THE SECTION OF A FIRST RATE SHIP

THE SECTION OF A FIRST RATE SHIP, SHOWN WITH VARIOUS TUBBERS AND APARTMENTS.

Mizzen Mast

Main Mast

Fore Mast

PLATE CCCCLXXIII.

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The flesh of sheep, when slaughtered, is well known to be of various qualities. Some is composed of large coarse grains interspersed with wide empty pores like a sponge: others, of large grains, with wide pores filled with fat; others, of fine close grains, with smaller pores filled with fat; and a fourth, of close grains, without any intermixture of fatness.

The flesh of sheep, when dressed, is equally well known to possess a variety of qualities: some mutton is coarse, dry, and insipid; a dry sponge, affording little or no gravy of any colour. Another sort is somewhat firmer, imparting a light coloured gravy only. A third plump, short and palatable; affording a mixture of white and red gravy. A fourth likewise plump and well-flavoured, but discharging red gravy, and this in various quantities.

It is likewise observable, that some mutton, when dressed, appears covered with a thick, tough, parchment-like integument; others with a membrane comparatively fine and flexible. But these, and some of the other qualities of mutton, may not be wholly owing to breed, but in part to the age and the state of fatness at the time of slaughter. Examined in this light, whether we consider the degree of fatness, or their natural propensity to a state of fatness, even at an early age, the improved breed of Leicestershire sheep appears with many superior advantages.

The degree of fatness to which the individuals of this breed are capable of being raised, will perhaps appear incredible to those who have not had an opportunity of being convinced by their own observation. "I have seen wedders (says Mr Marshall) of only two shear (two or three years old) so loaded with fat as to be scarcely able to make a run; and whose fat lay so much without the bone, it seemed ready to be shaken from the ribs on the smallest agitation.

"It is common for the sheep of this breed to have such a projection of fat upon the ribs, immediately behind the shoulder, that it may be easily gathered up in the hand, as the flank of a fat bullock. Hence it has gained, in technical language, the name of the fore-flank: a point which a modern breeder never fails to touch in judging of the quality of this breed of sheep.

"What is, perhaps, still more extraordinary, it is not rare for the rams at least, of this breed, to be 'cracked on the back'; that is, to be cloven along the top of the chine, in the manner fat sheep generally are upon the rump. This mark is considered as an evidence of the best blood.

"Extraordinary, however, as are these appearances while the animals are living, the facts are still more striking after they are slaughtered. At Litchfield, in February 1785, I saw a fore quarter of mutton, fattened by Mr Prince of Croxall, and which measured upon the ribs four inches of fat. It must be acknowledged, however, that the Leicestershire breed do not produce so much wool as most other long-woolled sheep."

As the practice of letting rams by the season is now become profitable, it may be useful to mention the method of rearing them.

"The principal ram-breeders save annually twenty, thirty, or perhaps forty ram lambs; castration being seldom applied, in the first instance, to the produce of a valuable ram, for in the choice of these lambs they are led more by blood or parentage, than by form; on

which, at an early age, little dependence can be placed. Their treatment from the time they are weaned, in July or August, until the time of shearing, the first week in June, consists in giving them every indulgence of keep, in order to push them forward for the show; it being the common practice to let such as are fit to be let the first season, while they are yet yearlings—provincially 'sharhogs.'

"Their first pasture, after weaning, is pretty generally, I believe, clover that has been mown early, and has got a second time into head; the heads of clover being considered as a most forcing food of sheep. After this goes off, turnips, cabbages, colewort, with hay, and (report says) with corn. But the use of this the breeders severally deny, though collectively they may be liable to the charge.

"Be this as it may, something considerable depends on the art of making up, not lambs only, but rams of all ages. Fat, like charity, covers a multitude of faults; and besides, is the best evidence of their fatting quality which their owners can produce (i. e. their natural propensity to a state of fatness), while in the fatness of the sharhogs is seen their degree of inclination to fat at an early age.

