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ON TIIE LIVE-STOCK
repeatedly into hot water. The foot-rot is by no means adangerous distemper among the native sheep of Scotland .
XVIII. “ Jaundice ” says Sir G. Mackenzie, “ is a raredisease. It is known by the skin and eyes becoming of agreenish yellow colour. It is occasioned by the rupture ofsome of the vessels secreting the bile, or conveying it to thestomach and intestines. The bile being diffused throughthe body, causes the colour peculiar to this disease. Bleed-ing is useful; and a dose of jalap, with perhaps a few grainsof calomel, will be of service; exercise is very efficacious.”
XIX. The Rot. This terrible distemper was formerlymore prevalent in Scotland than it has been of late ; yet insome seasons, and in particular situations, its ravages arestill very extensive.
There is much difference of opinion as to the cause of thisdisease. By some it is referred generally to unwholesomefood * * * § , and to deficient as well as depraved aliment f; and byothers to the ova of insects taken into the stomach, from•which flukes are afterwards produced j;; while a medicalwriter ascribes the rot to marsh miasmata ||, and an expe-rienced shepherd to a sudden fall in condition §.
Whatever may be the primary cause, the proximate oneis less doubtful, and it is to that alone that it seems mostproper to attend in a work of this description.
The rot seldom or never attacks sheep on dry land, but ithas been found to affect sheep that were before healthy, al-most immediately on their being sent to feed on soft wetpastures. Land that has been recently flooded in summer is