s with
respect to chickens, whence their eggs are called [Greek: hypaenemios]
(conceived by the wind),[114] but the foals born of such mares never
live more than three years.

"When lambs are born in due season, or what we call _chordi_ (that is
to say those lambs which are born late and have remained beyond their
season in the belly of the dam, the name _chordi_, being derived from
[Greek: chorion] the Greek name for the membrane which is called the
after birth), care must be taken to clean them and set them gently on
their feet and to prevent the dam from crushing them.

"On the third consideration with respect to raising young animals, you
must consider for how long they should be permitted to suck the dam
and when and where, and if the mother has an insufficient supply of
milk, how you may put the young one to nurse at the udder of another:
in which case they are called _subrumi_, that is to say, under the
udder, for I think that rumis is an old word for udder.

"Lambs are weaned usually at the end of four months, kids in three,
pigs in two. Weanling pigs, from the fact that they are considered fit
to be offered for sacrifice at that age, were formerly called _sacres_
as Plautus calls them when he says, "What's the price of sacred
pigs?"[115] In like manner stall fed cattle, which are being fattened
for the public sacrifices, are called _opimi_.

"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
thir