Diseases. rope about the beast's head, and take it to a deep pool, causing it to swim up and down, and drive it frequently, giving it an ounce or half an ounce of laudanem, according to the size or age of the beast, but I never did cut the skin. I have good reason to believe that the above method has been the means of curing several of my young cattle, as I never saw any that took that disease, and no means used for their recovery, but died; those I opened, had all the blood collected in the affected quarter. I find it more difficult to cure in the fore quarters than in the hinder, and if it seize the bowels, I hardly think that it will cure by any means." 526 Rot in sheep. 3. On the ROT in SHEEP. rot. of which writers give an account, are, falling of in Diseases. flesh, and unusual dullness and heaviness. The flesh feels loose and flabby, especially about the loins; and if pressure is made about the hips, a crackling is sometimes perceptible. It is said that those who are accustomed to handle the ears and legs of sheep, may in the earliest stage of rot discover symptoms of low fever, but probably this is only the case in pulmonic and hepatic Now, or soon afterwards, the countenance looks pale, as do the gums and tongue. On parting the fleece, the skin is found to have lost its fine rosy colour, and is become of a pale red. As the disease advances, the skin appears dappled with yellow and black spots. The eyes have a peculiar appearance; they lose their General or True Rot. lustre, and look like the eyes of dead fish. Mr FindHydropic Rot. later says, that in Tweeddale, the principal mark of rottenness is taken from the appearance of the eye in the corner next the nose, when the eyeball is turned so as to look away from the nose; as the flesh that adheres to the eyeball below the eyelids, in the corner next the nose, is in a sound sheep of a florid red colour: whereas, in a rotten sheep, the flesh is of a dull appearance, and of a yellowish red colour, resembling that of a rotten egg, when the white and the yolk are confounded together. When the disease has continued long, the breath becomes fetid, the gums spongy, the teeth and sometimes the horns loose, the animal is commonly affected with a scouring, the fleece looks torn and ragged, and the whole separates from the skin with a slight pull. Great weakness and emaciation attend the latter stage of the disease; and these continually increase till the animal dies, or till dropsy comes on, which always terminates fatally. The name of the rot in sheep, and the ravages that are annually made by it among the flocks of most sheep districts, are familiar to every one; but little pains have been taken to fix the precise meaning of the word, and the particular disease, to denote which it should be exclusively employed. Some of those who appear to have paid particular attention to the subject, have yet followed the example of shepherds and farmers, in confounding under the name of rot, several diseases which differ considerably in their nature, causes, and method of treatment. Two medical men who have lately published; the one, Dr Dickson, on the General Management of Sheep, as connected with practical agriculture; the other, Dr Harrison, on this particular subject of the rot, have still considered it as one disease. In the second appendix to Mr Findlater's Survey of Peebles, and in the fourth number of the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, the distinction of the rot into three different morbid affections, is, however, clearly marked; and there seems no doubt that these three diseases are very similar to consumption, hepatitis or inflammation of the liver, and scurvy, in the human body. The first of those which we have briefly noticed in N° 490. under the name of pulmonic rot, is distinguished by cough, hectic fever, wasting of flesh, and in many cases by the formation of a watery swelling below the chin. The second, mentioned by the name of hepatic rot in N° 493. is characterized by a degree of fever acconipanied by inflammation, and thickening of the outer coat of the liver, or some diseased state of the biliary ducts or pipes, connected with the presence of flukes in the liver, if not sometimes produced by them. The third species has been called general rot, as in this the whole system is more or less affected; true rot, because it appears to be the most common of the three, and to be that to which the name seems more peculiarly applicable; and hydropic rot; because, if the animal is suffered to live, the disease commonly terminates in partial or general dropsy. This species is what we are now to consider; and after having given as clear an account of it as we can collect from the descriptions that have been lately published, we shall make a few observations on the causes, treatment, and prevention of the rot in general, endeavouring as much as possible to discriminate between the three varieties. 527 Symptoms It is probable that the first symptoms of the rot have of general seldom been observed. The earliest marks of the disease Pot. The principal appearance on dissection is presented by the liver, which is found in various states, according to the progress or severity of the disease. When a sheep is killed a few days after contracting the rot, the thin edge of the small lobe of the liver appears of a transparent white or bluish colour, and this colour spreads to a greater extent according to the severity of the complaint. Sometimes it does not extend more than an inch from the edge; at others it occupies a considerable part of the lobe. In severe cases, the whole external coat of the liver is found diseased, commonly assuming an opaque colour interspersed with lines or patches of a darker red. The upper end of the liver is sometimes found speckled like the back of a toad, to which it is said to bear a striking resemblance. Very commonly the liver is found full of hard knots, and sometimes there are ulcers in various parts of it. Are not some of these appearances peculiar to the hepatic rot? When the liver of a sheep affected with the rot is boiled, it loses its consistency, and breaks down into small pieces; whereas it is well known that a sound liver becomes by the same process firm and solid. When sheep have died suddenly in the first stage of this disorder, there may commonly be discovered a quantity of wheyish-coloured