Society we referred to this 
proposition, and gave reasons against its adoption, pointing 
out that the flukes have in most cases done irreparable 
mischief, which will become more apparent as the autumn 
approaches, and the pastures become less nutritive. The 
fact is that the disease is not capable of being radically 
cured when it is once fairly established, and the partial 
recovery of an animal must not be taken as evidence that 
it is in a position to support itself under the influence of 
further debilitating causes. If the flock master has suc¬ 
ceeded in carrying a diseased flock well over the lambing 
season, and can get the ewes in moderate condition, he 
ought to be content with the achievement, and at once 
proceed to realise what he can by converting his sheep into 
mutton. 
Besides the question of the proper treatment, of a flock which 
have to some extent recovered from the ravages of the flukes, 
there is now the more pressing inquiry what is to be done to 
avert the infection of animals which have hitherto escaped, 
and those which have not yet been exposed to the causes of 
the disease. 
