194 
GENERAL REMARKS 
this diforder, for which no remedy has yet been difcovered, is an 
affedlion of the fpleen, called the miltfyge\ and as it is looked upon 
as totally incurable, the Laplanders kill the deer as foon as they 
find fymptoms of infection, in order to fave at leaft the fkin. 
Mention has. already been made of an infe<ft which renders the 
fkin of lefs value by perforating it: this infeft is often deftroyed 
by applying tar to the animal’s back ; and from the fly before- 
mentioned, which attacks the noftril, the rein-deer is often relieved 
by the fneezing occafioned through irritation. Rein-deer are like- 
wife fubjedt to a diforder common to animals having hoofs ; this 
is the paronychia, by the inhabitants of Norw r ay called the klov- 
J'yge. The females have likewife Email eruptions on the udder, 
fimilar to that which at prefent is known in England by the name 
of cow-pock. 
The principal food of the rein-deer in winter, is a fort of white 
mofs, called by the natives of Norway quit-mojfe ; its botanical 
name is lichen rangiferinus. To come at this mofs the animal is 
obliged to dig with its foot under the fnow. It fometimes hap¬ 
pens, although but rarely, that the fnow is fo frozen that the rein¬ 
deer is not able to get at the ground : were this to be the cafe for 
any length of time, there would be great danger of the whole race 
of thefe animals being ftarved and loft, to the entire ruin of the 
Laplanders : but fo great, fays the miflionary, has been the kind- 
nefs of Providence hitherto, that no fuch event has ever happened, 
and perhaps never may. 
The rein-deer which are tamed, and conftitute the chief wealth 
of 
