The rot in sheep : its nature, cause, treatment, and prevention : illustrated with engravings of the structure and development of the liver-fluke / by James Beart Simonds.

  • Simonds, James B. (James Beart), 1810-1904.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The rot in sheep : its nature, cause, treatment, and prevention : illustrated with engravings of the structure and development of the liver-fluke / by James Beart Simonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    * Introductory Observations. We repeat but a truism when we say that the health of the animals of the farm, especially that of cattle, sheep, and pigs, influences to a considerable extent the amount of wholesome food which is available for the people; besides which, that it is also an abiding source of solicitude to the agriculturist, for upon it very frequently depends his own immediate success in the practice of his profession. Whenever, therefore, disease assumes an extraordinary type, spreading far and wide, and destroying in its progress many of the animals which supply our daily wants, the interests not only of the agriculturist, but of the entire community, are so far jeopardised, that on all sides inquiries are made as to the means which are best calculated to effect a diminution either of the extension or fatality of the malady. During the past year —1860 —an event of this kind was witnessed in the immense losses which occurred among sheep from rot: nor can it be affirmed that even now these have entirely ceased, or that any additional security exists against the disease being equally as destructive in succeeding years. Under such circumstances it is evident that benefit can alone arise from an accurate investigation of the pathology of the affection, as also of its causes, and of the laws regulating its spread. An inquiry of this kind was originally ordered to be made by the Royal Agri- cultural Society, which had, as its immediate result, the delivery of a lecture on the subject before the members, by the author of the present thesis. The views then given expression to were thought of sufficient practical importance to warrant their publication in a more available form for future reference than was afforded by the columns of the daily press ; and accordingly the author was instructed to arrange the matter both for a pamphlet and also the pages of the Society’s Journal. Antiquity and Extent of Rot. The frequent occurrence, insidious progress, and fatality of rot place it at the head of the most serious affections to which sheep are liable. In this country no single disease produces such destruc- tive effects ; but on the Continent its fatality is probably now and B