BRAX'Y, BRAK'SY, BRAX'ES, BRAX' IT, or BRACKS (Scotch, origin unknown). Terms synonymously used to designate several different diseases in domestic animals. They are perhaps most correctly applied to a disease of sheep, which has also been called 'the sickness' in some parts of Scotland, 'Braasot' in Norway, `Maladie subite du mouton' in France, and 'Limp ing ill' in Scotland and England. This disease appears as an epizoiitic, and is due to the action of a pathogenic organism similar to that of blackleg. The braxy bacterium rapidly loses its virulence in cultures nail does not develop in the presence of oxygen. Contagion seems to play an unimportant role in the spread of braxy. The germs exist in the soil of infested localities and are taken into the stomach along with the fodder. The disease appears in the autumn, be comes most prevalent in winter, and usually dis appears in spring, being but rarely seen in sum mer. Sheep from one to three years of age are most susceptible to its attacks. The 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 ap pears 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 the first symptom of the disease. Tumors are frequently
developed on the neck and shoulders. 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 arc charged with dark blood, but, on the whole, the body of the sheep looks so well that the mountain shepherd cuts it up to make 'braxy mutton.' which has a fetid odor. if the sheep is allowed to die of itself, the body soon swells, putrefies, and is rendered useless. It is doubtful whether the meat should ever be eaten. The principles to be followed out in preventing this disease are precisely similar to those referred to under the head 11r.xcKtr.c: in cattle. Shelter during severe winter weather is insisted on by shepherds as essential to prevent the malady.
In warm climates the same disease in sheep assumes an especially malignant type. and in deed constitutes one of the carbuncular diseases. Though the flesh is often eaten in the mountains of Scotland, it is most dangerous and condemned in southern Europe.