100 
o v 
till3 opinion. Mr. Arthur Young, to whom agriculture 
is (o much indebted, afcribes this difeafe to moidure. In 
confirmation of this opinion, which lias been'generally 
•adopted, we are informed, in the Oath Society Papers, 
that there was a paddock adjoining to a park which had 
for feveral years caufed the rot in mod of the fheep which 
was put into it. In 1769 it was drained ; and from that 
time the fheep were free from this malady. But there are 
fadfs which render it doubtful that moidure is the foie 
caufe. We are told, the dry-limed land in Derbyfhire 
will produce the rot as well as water-meadows and dag- 
nant marfhes; and ihat in fome wet grounds fheep fuf- 
tain no injury for many weeks. 
On diflefting fheep that die of this diforder, a great 
number of infefts, called flukes, or flounders, are found 
in the liver. That thefe flukes are the caufe of the rot, 
therefore, is evident; but to explain how they come into 
r the liver is not fo cafy. It is probable that they are fwal- 
lovved by the fheep along with their food while in theegg- 
ffate. The eggs depofited in the tender germ are conveyed 
with the food into the flomach and inteliines of the ani¬ 
mals, whence they are received into the lafteal veffels, 
carried off in the chyle, and pafs into the blood; nor do 
they meet with any obdruftion until they arrive at the 
capillary veffels of the liver. Here, as the blood filtrates 
through the extreme branches, anfwering to thofe of the 
vena porta in the human body, the fecerning veffels are 
too minute to admit the impregnated ova, which, adhering 
to the membrane, produce thofe animalcules that feed 
upon the liver and dedroy the fheep. They are fome- 
times as large as a fdver twopence, and are found both in 
the liver and in the pipe (anfwering to that of the vena 
cava) which conveys the blood from the liver to the heart. 
It is a lingular faft, “ that no ewe ever has the rot while 
flie has a lamb by her fide.” The reafon of this may be, 
that the impregnated ovum pafles into the milk, and 
never arrives at the liver. ’The rot is fatal to fheep, hares, 
and rabbits, and fometimes to calves ; but never infefts 
animals of a larger fize. 
Miller fays that parfley is a good remedy for the rot in 
fheep. Perhaps a ftrong decoftion of this plant, or the 
oil extrafted from its feeds, might be of fervice. Salt is 
alfo a ufeful remedy. It feems to be an acknowledged 
faff, that fait marfhes never produce the rot. Salt indeed 
is pernicious to mod infefts. Common fait and water 
expel worms from the human body; and fea-weed, if 
laid in a garden, will drive away infefts; but, if the fait 
-be feparated, by deeping it in the pured fpring water for 
a few days, it abounds with animalculae of various fpecies. 
Lide, in his Book of Hufoandry, informs us of a farmer 
■who cured his whole dock of the rot by giving each Oieep 
a handful of Spanidi fait five or fix mornings fuccedively. 
The hint was probably taken from the Spaniards, who 
frequently give their Oieep fait, to keep them healthy. 
On fome farms perhaps the utmoO caution cannot always 
prevent this diforder. In wet and warm feafons, the pru¬ 
dent farmer will remove his fneep from the lands liable to 
rot. Thofe who have it not in their power to do this may 
give each Oieep a fpoonful of common fait, with the fame 
quantity of dour, in a quarter of a pint of water, once or 
twice a-week. When the rot is recently taken, the fame 
remedy, given four or five mornings fuccedively, will in 
all probability efteft a cure. The addition of the dour 
and water (in the opinion of Mr. Price, of Salifbury, to 
whofe excellent paper in the Bath Society’s Trandiftions 
the public are much indebted) will not only abate the 
pungency of the fait, but difpofe it to mix with the chyle 
in a more gentle and efficacious manner. A farmer of a 
confiderable lordfiiip in Bohemia, vifiting the hot-wells 
of Carlfbad, related how he preferved his flocks of dieep 
from the mortal didemper which raged in the wet year 
1769, of which fo many peridied. His prefervative was 
very fimple and very cheap: “ He fed them every night, 
when turned under a died, cover, or dables, with haffied 
:fodder-draw; and, by eating it greedily, they all efcaped.” 