"Fattening quality being the one thing needful in grazing stock, and being found, in some considerable degree at least, to be hereditary, the fattest rams are of course the best; though other attachments, well or ill placed, as to form or fashionable points, will perhaps have equal or greater weight in the minds of some men, even in this enlightened age. Such shearlings as will not make up sufficiently as to form and fatness, are either kept on to another year to give them a fair chance, or are castrated, or butchered while sharhogs."

From the first letting, about 40 years ago, to the year 1780, the prices kept gradually rising from fifteen Mr Bakewell's shillings to a guinea, and from one to ten. In 1780 Mr Bakewell let several at ten guineas each; and, what is rather inexplicable, Mr Parkinson of Quarndon let one the same year for twenty-five guineas; a price which then astonished the whole country.

From that time to 1786 Mr Bakewell's stock rose rapidly from ten to a hundred guineas; and that year he let two-thirds of one ram (reserving one-third of the usual number of ewes to himself) to two principal breeders, for a hundred guineas each, the entire services of the ram being rated at three hundred guineas! Mr Bakewell making that year, by letting twenty rams only, more than a thousand pounds!

Since that time the prices have been still rising. Four hundred guineas have been repeatedly given. Mr Bakewell, this year (1789) makes, says Mr Marshall, twelve hundred guineas by three rams (brothers, we believe); two thousand of seven; and, of his whole letting, full three thousand guineas!

Beside this extraordinary sum made by Mr Bakewell, there are six or seven other breeders who make from five hundred to a thousand guineas each. The whole amount of moneys produced that year in the midland counties, by letting rams of the modern breed for one season only, is estimated, by those who are adequate to the subject, at the almost incredible sum of ten thousand pounds.

Rams previous to the season are reduced from the cumbrous fat state in which they are shown. The usual

Sheep. time of sending them out is the middle of September. They are conveyed in carriages of two wheels with springs, or hung in slings, 20 or 30 miles a-day, sometimes to the distance of 200 or 300 miles. They are not turned loose among the ewes, but kept apart in a small inclosure, where a couple of ewes only are admitted at once. When the season is over, every care is taken to make the rams look as fat and handsome as possible.

12
The treatment of the rams and choice of the ewes.
In the choice of ewes the breeder is led by the same criterions as in the choice of rams. Breed is the first object of consideration. Excellency, in any species or variety of live-stock, cannot be attained with any degree of certainty, let the male be ever so excellent, unless the females employed likewise inherit a large proportion of the genuine blood, be the species or variety what it may. Hence no prudent man ventures to give the higher prices for the Dishley rams, unless his ewes are deeply tinctured with the Dishley blood. Next to breed is flesh, fat, form, and wool.

After the lambs are weaned, the ewes are kept in common feeding places, without any alteration of pasture, previous to their taking the ram. In winter they are kept on grass, hay, turnips, and cabbages. As the heads of the modern breed are much finer than most others, the ewes lamb with less difficulty.

The female lambs, on being weaned, are put to good keep, but have not such high indulgence shown them as the males, the prevailing practice being to keep them from the ram the first autumn.

At weaning time, or previously to the admission of the ram, the ewes are culled, to make room for the thaves or shearlings, whose superior blood and fashion intitle them to a place in the breeding flock. In the work of culling, the ram-breeder and the mere grazer go by somewhat different guides. The grazer's guide is principally age, seldom giving his ewes the ram after they are four shear. The ram-breeder, on the contrary, goes chiefly by merit; an ewe that has brought him a good ram or two is continued in the flock so long as she will breed. There are instances of ewes having been prolific to the tenth or twelfth year; but in general the ewes of this breed go off at six or seven shear.

In the practice of some of the principal ram-breeders, the culling ewes are never suffered to go out of their hands until after they are slaughtered, the breeders not only fatting them, but having them butchered, on their premises. There are others, however, who sell them; and sometimes at extraordinary prices. Three, four, and even so high as ten guineas each, have been given for these outcasts.

