Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/59

 And with detersive bay-salt rub their mouths, Or urge them on a barren bank to feed, In hunger's kind distress, on tedded hay; Or to the marish guide their easy steps, If near thy tufted crofts the broad sea spreads. Sagacious care foreacts. When strong disease Breaks in, and stains the purple streams of health, Hard is the strife of art. The coughing pest From their green pasture sweeps whole flocks away. That dire distemper, sometimes may the swain, Tho' late, discern; when on the lifted lid, Or visual orb, the turgid veins are pale, The swelling liver then her putrid store Begins to drink: ev'n yet thy skill exert, Nor suffer weak despair to fold thy arms; Again detersive salt apply, or shed The hoary med'cine o'er their arid food. In cold stiff soils the bleaters oft complain Of gouty ails, by shepherds term'd the Halt: Those let the neighb'ring fold or ready crook Detain, and pour into their cloven feet Corrosive drugs, deep-searching arsenic, Dry allum, verdigrise, or vitriole keen: But if the doubtful mischief scarce appears, 'Twill serve to shift them to a dryer turf, And salt again. Th' utility of salt Teach thy slow swains; redundant humours cold Are the diseases of the bleating kind. Th' infectious scab, arising from extremes Of want or surfeit, is by water cured Of lime, or sodden staves-acre, or oil Dispersive of Norwegian tar, renown'd By virtuous Berkeley, whose benevolence Explored its pow'rs, and easy med'cine thence Sought for the poor. Ye Poor! with grateful voice