MR. PAGETasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, If his attention has been called to the prevalence of sheep-rot, and the enormous losses occasioned thereby; and, if in view of the magnitude of the disaster, Her Majesty's Government will institute scientific inquiries into the matter?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONSir, the nature and causes of rot in sheep are so well understood, that it is not likely that any further scientific inquiry could add usefully to our present knowledge on the subject. The results of previous investigations will be found in Professor Simmond's Paper, reprinted this year, from the "Journal" of the Royal Agricultural Society, and in Professor Brown's Essay in the Bath Society's "Journal," 1861. Wet seasons, by favouring the development of the fluke, which produces liver rot, are the main causes of the disease, and there have been serious outbreaks of it after wet seasons—in 1735, 1747, 1766, 1792, 1809, 1817, 1824, 1830, 1853, 1860, and again in 1879. A dry, hot season, is the one thing necessary to arrest the ravages of the disease.