There are in the flocks of several breeders ewes that would fetch at auction twenty guineas each. Mr Bakewell is in possession of ewes which, if they were now put up to be sold to the best bidder, would, it is estimated, fetch no less than fifty each, and perhaps through the present spirit of contention, much higher prices.

13
Instructions for purchasing sheep.
The following instructions for purchasing sheep, we hope, will be acceptable to our country readers.—The farmer should always buy his sheep from a worse land than his own, and they should be big boned, and have a long greasy wool, curling close and well. These sheep always breed the finest wool, and are also the most approved of by the butcher for sale in the market. For

the choice of sheep to breed, the ram must be young, and his skin of the same colour with his wool, for the lambs will be of the same colour with his skin. He should have a large long body; a broad forehead, round, and well-rising; large eyes; and straight and short nostrils. The polled sheep, that is, those which have no horns, are found to be the best breeders. The ewe should have a broad back; a large bending neck; small, but short, clean, and nimble legs; and a thick, deep wool covering her all over.

To know whether they be sound or not, the farmer should examine the wool that none of it be wanting, and see that the gums be red, the teeth white and even, and the brisket-skin red, the wool firm, the breath sweet, and the feet not hot. Two years old is the best time for beginning to breed; and their first lambs should not be kept too long, to weaken them by suckling, but be sold as soon as conveniently may be. They will breed advantageously till they are seven years old. The farmers have a method of knowing the age of a sheep, as a horse's is known, by the mouth. When a sheep is one shear, as they express it, it has two broad teeth before; when it is two shear, it will have four; when three, six; and when four, eight. After this their mouths begin to break.

The difference of land makes a very great difference in the sheep. The fat pastures breed straight tall sheep, and the barren hills and downs breed square short ones; woods and mountains breed tall and slender sheep; but the best of all are those bred upon new-ploughed land and dry grounds. On the contrary, all wet and moist lands are bad for sheep, especially such as are subject to be overflowed, and to have sand and dirt left on them. The salt marshes are, however, an exception to this general rule, for their saltiness makes amends for their moisture; salt, by reason of its drying quality, being of great advantage to sheep.

As to the time of putting the rams to the ewes, the farmer must consider at what time of the spring his grass will be fit to maintain them and their lambs, and whether he has turnips to do it till the grass comes; for very often both the ewes and lambs are destroyed by the want of food; or if this does not happen, if the lambs are only stunted in their growth by it, it is an accident that they never recover. The ewe goes 20 weeks with lamb, and according to this it is easy to calculate the proper time. The best time for them to yean, is in April, unless the owner has very forward grass or turnips, or the sheep are field sheep. Where you have not inclosures to keep them in, then it may be proper they should yean in January, that the lambs may be strong by May-day, and be able to follow the dam over the fallows and water-furrows; but then the lambs that come so early must have a great deal of care taken of them, and so indeed should all other lambs at their first falling, else while they are weak the crows and magpies will pick their eyes out.

When the sheep are turned into fields of wheat or rye to feed, it must not be too rank at first, for if it be, it generally throws them into scourings. Ewes that are big should be kept but bare, for it is very dangerous to them to be fat at the time of their bringing forth their young. They may be well fed, indeed, like cows, a fortnight beforehand, to put them in heart. Mortimer's Husbandry, p. 243.

^Sheep. The feeding sheep with turnips is one great advantage to the farmers. When they are made to eat turnips they soon fatten, but there is some difficulty in bringing this about. The old ones always refuse them at first, and will sometimes fast three or four days, till almost famished; but the young lambs fall to at once. The common way, in some places, of turning a flock of sheep at large into a field of turnips, is very disadvantageous, for they will thus destroy as many in a fortnight as would keep them a whole winter. There are three other ways of feeding them on this food, all of which have their several advantages.

