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O V I s. 
wet grounds; or otherwife to be caufed by taking too 
much watery food, fuch as turnips, clover, rape; &c. Its 
removal lias been attempted by the ufe of common fait, 
a tea-fpoonful of elixir of vitriol, and the frequent driving 
the animal about ; and it is afl'erted, that the difeafe may 
be wholly prevented by having recourfe to the ufe of dry 
food in the night-time, while the flieep are feeding upon 
thefe juicy kinds of food in the day. “ I have heard 
(fays Mr. Arthur Young) that it has fometimes been 
cured by tapping, as for a dropfy : this operation is done 
on one fide of the belly towards the flank, jull below the 
wool.” 
The flux is alfo produced by too much damp and moif- 
ture. The bell remedy is faid to be, to houfe the Iheep 
immediately when the diftetnper appears; to keep them 
very warm, and feed them on dry hay, giving them fre¬ 
quent clyfters of warm milk and water. The caufe of the 
diftemper may be either their feeding on wet lands, or 
on grafs that is become molly, by the lands having been 
fed many years without being ploughed. When the far- 
merperceives his flieep-walks to becomemofl'y, or to pro¬ 
duce bad grafs, he fliould either plough or manure with 
hot lime, making kilns either very near or in the flieep- 
walks, becaufe the hotter the lime is put on, the Tweeter 
the grafs comes up, and that early in the year. 
Contrary to this is the difeafe called pinding, which 
afflifts fucking-lambs. Thefe animals, before they be¬ 
gin to eat grafs, are liable to have a difcharge from the 
bowels, of a glutinous adhefive quality, which is apt to 
flick to the tail and buttocks, and, when hardened by 
the fun, fometimes to glue them together in fo clofe and 
firm a manner as to prevent all poflibility of their having 
any evacuations, and thereby foon to mortify and burfl 
the inteftines. The complaint is difcovered by the lambs 
appearing fwelled and lick, with the upper and middle 
parts of their tails clofely glued down ; and they are as 
readily cured, by feparating their tails from their but¬ 
tocks, when the retained excrement will be dilcharged 
with a difagreeable fmell: and the immediate recurrence 
of it will be prevented by rubbing the parts over with 
land, friable clay, mud, or, what is better, a little tal¬ 
low. But they mufl be well looked after for eight or ten 
days, until they begin to eat grafs, when all danger from 
thefe obftrudtions is over. It is faid to be mod danger¬ 
ous when the feafon is dry and backward ; and feldom or 
ever to appear when the mothers are lean, and the wea¬ 
ther dilpofed to be wet. 
The tag-fore is a difeafe in flieep, which confifts, as 
ftated in a paper in the third volume of the Tranfaftions 
of the Highland Society, of fcabs and fores fituated on 
the under fide of the tail; arifing, in warm weather, from 
its being fouled with purging and other difcharges. The 
matter hardens there, irritates the tender veflels, and pro¬ 
duces fores, which, if not attended to, run into mortifi¬ 
cation, and prove fatal. It is fhovvn by the fheep turning 
frequently round to bite the tail. As this complaint 
arifes principally from purging, and the naflinefs caufed 
by it, &c. the firft thing to be done is the reftraining and 
cure of this evacuation : after which the tail of the ani¬ 
mal is to be clipped, and the fore part laid bare, waflied 
carefully with milk and water, blood-warm, and then 
with lime-water. The flieep is then to be turned out into 
a dry pall:lire, and looked at again in two or three days ; 
and, if not then well, the waffling mufl be repeated, and 
the parts anointed with greafe and tar mixed together in 
equal proportions. 
The foot-rot moftly commences between the claws of 
the fore-foot, with a .flight inflammation and fwelling. 
In this way the flieep becomes lame, and fome moifture 
oozes out between the claws, which has a difgufting 
fmell; and, in proportion as the difeafe becomes more in¬ 
veterate, it gets under the hoof, producing proud flefh. 
