The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-02 00:00:00

THE MALIGNANT DISORDER AMONG

SHEEP.

(From the Times.)

Nothing can more forcibly illustrate the immense diffi-
culty there is on some special occasions in getting up the
required full bucket of truth from its accustomed deep well
than this lamentable outbreak among the large flocks of
Wiltshire. Occasionally the force in lifting is impeded by
the repulsiveness of direct self-interest ; at others by even
the more overbearing influence of prejudice. Apart froth

the malady among the lower animals, humanity in the im-
mediate vicinity of the great flocks is severely afflicted with
tetanus, and the locked jaw has been in no small degree
accelerated by the correspondence and editorial comments
in the Times, An active inquirer on the spot is at once
ticketed as a " Government inquirer." Stich an one ap-
peared—and not for the first time—on the affected ground
in Wiltshire this week, and, though strengthened in his
researches by introductory letters from three of the acting
magistrates of the county, found himself fettered, as it were,
in almost every step he took in his laudable course—not in
every step, however, for there were laudable and highly
honourable exceptions, though few and remarkably far be-
tween. And here let us pause to do justice to Mr. Farry, of
Allington, the main sufferer, as a flockmaster, up to the
present moment. A more liberal-minded and thoroughly
outspoken gentleman does not exist; he may immediately
and prospectively be a great loser by the exposure of the
calamity which has to so great an extent befallen his cele-
brated flock, but he is too high •minded to make a complaint
on that head ; it is his freely-expressed opinion that the
bond of secrecy was so broken at once and so early, in order
that the required remedy—if there were any in existence
better than the one he had so promptly and so judiciously
adopted—should be promptly announced. It was well that
the limes, contemporaneously with a localjournal published
at no great distance from the spot where the taint first ma-
nifested itself, spoke out in terms free from ambiguity, lead-
ing to demonstrations by intelligent correspondents, whose
words have pierced every nook and corner of Wilts, Hants,
Dorset, Somerset, Sussex, where the chief flockmasters of
the kingdom reside; it was well in many respects, private as
well as'public, in a cautionary as well as remedial sense.
The knowledge of a disorder is more than half its cure. The
correspondence in the Times is likely, at any rate, to point
out the exact nature of the malady, while secrecy would
only have led to mystification, and that outrageous degree
of quackery to which our rural population are to so lament-
able an extent exposed and defrauded,
Well, as we have already intimated, the ?tines, although
not in any direct manner, having suggested the idea of a
Government inspection, the idea was at once established
that a Government inspector had been sent down to Wilt-
shire ; so that in the present week there has been a kind of
stumbliegblock to personal inquiries by strangers. In the
long circuitous course of 58 mires the writer came across
but four flockmasters who were disposed to be thoroughly
communicative on the subject, the remainder complaining
that " the press had spoilt the markets." The shepherds
were scarcely so much tongnetied, excepting in three in-
stances, as though they were guided by superior orders.
From this clam of persons—none of them of a very high
order in an intellectual sense—we gathered in one instance
that three sheep had "sickened," been killed, and buried,
and nothing heard for the last three weeks of anything like
a malady. Another had lost eight sheep, but it was all
owing to " watery turnips," adding, " all owing to want of
sunshine when the second leaves were topping." A third
would have it that the comet was at fault, for " in the year,"
as he said, " I got married there was a comet, and the sheep
rotted off by dozens; it is years agone. My father had the
principal management then ; he had lived as a boy with
Squire Miles, and I know that we killed and buried them as
fast as they got bad—directly, Sir, and sent none to market
that year. It was a terrible time. We used a power o'
brimstone, I know; but it set 'un mad, and so there was
nothing for it but to kill 'un. Our neighbour there—
you see the house up along—lost 80 odd sheep ; but
we have been quiet since, till now." He asked, in a
singularly inquisitive vein—" Do e'e think, Sir, the
new sort o' guano has to do with it ?" "Do you," I
said, " hold to that opinion ?" He replied, " Well, I
am not sure of that ; but I must say, for luck in rearing, I
dearly like a small hard turnip before a lumpy soft one."
Five miles from this an aged shepherd candidly admitted
that he believed " we should hear something bad in a week
or so;'' adding knowingly, " I dare say you will hear of
something down below," pointing to a homestead on the
hill, upon the slope on the upper side of the valley. And
we did hear something. The letter we presented, directed
to a flockmaster by Major —, was at once opened by a
middle-aged lady, who said that her husband had gone to
for advice, but she could not see what the Major had
to do with their flock ; he had better look after his own, if
what she had heard on Sunday were true. If the magi-
strates were going to interfere, they might as well turn their
attention to the flock, where the smallpox, since Satur-
day, had killed 40 ewes. The next course was to the spot
indicated; but there " mum" was the order of the day, and
facts were as difficult to get at as nuggets of gold on Salis-
bury Plain.

In sorrow it must be admitted that the scourge has ex-
tended to several more flocks, and especially to those in the
district of Devizes—expanding now over an area of several
miles, and in detached spots. The .Devizes Gazette records
an alarming circumstance, in these terms :
" It has come to our knowledge that 200 lambs were sold
by a farmer in the neighbourhood (Mr. Neate, of Alloan-
nings) at Marlborough Fair last Friday, which were ascer-
tained on the following day to have had the smallpox
among them for a fortnight previously, some of them, when
examined, having pustules fully formed on parts of their
body where the disease is most easily discernible. That Mr.
Neate was aware of the fact when he sent the lambs to
Marlborough we cannot for a moment suppose. Indeed,
had he been so, he would not only have rendered himself
liable to a heavy penalty for exposing them for sale in any
market, fair, or open or public place, but for even driving
them along the turnpike road. But he does not appear
to have been aware that his flock had been impregnated
with the disease until the day after the fair, when on
examining the sheep and lambs which were upon his farm
many of them were found to have the pox fully developed
over their bodies. He then did the only thing he could do
to retrieve the mischief he had caused. He set off imme-
apwdlidtfliaoyubrotfoauthetLte:mamooun.bourne, whither the lambs had been driven
by their purchaser, Mr. Louseley, and had them back to
Allcannings, returning Mr. Louseley the money he had
ascertained
othert
until the
far
ata
rrhersheep
siallvea2lwo
()woo lhlmiad2r h.bmsavrhe.aNesteLi beenowbueeist
hinwe
yetdl lhhrei;
ava
idebnuairoifftl.
chased at the fair, and hadprreombasbinlyed wiottthhethemme
ing news that they had.
whi hone xamination proved to be too true. smallpox,Neste
has, we hear, since had the greater
Part of his flock inocu-
latedt by Professor Simonds, who appears, unfortunately, to
have as much work upon his hands in this way as he
can
iwsenlloatttthene dontoly;
itself since our last." h flock,i
t 11 we
e diseasearetY has rhomY'
shown
otheriflnocNkeiantew's

There are, we are happy to say, favourable reports of
Mr. Parry's flock. Of these 448 ewes that were inoculated,
400 have passed through the disease, and are considered
free from all further danger. His whole loss is reckoned
at 65 per cent. Mr. Harding, of Elchilhampton has, up to
the present time, lost none of his ewes ; and the 20 which
has been attacked, and were inoculated, are getting gra-
dually better.