^{5 The first way is to divide the land by hurdles, and allow the sheep to come upon such a portion only at a time as they can eat in one day, and so advance the hurdles farther into the ground daily till all be eaten. This is infinitely better than the former random method; but they never eat them clean even this way, but leave the bottoms and outsides scooped in the ground: the people pull up these indeed with iron crooks, and lay them before the sheep again, but they are commonly so fouled with the creature's dung and urine, and with the dirt from their feet, that they do not care for them; they eat but little of them, and what they do eat does not nourish them like the fresh roots.}

^{10 The second way is by inclosing the sheep in hurdles, as in the former; but in this they pull up all the turnips which they suppose the sheep can eat in one day, and daily remove the hurdles over the ground whence they have pulled up the turnips: by this means there is no waste, and less expence, for a person may in two hours pull up all those turnips; the remaining shells of which would have employed three or four labourers a day to get up with their crooks out of the ground trodden hard by the feet of the sheep; and the worst is, that as in the method of pulling up first, the turnips are eaten up clean, in this way, by the hook, they are wasted, the sheep do not eat any great part of them, and when the ground comes to be tilled afterwards for a crop of corn, the fragments of the turnips are seen in such quantities on the surface, that half the crop at least seems to have been wasted.}

^{15 The third manner is to pull up the turnips, and remove them in a cart or waggon to some other place, spreading them on a fresh place every day; by this method the sheep will eat them up clean, both root and leaves. The great advantage of this method is, when there is a piece of land not far off which wants done more than that where the turnips grow, which perhaps is also too wet for the sheep in winter, and then the turnips will, by the too great moisture and dirt of the soil, sometimes spoil the sheep, and give them the rot. Yet such ground will often bring forth more and larger turnips than dry land, and when they are carried off, and eaten by the sheep on ploughed land, in dry weather, and on green sward in wet weather, the sheep will succeed much better; and the moist soil where the turnips grew not being trodden by the sheep, will be much fitter for a crop of corn than if they had been fed with turnips on it. The expence of hurdles, and the trouble of moving them, are saved in this case, which will counterbalance at least the expence of pulling the turnips and carrying them to the places where they are to be eaten. They must always be carried off for oxen.}

^{18 The diseases to which sheep are subject are these,}

rot, red-water, foot-rot and hoving, scab, dunt, rickets, fly-struck, flux, and bursting. Of each of these we shall give the best description in our power, with the most approved remedies.

^{19 The rot, which is a very pernicious disease, has of late engaged the attention of scientific farmers. But neither its nature nor its cause has yet been fully ascertained. Some valuable and judicious observations have, however, been made upon it, which ought to be circulated, as they may, perhaps, in many cases, furnish an antidote for this malignant distemper, or be the means of leading others to some more efficacious remedy. Some have supposed the rot owing to the quick growth of grass or herbs that grow in wet places. Without premising, that all bounteous Providence has given to every animal its peculiar taste, by which it distinguishes the food proper for its preservation and support, if not vitiated by fortuitous circumstances, it seems very difficult to discover on philosophical principles why the quick growth of grass should render it noxious, or why any herb should at one season produce fatal effects, by the admission of pure water only into its component parts, which at other times is perfectly innocent, although brought to its utmost strength and maturity by the genial influence of the sun. Besides, the constant practice of most farmers in the kingdom, who with the greatest security feed their meadows in the spring, when the grass shoots quick and is full of juices, militates directly against this opinion.}

^{20 Mr Arthur Young ascribes this disease to moisture. In confirmation of this opinion, which has been generally adopted, we are informed, in the Bath Society papers*, by a correspondent, that there was a paddock adjoining to his park which had for several years caused the rot in most of the sheep which were put into it. In 1769 he drained it, and from that time his sheep were free from this malady. But there are facts which render it doubtful that moisture is the sole cause. We are told the dry limed land in Derbyshire will produce the rot as well as water meadows and stagnant marshes; and that in some wet grounds sheep sustain no injury for many weeks.}

