Or, the following: Dip the sheep in an infusion of arsenic, in the proportion of half a pound of arsenic to twelve gallons of water. The sheep should be previously washed in soap and water. The infusion must not be permitted to enter the mouth or nostrils.
Or, take common mercurial ointment; for bad cases, rub it down with three times its weight of lard—for ordinary cases, five times its weight. Rub a little of this ointment into the head of the sheep. Part the wool so as to expose the skin in a line from the head to the tail, and then apply a little of the ointment with the finger the whole way. Make a similar furrow and application on each side, four inches from the first; and so on, over the whole body. The quantity of ointment after composition with the lard, should not exceed two ounces; and, generally, less will suffice. A lamb requires but one-third as much as a grown sheep. This will generally cure; but, if the animal should continue to rub itself, a lighter application of the same should be made in ten days.
Or, take two pounds of lard or palm oil; half a pound of oil of tar; and one pound of sulphur; gradually mix the last two, then rub down the compound with the first. Apply as before. Or, take of corrosive sublimate, one half a pound; white hellabore, powdered, three-fourths of a pound; whale or other oil, six gallons; rosin, two pounds; and tallow, two pounds. The first two to be mixed with a little of the oil, and the rest being melted together, the whole to be gradually mixed. This is a powerful preparation, and must not be applied too freely.
An erysipelatous scab, or erysipelas, attended with considerable itching, sometimes troubles sheep. This is a febrile disease, and is treated with a cooling purgative, bleeding, and oil or lard applied to the sores.
SMALL-POX.
The author acknowledges himself indebted for what follows under this head to R. McClure, V. S., of Philadelphia, author of a Prize Essay on Diseases of Sheep, read before the U. S. Agricultural Society, in 1860, for which a medal and diploma were awarded.
Although the small-pox in domestic animals has, fortunately, been as yet confined to the European Continent—where it has been chiefly limited to England—no good reason can ever be assigned why it should not at some future time make its appearance among us, especially when we remember how long a period elapsed, during which we escaped the cattle plague, although the Continent had long been suffering from it.
The small-pox in sheep—variola overia—is, at times, epizoötic in the flocks of France and Italy, but was unknown in England until 1847, when it was communicated to a flock at Datchett and another at Pinnier by some Merinos from Spain. It soon found its way into Hampshire and Norfolk, but was shortly afterward supposed to be eradicated. In 1862, however, it suddenly reappeared in a severe form among the flocks of Wiltshire; for which reappearance neither any traceable infection nor contagion could be assigned. With the present light upon the subject, it would seem to be an instance of the origination anew of a malignant type of varioloid disease. Such an origin is, in fact, assigned to this disease in Africa, it being well established that certain devitalizing atmospheric influences produce skin diseases, and facilitate the appearance of pustular eruptions.
The disease once rooted soon becomes epizoötic, and causes a greater mortality than any other malady affecting this animal. Out of a flock numbering 1720, 920 were attacked in a natural way, of which 50 per cent. died. Of 800 inoculated cases, but 36 per cent. died.