(130.) _Pining._ _Symptoms and Causes._ The name has arisen from the rapid wasting, which is a prominent symptom in this complaint. A farm can hardly be subject to a more ruinous distemper, as the same sheep will be affected by it year after year, and if a ewe be attacked during autumn it is ten to one she will not have a lamb in the ensuing season. Pining only seizes on thriving sheep, preferring young ones, those more especially of the larger breeds, and is confined to farms where the land is principally micaceous and covered with occasional stripes of benty grasses. A whole flock sickens at once, their usual alacrity appears to have deserted them, their eyes are dull, and the whole animal seems weary and languid. At a more advanced stage the wool acquires a bluish tinge, the blood becomes thick, diminishing in quantity, and the muscles assume a pale and bloodless appearance. The bowels are constipated, and to this the feverish symptoms apparently owe their origin. If the disease progress, death will ensue in about a month.[28] [28] A gradual wasting of the animal, similar to what occurs in pining, may result from the irritation consequent on swallowing pointed bodies, as pins or needles. I have in my possession a very stout needle, given me by Mr Wilkin of Tinwald Downs, which was found buried in the coats of the stomach of a young sheep which died under the above symptoms, having been ill about three months. (131.) _Treatment and Prevention._ The first object is to obtain a free discharge from the bowels by means of purgatives, as, whenever a flux appears, the animal is safe. Two ounces of Castor oil given in a gruel, or the same quantity of Epsom salts, will do, care being taken that the purging be carried to some length. Removal to a rich pasture is the only preventive. That pasture should be preferred which contains a good proportion of bitter plants, for the emaciation appears to be owing in a considerable degree to torpor of the bowels occasioned by long abstinence from these necessaries.