^{20 Without attempting to enumerate other hypotheses, which the ingenious have formed on this subject, we shall pursue a different method in order to discover the cause. On dissecting sheep that die of this disorder, a great number of insects called flukes (see FASCIOLA) are found in the liver. That these flukes are the cause of the rot, therefore, is evident; but to explain how they come into the liver is not so easy. It is probable that they are swallowed by the sheep along with their food while in the egg state. The eggs deposited in the tender germ are conveyed with the food into the stomach and intestines of the animals, whence they are received into the lacteal vessels, carried off in the chyle, and pass into the blood; nor do they meet with any obstruction until they arrive at the capillary vessels of the liver. Here, as the blood filtrates through the extreme branches, answering to those of the vena porta in the human body, the secerning vessels are too minute to admit the impregnated ova, which, adhering to the membrane, produce those animalculæ that feed upon the liver and destroy the sheep. They much resemble the flat fish called plaice, are sometimes as large as a silver two-pence, and are found both in the liver and in the}

the pipe (answering to that of the vena cava) which conveys the blood from the liver to the heart.

The common and most obvious objection to that opinion is, that this insect is never found but in the liver, or in some parts of the viscera, of sheep that are diseased more or less; and that they must therefore be bred there. But this objection will lose its force, when we consider that many insects undergo several changes, and exist under forms extremely different from each other. Some of them may therefore appear and be well known under one shape, and not known to be the same under a second or third. The fluke may be the last state of some aquatic animal which we at present very well know under one or other of its previous forms.

If this be admitted, it is easy to conceive that sheep may, on wet ground especially, take multitudes of these ova or eggs in with their food; and that the stomach and viscera of the sheep being a proper nidus for them, they of course hatch, and appearing in their fluke or last state, feed on the liver of the animal, and occasion this disorder.

It is a singular fact, "that no ewe ever has the rot while she has a lamb by her side." The reason of this may be, that the impregnated ovum passes into the milk, and never arrives at the liver. The rot is fatal to sheep, hares, and rabbits, and sometimes to calves; but never infests animals of a larger size.

Miller says that parsley is a good remedy for the rot in sheep. Perhaps a strong decoction of this plant, or the oil extracted from its seeds, might be of service. Salt is also a useful remedy. It seems to be an acknowledged fact, that salt marshes never produce the rot. Salt is indeed pernicious to most insects. Common salt and water expel worms from the human body; and sea-weed, if laid in a garden, will drive away insects; but if the salt is separated by steeping it in the purest spring-water for a few days, it abounds with animalcule of various species.

Lisle, in his book of husbandry, informs us of a farmer who cured his whole flock of the rot by giving each sheep a handful of Spanish salt for five or six mornings successively. The hint was probably taken from the Spaniards, who frequently give their sheep salt to keep them healthy. On some farms perhaps the utmost caution cannot always prevent this disorder. In wet and warm seasons the prudent farmer will remove his sheep from the lands liable to rot. Those who have it not in their power to do this may give each sheep a spoonful of common salt, with the same quantity of flour, in a quarter of a pint of water, once or twice a-week. At the commencement of the rot the same remedy given four or five mornings successively will in all probability effect a cure. The addition of the flour and water, it is supposed, not only abates the pangency of the salt, but disposes it to mix with the chyle in a more gentle and efficacious manner.

A farmer of a considerable lordship in Bohemia visiting the hot-wells of Carlsbad, related how he preser-

ved his flocks of sheep from the mortal distemper which raged in the wet year 1760, of which so many perished. His preservative was very simple and very cheap: "He fed them every night, when turned under a shed, cover, or stables, with hashed fodder straw; and, by eating it greedily, they all escaped."

"Red water is a disorder most prevalent on wet Red grounds. I have heard (says Mr Arthur Young) that it has sometimes been cured by tapping, as for a drop-sy. This operation is done on one side of the belly towards the flank, just below the wool."

"The foot-rot and having, which is very common on Foot low fenny grounds, is cured by keeping the part clean, and lying at rest in a dry pasture."

The scab is a cutaneous disease owing to an impurity of the blood, and is most prevalent in wet lands or in rainy seasons. It is cured by tobacco-water, brimstone, and alum, boiled together, and then rubbed over the sheep. If only partial, tar and grease may be sufficient. But the simplest and most efficacious remedy for this disease was communicated to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. by Sir Joseph Banks.