fluid in the cavity of the belly; and in these cases the outside of the liver is generally covered with a coat of coagulable lymph. This is one of the appearances described by Dr Harrison; and is similar to what is often observed in the belly of animals that have died of dropsy in the belly. In stating the causes and treatment of general rot, 528 we Eight causes have been assigned for the production Diseases. of rot, viz. 1. A vitiated dew. It is stated in the Survey of Lincolnshire, that a shepherd, who, when young, was shepherd's boy to an old man that lived at Nettlam near Lincoln, a place famous for the rot, declared his persuasion that sheep took the rot, only in a morning before the dew was well off. His master's shepherd always kept his flock in fold till the dew was gone, and with only this attention his sheep were kept sound when all his neighbours lost their flocks. Dr Harrison remarks, that if this cause were just, the rot should appear equally on all lands. Diseases, we cannot perhaps do better than copy what is given on this subject in Mr Findlater's Survey of Peebles, to which we have already been so much obliged. "It arises from deficient or bad aliment, whether the food itself be bad and scanty, or the animal be incapable of digesting it properly. It is most common from the former cause, want of food; and the disease is much the same with scurvy among the human race. In addition to these causes, whatever tends to depress the spirits, frequently excites, or at least exasperates, the malady. It is said that soldiers in a garrison have been known to be seized with the scurvy on hearing bad news; and I doubt not but terrifying sheep with dogs, or other means, may produce or aggravate this disease. We may hence see what mischief a fox chase, or any exhibition of that sort, is calculated to bring upon a flock of sheep. The disease is also said to be produced by feeding upon watered grass; and hence shepherds, in many parts of Scotland, are careful to keep off their sheep from the tender grass produced by the occasional overflowing of rivulets. Feeding also in marshy and damp pastures, is known to be a powerful cause of the *Findlater's Survey, P. 404. 529 rot. "The only means of cure are, a supply of good and wholesome food, and invigorating the stomach by permitting the animal to feed on those stimulating and aromatic herbs which are agreeable to its taste. It is believed that on dry sweet pastures, where there is a sufficient quantity of furze and broom, juniper, and other shrubs that are palatable to sheep, the rot is seldom heard of. When ground is sown down for sheep pasture, parsley, thyme, peppermint, and other aromatic herbs, should be sown with the grass seeds, as these plants serve both to prevent and to cure the rot. In addition to these means of cure, every thing that tends to annoy or depress the animal in its weakly state ought to be avoided *. The following facts with respect to the production of rot, considered as a general disease, are chiefly taken from Dr Harrison's Inquiry. rot. Poor, clayey, and loamy lands are most subject to Grounds that are always dry, or always under water, and such as are always sufficiently wet to preserve a constant running of water, were never known to suffer from the rot. Ponds of living water are equally safe; but when attempts to drain lands have been made, and have not fully succeeded, sheep which feed on such lands are very much exposed to the rot. Grounds newly laid down for pasture, or ploughed fields that have been exhausted by repeated crops, where the sward is thin, and where the water remains in plashes for want of proper outlets, are peculiarly subject to the rot. Marshes that are overflowed by the sea, and boggy situations, especially in Ireland, are seldom known to 2. The disease has been attributed to a crust or earthy sediment that adheres to the grass after wet weather, or after the overflowing of running water. 3. It has been supposed to be owing to the luxuriant and quick growing herbage that is produced in hot moist seasons. But all luxuriant pastures do not pro duce the rot. 4. It has been attributed to the sheep grazing on some particular herbs, such as the butterwort (pinguicula vulgaris), the white rot (hydrocotyle vulgaris), round-leaved sundew (drosera rotundifolia), and longleaved sundew (drosera longifolia); but these plants do not grow on every rotting soil. 5. The disorder has been imputed to flukes in the liver. We have already stated our opinion, that flukes may produce the hepatic rot. 6. The rot has been supposed to depend on the infection of sheep-pox. This opinion seems to have arisen from a confusion of terms. 7. M. Daubenton considered the disease to be produced by poverty of food, and too much water. There is no doubt that these causes commonly produce the last species of rot which we have mentioned. 530 ry of the 8. Dr Harrison is of opinion that the rot is always Dr Harrigenerated by the exhalation or effluvia produced by the son's theoaction of the sun's rays on soils that are partially covered with stagnant water. After adducing a number of rot. ingenious arguments in support of his opinion, Dr Harrison sums up the amount of his doctrine in the following manner. "From the various circumstances enumerated, I think I am justified in attributing the rot in sheep and other animals to paludal effluvia; but with respect to their nature and constitution, it is very difficult to form any rational judgment, as they have hitherto eluded the most subtle and delicate inquiries. It must, however, be admitted, si causa latet, vis est notissima; and consequently the subject, from its great importance to the public in general, is entitled to a serious investigation. "Without heat and moisture, no deleterious vapours can be generated; and yet it is equally certain, that both these causes are insufficient to produce either a recurrent fever, or the rot, since they are confined to particular situations. Other auxiliaries are therefore necessary; and I am inclined to believe that vegetable or earthy particles, and probably both, are required, as well as heat and moisture, to constitute the noxious emanations or gasses called miasmata paludum. 66 Probably it will be found, on further inquiry that a great variety of animal and vegetable effluvia are extricated in different places; and that many disorders should |