654 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
being brought by Snelgrove. When on the down land they laid on 
pea haulm which had never been cut, and after they were brought 
down at lambing time to the lambing pen they laid on straw. Witness 
grave evidence as to the milk and additional labour. 
Cross-examined. —It was very cold weather. The sheep were not very 
fat. Those of Mr. Butler’s were “ terrible thin.” He took some 
sheep to Frome Market to sell, and somebody asked him What sheep 
are those P You’ve got a rougish lot there, shepherd.” Tie replied 
“ Yes,” but he never said “ They have been put on the hill where there 
was nothing for them to eat.” He did not know whether the person 
was Mr. Franks, of Rowde Farm. 
Mr. Norris reminded Mr. Collins that it was not in the pleading that 
the sheep had been killed of starvation. 
Mr. Collins replied that it was alleged there had been want of care on 
the part of the plaintiff in respect of the ewes. 
Mr. Sydney James , M.R.C.V.S., Frome, said he had been in practice 
twenty years. Fluke disease was not contagious. One sheep did not 
get it from another. 
His Lordship. —Not infectious in any way ?—No, my lord. 
Witness said he had examined one of the livers at Mr. Day’s house. 
His Lordship. —Is it disputed that they died of flukes ? 
Mr. Collins. —We don’t know how many died of flukes or starvation. 
Witness went on to say that the sheep had died from liver rot. He 
examined the liver on the 12th April, and on the 22nd he examined 
another at plaintiff’s house in company with Mr. Day. They had one of 
the ewes killed, and he found the biliary ducts full of flukes. He said 
positively that the sheep which he had examined had had the disease 
previously to November. The germs were undoubtedly taken in before 
that time. 
His Lordship. —What is the general period of incubation, if it may be 
so called?—The germ takes six or eight weeks to fully develop. After 
that certain changes take place in the liver from the presence of the 
fluke. The general structure of the liver is altered. I have no doubt 
the disease had existed four or five months. The disease passes through 
various stages of development. It may remain in a latent form if the 
sheep are carefully tended. The disease is taken on low marshy lands. 
Cold weather would not hasten the development. The disease is picked 
up from July and not later than November. I have heard of a few 
cases where lambs are said to have had flukes in their liver, but I have 
never seen any in lambs myself. I should say it was impossible to bane 
sheep on land where these had been kept. I was present on the 7th 
May when Mr. Beasley took out the fluke one and a half inches long. 
They very much resemble a sole in shape. 
His Lordship. —That is the butterfly or imago state ? 
Witness. —They lay eggs in that state. Witness added that he took 
120 flukes from one sheep’s liver, and he believed the whole flock were 
contaminated. He did not believe there was one but what had flukes 
in its liver. If they had taken the flukes by the wayside one or two 
might have been contaminated, but not the whole flock. 
His Lordship. —The eggs are laid by the flukes on the grass ? 
Witness. —They come from the dropping of sheep, and adhere to the 
grass near the ground, and as sheep nibble close they get them. 
Cross-examined by Mr. Collins. —Certain flukes (in spirits) which were 
shown to witness were, he said, fairly developed. It was possible that 
they might have been taken from a lamb of this year. When he 
examined the sheep all the internal organs were in a state of 