"Take one pound of quicksilver, half a pound of Venice turpentine, half a pint of oil of turpentine, and four pounds of hogs lard (c). Let them be rubbed in a mortar till the quicksilver is thoroughly incorporated with the other ingredients; for the proper mode of doing which, it may be proper to take the advice, or even the assistance, of some apothecary or other person used to make such mixtures."

"The method of using the ointment is this: Beginning at the head of the sheep, and proceeding from between the ears along the back to the end of the tail, the wool is to be divided in a furrow till the skin can be touched; and as the furrow is made, the finger slightly dipped in the ointment is to be drawn along the bottom of it, where it will leave a blue stain on the skin and adjoining wool: from this furrow similar ones must be drawn down the shoulders and thighs to the legs, as far as they are woolly; and if the animal is much infected, two more should be drawn along each side parallel to that on the back, and one down each side between the fore and hind legs."

"Immediately after being dressed, it is usual to turn the sheep among other stock, without any fear of the infection being communicated, and there is scarcely an instance of a sheep suffering any injury from the application. In a few days the blotches dry up, the itching ceases, and the animal is completely cured: it is generally, however, thought proper not to delay the operation beyond Michaelmas."

"The Hippobosca ovina, called in Lincolnshire sheep fagg, an animal well known to all shepherds, which lives among the wool, and is hurtful to the thriving of sheep, both by the pain its bite occasions and the blood it sucks, is destroyed by this application, and the wool is not at all injured. Our wool-buyers purchase the fleeces on which the stain of the ointment is visible, rather in preference to others, from an opinion that the use of it

it having preserved the animal from being vexed either with the scab or faggs, the wool is less liable to the defects of joints or knots; a fault observed to proceed from every sudden stop in the thriving of the animal, either from want of food or from disease.

"This mode of curing was brought into that part of Lincolnshire where my property is situated about 12 years ago, by Mr Stephenson of Mareham, and is now so generally received, that the scab, which used to be the terror of the farmers, and which frequently deterred the more careful of them from taking the advantage of pasturing their sheep in the fertile and extensive commons with which that district abounds, is no longer regarded with any apprehension: by far the most of them have their flock anointed in autumn, when they return from the common, whether they show any symptoms of scab or not; and having done so, conclude them safe for some time from either giving or receiving infection. There are people who employ themselves in the business, and contract to anoint our large sheep at five shillings a score, insuring for that price the success of the operation; that is, agreeing, in case many of the sheep break out afresh, to repeat the operation gratis even some months afterwards."

The dunt is a distemper caused by a bladder of water gathering in the head. No cure for this has yet been discovered.

The rickets is a hereditary disease for which no antidote is known. The first symptom is a kind of light-headedness, which makes the affected sheep appear wilder than usual when the shepherd or any person approaches him. He bounces up suddenly from his lair, and runs to a distance, as though he were pursued by dogs. In the second stage the principal symptom is the sheep's rubbing himself against trees, &c. with such fury as to pull off his wool and tear away his flesh. "The distressed animal has now a violent itching in his skin, the effect of a highly inflamed blood; but it does not appear that there is ever any cutaneous eruption or salutary critical discharge. In short, from all circumstances, the fever appears now to be at its height."—The last stage of this disease "seems only to be the progress of dissolution, after an unfavourable crisis. The poor animal, as condemned by Nature, appears stupid, walks irregularly (whence probably the name rickets), generally lies, and eats little: these symptoms increase in degree till death, which follows a general consumption, as appears upon dissection of the carcase; the juices and even solids having suffered a general dissolution.

In order to discover the seat and nature of this disease, sheep that die of it ought to be dissected. This is said to have been done by one gentleman, Mr Beal; and he found in the brain, or membranes adjoining, a maggot about a quarter of an inch long, and of a brownish colour. A few experiments might easily determine this fact.

