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OX THE LIVE-STOCK

most common disease, the water is contained in cysts or bagsunconnected with the brain, and may be often cured, eitherby extracting the bag by the operation of trepan, or by per-forating it, and discharging the liquid by tapping. The for-mer method requires too much skill, to be entrusted to anybut professional men, but the latter is practised with consi-derable success by every shepherd.

The operation of tapping, is performed in two differentways, according to the seat of the disease. If it is any whereon the crown of the head, the gentlest way is, to tap it in theplace where the skull feels soft, aild this is commonly donewith an awl or large corking pin. But if the skull feel softin the forehead, the operation must be performed by thrust-ing a stiff sharpened wire up the nostril until it stop againstthe upper part of the skull. If this cure were not well au-thenticated by daily observation, it might seem a very severeand dangerous operation, as the wire goes quite through thebrain in two different places, yet a far greater number arecured in this way than in any other. The operator mustfeel for the part of the skull that is soft, and lay his thumbflat and firm upon it; then taking the wire in his right hand,he thrusts it up that nostril that points more directly for theplace that is soft, where the disease is seated; and if he feel thepoint of the wire below his thumb, he may rest assured thatthe bag is perforated, and that if the brain do not inflame, theanimal will recover; but if he does not feel the point of thewire press against the soft part of the skull, on which thethumb of the left hand must be placed, it will be necessary totry the other nostril.

If the sturdy is not at all to be felt by pressing with thethumbs, it is either seated in the ventricles of the brain, orbehind, and nothing can be done but with the wire. Asdesperate diseases require desperate remedies, the wire maybe thrust up one or both nostrils in the manner already men-tioned.

After a sheep has been wired, it is proper to take hold of