“The fourth consideration relates to the health of the cattle, a subject as important as it is complex, for a single beast which may be sick or infected and ailing often brings a great calamity on an entire herd.  There are two degrees of the healing art, one which requires consultation with a surgeon, as for men:  the other which the skilful shepherd can himself practise, and this consists of three parts, namely:  the consideration of what are the causes, the symptoms and the treatment which should be followed in relation to each malady.  The common causes of disease in cattle are excess of heat or of cold, overwork, or its opposite lack of exercise, or, if when they have been worked, you give them food and drink at once without an interval of rest.  The symptoms of fever due to heat or overwork are a gaping mouth, heavy humid breath and a burning body.  The cure when such is the malady is this:  bathe the animal with water, rub it with a warm mixture of oil and wine, put it on a nourishing diet, blanket it as protection against chills and give it tepid water when it is thirsty.[116] If this treatment does not suffice, let the blood, chiefly from the head.

“So there are different causes and different symptoms of the maladies peculiar to each kind of cattle, and the flock master should have them all written down.

“It remains to speak of the ninth head (c), which I mentioned, and this relates to the number of cattle to be kept and so concerns both of the other heads.

“For whoever buys cattle must consider the number of herds and how many in each herd he can feed on his land, lest his pastures prove short or more than he need, as so in either case the profit be lost.  Further more, one should know how many breeding ewes there are in the flock, how many rams, how many lambs of each sex, how many culls to be weeded out.  Thus, if a ewe has more lambs at a birth than she can nourish, you should do what some shepherds practise—­take part of them away from her, which is done to the end that those remaining may prosper.”

“Beware!” put in Atticus, “that your generalisations do not lead you astray, and that your insistence on the rule of nine does not contradict your own definition of small and large cattle:  for how can all your principles be applied to mules and to shepherds, since those with respect to breeding certainly cannot be followed so far as they are concerned.  As to dogs I can see their application.  I admit even that men may be included in them, because they have their wives on the farm in winter, and indeed even in their summer pasture camps, a concession which is deemed beneficial because it attaches the shepherds to their flocks, and by begetting children they increase the establishment and with it the profit on your investment.”

“If Scrofa’s number cannot be measured with a carpenter’s rule,” said I, “neither can many other generalisations, as, for instance, when we say that a thousand ships sailed against Troy, or that a certain court of Rome consists of a hundred judges (centumviri).  Leave out, if you wish, the two chapters relating to breeding in so far as mules are concerned.”