The fly-struck is cured by clipping the wool off as far as infected, and rubbing the parts dry with lime or wood-ashes; curriers oil will heal the wounds, and prevent their being struck any more; or they may be cured with care, without clipping, with oil of turpentine, which will kill all the vermin where it goes; but the former is the surest way.

The flux is another disease to which sheep are sub-

ject. The best remedy is said to be, to house the sheep immediately when this distemper appears, to keep them very warm, and feed them on dry hay, giving them frequent gylsters of warm milk and water. The cause of that distemper is either their feeding on wet lands, or on grass that is become mossy by the lands having been fed many years without being ploughed. When the farmer perceives his sheep-walks to become mossy, or to produce bad grass, he should either plough or manure with hot lime, making kilns either very near or in the sheep-walks, because the hotter the lime is put on, the sweeter the grass comes up, and that early in the year.

Bursting, or it is called in some places the blast, at-³⁰ And burst-
tacks sheep when driven into fresh grass or young clover. They overeat themselves, foam at the mouth, swell exceedingly, breath very quick and short, then jump up, and instantly fall down dead. In this case, the only chance of saving their life is by stabbing them in the maw with an instrument made for the purpose. The instrument is a hollow tube, with a pointed weapon passing through it. A hole is made with the pointed weapon; which is immediately withdrawn and the whole is kept open by inserting the tube till the wind is discharged.

Sheep are infested with worms in their nose called æstrus ovis, and produced from the egg of a large two-winged fly. The frontal sinuses above the nose in sheep and other animals are the places where these worms live and attain their full growth. These sinuses are always full of a soft white matter, which furnishes these worms with a proper nourishment, and are sufficiently large for their habitation; and when they have here acquired their destined growth, in which they are fit to undergo their changes for the fly-state, they leave their old habitation, and, falling to the earth, bury themselves there; and when these are hatched into flies, the female, when she has been impregnated by the male, knows that the nose of a sheep or other animal is the only place for her to deposit her eggs, in order to their coming to maturity. Mr Vallisnieri, to whom the world owes so many discoveries in the insect class, is the first who has given any true account of the origin of these worms. But though their true history had been till that time unknown, the creatures themselves were very early discovered, and many ages since were esteemed great medicines in epilepsies.

The fly produced from this worm has all the time of its life a very lazy disposition, and does not like to make any use either of its legs or wings. Its head and corselet together are about as long as its body, which is composed of five rings, streaked on the back; a pale yellow and brown are there disposed in irregular spots; the belly is of the same colour, but they are there more regularly disposed, for the brown here makes three lines, one in the middle, and one on each side, and all the intermediate spaces are yellow. The wings are nearly of the same length with the body, and are a little inclined in their position, so as to lie upon the body: they do not, however, cover it; but a naked space is left between them. The alarons or petty wings which are found under each of the wings are of a whitish colour, and perfectly cover the balancers, so that they are not to be seen without lifting up these.

The fly will live two months a sterit is first produced.

ced, but will take no nourishment of any kind; and possibly it may be of the same nature with the butterflies, which never take any food during the whole time of their living in that state. Reaumur, Hist. Ins. vol. iv. p. 552, &c.

To find a proper composition for marking sheep is a matter of great importance, as great quantities of wool are every year rendered useless by the pitch and tar with which they are usually marked. The requisite qualities for such a composition are, that it be cheap, that the colour be strong and lasting, so as to bear the changes of weather, and not to injure the wool. Dr Lewis recommends for this purpose melted tallow, with so much charcoal in fine powder stirred into it as is sufficient to make it of a full black colour, and of a thick consistence. This mixture being applied warm with a marking iron, on pieces of flannel, quickly fixed or hardened, bore moderate rubbing, resisted the sun and rain, and yet could be washed out freely with soap, or ley, or stale urine. In order to render it still more durable, and prevent its being rubbed off, with the tallow may be melted an eighth, sixth, or fourth, of its weight of tar, which will readily wash out along with it from the wool. Lewis's Com. Phil. Techn. p. 361.