BRAXY, BtsAxzs. BR %NIT, BRAM:S. These words are given as synonymous in Jami..?son's Dleioxtry, in Heating a disease in s'teep. In the dialect of Angus. it is called braik and bricks. Tile derivation of the word is uncertain. The vague way in which the term braxy is 1. IVAN'S it difil3alt to define the disease, for in different parts of the country, totally different disorder; are included under this head. Of the two most generally recogaivA ns braxy, the one is an intestinal affection attended with obstinate diarrhea; the other is a blood disease, and the result of plethora or fullness of blood. The second, which is spoken of by the better informed shepherds as the true braxy, may best be described here.
Ct•tc.'3.-1 very lean flock of Wan7 placed on rich food is very apt to be decimated by braxy. By rich food is meant more particularly those substances containing an a6undanee of nitrogenous principles. such as luxuriant heather, strong and succulent grass, the best. turnips, etc. Hilly land is favorable to the production of braxy, from the firm nature and nutrient qualities of food crowing on it. We find the disease in such situation; in the winter season. Aboat the month of November, many of the well-fed hog; placed on turnips die suddenly from braxy; and, again, when farmers resort to the forcing-system towards spring. the mortality is great, particularly when, in addition to much artificial fond, sheep are allowed rich pasture. The mortality is greatest at the period of full moon, from the sheep grazing during the light nights as well as by day. The shepherd very frequently at these times finds one or two dead in the morning. Some assert that. in the winter, expost•e induces braxy; and It is very possible that it may be produced by any sudden cheek to the exhalations, which tend so much to maintain the balance of time functions and purify the blood.
Siiityznits.—Tue animal, in full health, suddenly ceases to eat, has a staring look, is
peculiarly excitable, and separates itself from the flock. The head is lifted high. the breathing becomes labored, the countenance appears anxious, and the animal loses the power of its limbs. It totters, falls over, is seized with convulsions, and dies within five or six hours, and often within an hour from tile first symptoms of the disease.
Citslarer!c nun nron133.—If the sheep's throat is cut before it dies, the absence of any peculiar appearances within the body is very remarkable: the flesh appears of a dark-red color, and the veins are charged with dark blood, hut, on the whole, the body of the sheep looks so well that the mountain-shepherd cuts it tip to make braxy mutton." If the sheep is allowed to the of itself, the body soon swells, putrefies, and is rendered uieless.
1rdatirent.—The prevention of the disease alone affords hope, and it consists in regu lating the animal's diet, to prevent sudden transitions from low to rich keep; to mix food so as to modify the action of the more highly nitrogenized kinds; and to check the development of plethora or fullness of blood by saline purgatives and diuretics, such as Epsom and Glauber salts or niter. The principles to be followed out in preventing this disease are precisely similar to those referred to under the head BLAcK in cat tle. Shelter during severe winter weather is insisted on by shepherds as essential to pre vent the malady.
Brazil/i/Wm, above alluded to. is, as a general rule, not unwholesome; though in warm climates the same disease in sheep assumes 4 very type, and indeed constitutes one of the carbuncular diseases. Though the flesh can be eaten with impu nity in the mountains of Scotland, it is most dangerous and condemned iu southern Europe.