It has been commonly fuppofed to be infectious, on ac¬ 
count of its fpreading with fuch rapidity when not 
promptly removed. Molt of the long-wooiled and merino 
Vol.-XVIII, No. 1227. 
breeds of flieep are faid to be very fubjeft to this difeafe ; 
but other forts of flieep are likewife found to frequently 
fufi'er from it. For its removal, the part aft'edfed fliould be 
pared and well cleaned without touching the quick, and 
then a cauftic folution of the following kind dropped 
upon it, the foot being kept well wrapped up from the 
dirt: Two ounces of blue vitriol, the fame quantity of 
roach-alum, and one ounce of verdigris, with a quarter 
of an ounce of muriated quickfilver, fliould be difl'olved 
in a quart of good diltilled vinegar. But there are many 
who make ufe of butter of antimony, applying it to the 
part by means of an iron lkewer, after being pared in the 
manner ftated above. It is always a proper precaution to 
feparate the flieep that are thus affedted from the reft: of 
the flock ; and it has been ftated, that the change of the 
flieep into'a morefliort dry pafture, is of great ufe in ob¬ 
viating the complaint. 
The leg-evil is a dilbrder which affeffs flieep chiefly, as 
its name imports, in the legs. It is faid, in a paper in 
the third volume of the Tranfadlions of the Highland So¬ 
ciety, that, for the moft part, it begins at the knee, 
which fwells and enlarges to a confiderable degree, cauf- 
ing fo much lamenefs as to prevent the fheep fo afredled 
from following the reft of the flock. The fwelling is of 
a bluifli or livid colour; fometimes, indeed frequently, 
having fmail blifters fcattered over the leg aftefted, of a 
red colour, and filled with a bluifn-coloured watery fluid. 
When the fkin burfts, it leaves below it a loofe flabby 
fubftance of the fame colour, or rather darker, whiph ex¬ 
tends even to the bone. It commonly firft: begins in one 
of the hind-legs, but, as it advances, affedts all the.four. 
It occafionally fpreads from the hind-legs to the belly, 
and in every cafe the kidneys are affefted, being loofe and 
flabby, having fome refemblance to the fwelling of the 
legs, and being fometimes of a livid colour. In fome 
cafes, the difeafe proves very quickly fatal, while at other 
times it will continue in a mild ftate for weeks. It fpreads 
very rapidiy after appearing in a flock ; and, if not fpeed- 
ily attended to,- will injure them materially. It is, in 
general, very dangerous, cutting off the greater propor¬ 
tion of thole which are aft’edted with it. Indeed, many 
ftieep-farmers kill the difeafed fheep whenever they are 
feen to be aftedted with it, in order to prevent its fpread¬ 
ing. In this difeafe, too, the eye of the flieep is languid, 
its tongue dry, it cannot eat, and, in general, is foon cut 
off by the complaint. 
It commonly appears about the latter end of fummer, 
but at times in the beginning of the autumn ; arifing at 
firft, it is fuppofed, from fuch fheep as have unhealthy 
conftitutions being too much expofed to wetnefs during 
rainy warm weather. Scratches in the legs, it is faid, will 
produce it in fuch fheep as have bad conftitutions. The 
flieep moft fubjedt to take the difeafe are, it is thought, 
tliofe of the South-Down and Leicefter breeds. It has 
feldom appeared to the north of the Tweed, although it 
has b.een pretty common on its fouthern banks, in the 
fhires of Selkirk, Roxburgh, and part of that of Peebles. 
As this is a very dangerous difeafe, the flieep affedled 
with it fliould be brought home as foon as pofiible, to pre¬ 
vent it from infedfing the flock, and its legs be well 
waflied with foap and water; afterwards bathed with 
lime-water, or a folution of alum in water, and then 
anointed with what in the (hops is known by the name of 
citrine ointment, which is made with mercury difl'olved 
in aqua-fortis, and mixed with hog’s-lard. If this be 
not at hand when the legs’break out and run, a little 
quick-lime may be drifted on the floughs, and the leg 
dreflfed with a cloth ftp read with frefh butter and a little 
tar. Thefe dreftings fliould be changed every fec'ond day : 
care fliould alfo be taken that the flieep have good and dry 
pafture during the time of the cure ; and w-ater, in which 
mofs or peat-earth has been foaked or fteeped, may fome- 
times be preferred, in cafes where it can be had, on ac¬ 
count of its aftringent or antifeptic quality, to common 
water, for their drink, as well as for walking the legs 
D d with, 
