for the foot rot. We have given three recipes or formulæ ; the first, or milder preparation, will answer the purpose in slight incipient cases; but in those of long standing, the stronger caustic will be found

Dissolve the nitrated quicksilver in the acid, and when perfectly dissolved add gradually the spirits of wine.

It may be necessary to dilute this sometimes with a little water; and it should be remarked, that after applying either of these preparations once or twice, the sore part will generally have a more healthy appearance, and then some mild application will be most proper, such as Friar's balsam, or tincture of myrrh. It is likely that a mixture of tar and turpentine would prove a useful application in such cases, as it may tend in some measure to protect the diseased part from moisture. For some time after the feet have been dressed, the sheep should be kept ina dry place; turning them in a limed fallow has been strongly recommended.

The following judicious treatment of this disorder is recommended by Sir George Mackenzie:

"Let the animal in the first place get a dose of Glauber's salt. The ulcer having been laid open and cleaned, it is to be washed with weak caustic, lev of potash or soda, and filled with scraped linen dipped in oil, or, what is better, Goulard cerate. The dressing of cerate is to be continued every evening, until granulations of flesh appear to be filling up the space formerly occupied by the matter of the ulcer; and if it should be necessary, the washing with caustic ley may be repeated. Common cerate may then be applied; and should the flesh grow too luxuriantly, a little red precipitate and burnt alum may be dusted upon it. When a wholesome suppurative discharge has taken place, gentle pressure may be applied to bring the sides of the sore towards each other, taking care always to give free vent to the matter. The limb should be carefully washed with vinegar and water."

THE ROT.

Symptoms.-Dr. Coventry says, that Rot is a word which has been employed to express a variety of disorders affecting the sheep with no small confusion and detriment. Yet all the species of rot may be reduced to one; but when the disease has advanced, it becomes very complicated, and has been deemed incurable.

The complication of disorders which are always observed in the advanced stages of the rot, might be expected where bad food is supposed to be the cause of it; for this must vitiate the blood, and different organs may then become diseased. Accordingly we find the liver, the lungs, and the whole system affected, and

water is frequently found in the belly. It is very probable that consumption of the lungs is a common disease among sheep; and that it has in many instances been mistaken for rot. Mr. Stevenson, indeed, has considered the lungs to be its chief seat. Cold is the most frequent cause of consumption, although inflammation may be excited by other means.

Sheep are sometimes born with little tumours, called tubercles, on their lungs; and these appear to be the original seat of the disease in them as in the human subject. These tubercles being inflamed by cold, or other means, swell, and become filled with matter. Sometimes they are coughed up in this state; but most frequently they degenerate into ulcers, which spread and consume the substance of the lungs. When the lungs are affected in any case of rot, it is a hopeless business to attempt a cure, especially if they are suspected to be ulcerated. But as it may often happen that such tubercles as have filled with matter may be coughed up, mere difficulty of breathing need not deter us from attempting a cure. But the liver must be considered as the principal seat of the disease; and as it is the organ which prepares the bile, which assists digestion, we ought by all means to endeavour to restore it to a sound state. With respect to the flukeworms formed in the livers of rotten sheep, their production cannot be fully explained; but it is sufficient that we know they do exist in diseased livers to be convinced of the propriety of destroying them if possible.

Causes. This disease never attacks sheep on dry lands, and it has been observed to affect sheep which were before healthy almost immediately on their being sent to feed on soft wet pastures. Mr. James Hogg thinks that it proceeds from a sudden fall in condition;

others have assigned bad and unwholesome food as the cause of the rot. A sudden fall in condition may accompany the disease without having induced it. A sheep may continue to fill its belly, and yet fall off. It is the cause of the transition from fatness to leanness, and not the transition itself that ought to be looked to. If that cause be hunger, rot will not be the consequence, but the usual effects of starvation will follow. It is well known that on healthy pastures, whether so rich as to keep sheep fat, or so poor as only to bring them into ordinary condition, the rot is not known. Soft rank grasses, whether abundant or scarce, invariably occasion the disease. Indeed it is now so well understood that rank grasses act as a sort of poison on the stomachs of sheep, that the rot is very easily avoided.

Cure. The cure, in the first stage of the disease, does not present many difficulties. The first object is to free the stomach and intestines from their pernicious contents by means of a purgative, such as common or Glauber's salt; and when that is accomplished, wholesome food will most probably complete the cure.

The medicine to which we may look with greatest confidence in the advanced stages of rot, appears to be mercury. It would, perhaps, be improper to administer this internally. The safest, and most effective method of applying it, is in the form of the common blue ointment, and a trial of this is strongly recommended to those whose flocks are liable to rot. It should be applied to the bare skin, on the region of the liver, and the size of a nut rubbed on it till it is all dried up twice a day for a week or ten days. This, in conjunction with wholesome food, will in all probability prove to be the most effectual treatment. Mercury is well known to be a specific for the diseased liver of the

human body, and on that account we may presume that it will be efficacious in the cure of the same organ in sheep; and it is also recommended as the most effectual means of destroying the fluke-worm.

RED WATER,

Symptoms.-Red Water commonly makes its appearance about the beginning or end of winter, and first affects about the breast and belly. It consists of an inflammation of the skin, that raises it into blisters, which contain a thin, reddish, and watery fluid. These continue for a short time, break, discharge this matter, and are followed by a blackish scab.

Red Water is a disease that but seldom appears in this country, and it is almost never fatal.

Causes. When the sheep are exposed to cold or wetness, the skin being fretted makes the blisters rise; or they often arise from cold affecting the animal, thus producing a slight fever, which throws out these vesicles on the body, similar to the scabby eruptions which appear about the face, and more particularly the mouth, of those persons affected with cold. The blood in this diseare is but little affected, although a little of it oozes into the vesicles on the skin, and communicates to them that reddish tinge which gives origin to the name.

Cure. In cases where the disease is violent, a little blood should be taken. The sheep should be placed in a fold by itself, the blisters slit up, and a little in