ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND* 861 
In this direction I gathered that no animal matter of such a description 
was to be found upon the farm. In answer to my inquiry as to the dis¬ 
posal of foetal membranes, I was informed that, in all cases of parturition, 
they were buried as soon as discharged. So far as extraneous putrid 
matter was concerned, there did not appear to be any evidence of its 
existence on the farm in any form. Still, regarding the affection as 
having its origin in the inoculation of some putrid substance, there 
appeared to remain but one other source whence such matter could be 
derived, and that was from the cows themselves. Early in the attack a 
copious discharge of serous fluid issued from the enlarged knees, and 
soon became putrid and offensive. That the discharge was the conse¬ 
quence of irritation set up by flies, may, I think, be admitted, for 
the reasons above stated. The extension of the disease, and the peculiar 
nature subsequently assumed by it, depended on, I believe, the trans¬ 
ference of the putrid exudation from one cow to another by flies. 
J. Wobtley Axe, 
Professor of Pathology and Morbid Anatomy at the 
Royal Veterinary College. 
Professor Simonds further reported that besides these cases many 
others of the same kind came under the notice of the officers of the 
Royal Veterinary College, during the hot weather which prevailed from 
about the middle of August to the middle of September, and added: 
Besides these investigations, several communications, some from Mem¬ 
bers of the Society, relating to parasitic diseases among sheep and lambs, 
have been received. None of these cases, however, call for any special 
report, as they have been of the ordinary kind, in which emaciation and 
death of the animals depended on worms in the windpipe, or stomach 
and intestines, or in some instances in both. The cases had mostly 
yielded to the free use of tonic and anthelmintic agents, conjoined with 
a full supply of nutritive food. 
The parasitic disease of sheep known as the fluke disease or rot , has 
been prevalent to a greater or less extent from the beginning of the 
year, and in some flocks which were thought to have escaped the out¬ 
break of last year serious losses have occurred. Doubtless these losses 
were mainly due to the almost continuous wet weather which prevailed 
throughout the spring and down to the middle of August. 
With regard to the development of the flukes within the body of the 
sheep and other animals, it may be remembered that Dr. John Harley, 
in a letter to The Times, affirmed that the entozoa had their origin in the 
sheep having swallowed with their food mature flukes whose generative 
organs were filled with perfected ova. Dr. Harley disputed the opinion 
that the embryos of the parasite passed through transformations out of 
the bodies of animals, prior to their being sufficiently perfected to 
develop into flukes within the body. In his communication of April 3rd, 
he thus wrote :—“ This error may be disproved by any farmer who will 
take the trouble to feed a new-born lamb with a few flukes taken direct 
from the body of a recently killed sheep, and before they have discharged 
their eggs; and, keeping the lamb free from further infection for a few 
weeks, then examine the alimentary canal and liver, when he will find 
the parasite in increased numbers in the body of the lamb.” 
It might perhaps have been thought unnecessary to put these state¬ 
ments to the test of experiment, but, nevertheless, I determined to do 
so. The following particulars will show the result : 
April 16th, 1880. Procured a sheep far advanced in rot, for the 
purpose of having it killed, that some flukes might be given to two 
li 11 . 59 