I s. 
That experiencetl agriculturid, lord Somerville, has 
ufed fait on his farm in Somerfetdiire for about ten years$ 
and attributes the health of his flock of merino-fheep, 
which he purcliafed in Spain, chiefly to this circumflance. 
As thefe fheep had been accudomed to the ufe of fait, his 
iorddiip confldered that, in our damp climate, and in the 
rich land of Somerfetdiire, it would be abfolutely necef- 
fary to fupply them with it regularly. He ufed at the rate 
of a ton of fait for every thoufand dieep annually ; and 
gave it them in the morning, to counteraft the ill edeft 
of the dew. A handful of fait is put on a flat ftone, or 
flate, ten of which, feta few yards apart, are enough for 
a hundred fheep. Twice a-week has ufually been found 
fufficient. Of a flock of near a thoufand, there were not 
ten old fheep which did not take kindly to it, and not 
one lamb that did not confume it greedily. Salt is like- 
wife a preventive of diforders in dock fed with rank green- 
food, as clover, or turnips, whereby exceffive wind is ge¬ 
nerated in the domachs of animals. 
On the other hand, we mud obferve that, when the 
fliepherds, who came with his late majedy’s lad dock of 
merinos from Spain, were quedioned on the fubjeft of 
giving (alt to their dieep, they declared that this is only 
done in the hotted feafon of the year, when the fheep are 
on the mountains; that in September it is left off; and 
that they dare not give fait to ewes forward with lamb, 
being of opinion that it caufes abortion. 
A remedy for the rot in fheep, laid to be infallible, has 
been lately offered to the public under fanftion of letters- 
patent, by Mr. Thomas Fleet, an eminent fanner, near 
Baiingdoke, in Hampdiire. He calls it a “ medicine for 
preventing' the rot in fheep, and checking the farther 
progrefs of the faid difeafe in thofe already infefted with 
it ; and alfo to render them capable of being fatted on 
the herbage of the fame land which produced or occafioned 
the difeafe !” The ingredients of which the medicine is 
compounded, he declares on oath to be, turpentine, bole- 
armoniac, turmeric, quickfilver, brimdone, fait, opium, 
alkanet-root, bark, antimony, and camphor, mixed up 
in diddled water. What progrefs has been made in the 
prevention and cure of the rot in fheep by this medicine, 
we have not yet been able to learn. A correfpondent in 
the Monthly Magazine gives us the following, which he 
fays he never knew to fail, although the animal'diould 
have appeared in the lad ftage. “ A drong decoftion of 
elderberry well fweetened with honey, and given every 
morning, in about a gill at a time, or, if very bad, night 
and morning, will fpeedily bring about amendment; 
their padure, if podible, fliould be changed ; however, by 
the above means, I have reared fine flocks where it 
was faid, in confequence of that complaint, fheep could 
not have been kept.” Monthly Mag. for May 1813. 
When land fubjeft to the rot is lightly docked, as 
with only half the number of dieep it would keep, they 
frequently efcape the difeafe, which is a drong proof that 
they indinftively rejeft the fpots that are unwholefome, 
and will never eat of them but from fcarcity. The egg, 
or animalcule, mud be very abundant, as a flock of fheep 
has been known to take the infeftion in a few minutes. 
A flock of one thoufand was driven from the high downs, 
where fheep never take the rot, once only into a valley to 
drink, after a heavy fhower of rain, and differed to eat 
grafs there for about fifteen minutes, when two hundred 
died rotten in the winter following. 
It is matter of great furprife, that, when a fheep affefted 
with the rot from drength of conditution furvives and 
fattens, yet the flukes dill exid in the liver: when the 
fheep is killed, thefe reptiles appear to be dead ; but, at 
the moment the liver is taken out, and cut into, they 
are as lively as frefh-caught dat-fidi, and much referable 
them. See a figure of the Fafciola hepatitis, on the Plate 
of Feronia, at fig. 1. vol. vii. p. 328. but a more correft 
reprefentation on the Helminthology Plate II. fig. 19. 
vol. ix. 
The reel-water is another diforder mod prevalent on 
3 wet 
