LIBRARY 
 
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 CALIFORNIA 
 
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 MAY I 
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 PRINTED IN USA.
 
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 SF 781 f597j 1871 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN OIFGO B 
 
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 i
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ANIMAL FLAG U ES 
 
 FROM B.C. 1490 TO A.D. 1800.
 
 ANIMAL PLAGUES: 
 
 THEIR 
 
 HISTORY, NATURE, AND PREVENTION. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE FLEMING, F.R.G.S., etc. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETV ; MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF THE 
 
 ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS ; VETERINARY SURGEON, ROYAL ENGINEERS ; 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'travels ON HORSEBACK IN MANTCHU TARTARV,' 
 
 AND 'HORSE-SHOES AND HORSESHOEING.' ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 CHAPMAN AND 1L\LL, 193, PICCADILLY 
 
 1871. 
 
 [All Rights resetiied.']
 
 I 
 
 JOHN GUILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
 
 TO 
 
 |jis ^k'ttlhnt^i €nxl B^nxctx, %\M. 
 
 LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND, 
 
 THIS WORK IS 
 
 DEDICATED IN RECOGNITION OF HIS IMPORTANT SERVICES 
 
 DURING A GRAVE CRISIS IN THE AGRICULTURAL 
 
 AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN.
 
 Non tarn creber agens hiemen ruit aequore turbo, 
 Quam multse pecudum pestes. Nee singula morbi 
 Corpora corripiunt, sed tola sestiva repente 
 Spemque gregeraque simul, cunctamque ab origine gentum. 
 
 Virgil. Georgics, lib. iii. 470. 
 
 Non est in medico semper relevetur ut aeger ; 
 Interdum docta plus valet arte malum. — Ovid. 
 
 To be ignorant of what has occurred before our time, is ever to remain in a state of 
 
 childhood. — Cicero. 
 
 ^
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 For very many years the subject of 'Animal Plagues ' has occupied 
 a large share of my attention during the hours spared from more press- 
 ing every-day professional duties, and no opportunity of adding to a 
 knowledge of it has been allowed to pass. Since 1865, when this 
 country was much harassed and ravaged by a destructive exotic disease, 
 its importance has greatly increased, and public attention has been 
 much occupied by it. Previous to that year, the maladies of the lower 
 animals^ and particularly those of a contagious or spreading character, 
 had received but little if any notice, save among a few members of 
 the veterinary profession, who vainly attempted to point out their 
 dangerous tendencies, and their baneful effects on the agriculture of 
 the country, as well as their amenableness to legislative measures care- 
 fully carried out. The striking facts elucidated in this respect in 1865 
 and 1866, have corroborated, in every particular, the justness and value 
 of these unheeded indications. It is scarcely necessary to say, that had 
 the history of the malady then raging been better known, serious loss 
 and embarrassment might have been avoided, and more credit would 
 have been due to us as an enlightened people. 
 
 The science of Comparative Pathology has made but little progress 
 in this country; it has not been looked upon with much favour by the 
 medical profession, and has been neglected altogether b}' successive
 
 vi Preface. 
 
 Governments. In this respect Britain differs widely, and not to her 
 advantage, from the smallest European state. 
 
 These researches into the history of animal pestilences were under- 
 taken with the view of showing what an interesting and important study 
 we had neglected, — a study in which the comparative pathologist, phy- 
 sician, general historian, agriculturist, or statesman will find much 
 material for reflection. 
 
 Though so long ago as 1775, Paulet published his classical work, 
 ' Recherches sur les Maladies Epizootiques,' which was translated into 
 Italian by Lotti in 1785, and into German by Rumpelt in 17765 and 
 though this was followed by similar treatises by Adami (' Beitrage zur 
 Geschichte der Viehseuchen.' Wien, 1781), Laubender (' Seuchen- 
 geschichte der Landwirthschaftlichen Hausthiere.' Munchen, 181 1), 
 Guersent (' Epizootie,' in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, 1815), 
 Metaxa (' Delle Malattie Contagiose ed Epizootiche. Roma, 181 7), 
 Dupuy (' Traite Historique et Pratique sur les Maladies Epizootiques.' 
 Paris, 1837), Bottani ('Delia Epizobzie del Veneto Dominio.' Venezia, 
 1 8 19), Franque ('Geschichte der Hausthierseuchen.' Frankfort, 1834), 
 Wirth (' Lehrbuch der Seuchen und ansteckenden Krankheiten der 
 Hausthiere.' Zurich, 1 146), Heusinger ('Recherches de Pathologic Com- 
 paree.' Cassel, 1853), and several other continental writers — all more 
 or less incomplete, — yet, for the reasons before mentioned, no attempt 
 has yet been made in this country to trace the history of these diseases, 
 or to afford an indication of the sources from whence such a history was 
 to be derived. It is therefore with diffidence that I venture to offer 
 this history of British and foreign epizootics from the earliest recorded 
 events of that kind up to recent times. For professional reasons, my 
 opportunities for research have been few, else this contribution to the 
 literature of the subject would undoubtedly have claimed more pre- 
 tensions to accuracy and completeness. Nevertheless, no pains have 
 been spared to make it what I intended it should be. The collection of 
 materials for such a work was no easy task, the references to animal dis- 
 eases of a general character in the early ages being only found in 
 books which treat also of other matters, and are often very rare. 
 From these and other causes I feel conscious that the result of my 
 labours must be somewhat incomplete and unsatisfactory.
 
 Preface. vii 
 
 When possible, I have given translations of the passages in the 
 several histories, following the ipsissima verba as closely as the sense 
 would permit ; when the descriptions have proved too long for complete 
 transcription, a brief abstract has been made ; and when, at a later 
 period, writings become greatly multiplied, an enumeration of the 
 principal authors and the titles of their books has been given, in addition 
 to a notice of the special maladies they have described. In this respect, 
 Heusinger's excellent work has proved an invaluable source of 
 reference.^ 
 
 I have always been impressed with the idea that a history of many 
 of the ' murrains ' that have travelled across countries, often in company 
 with or preceding human pestilences, would prove a most valuable aid 
 to the student of comparative pathology, and be of service to the busy 
 practitioner whose leisure is more limited ; while to the physician, agri- 
 culturist, or statesman it might serve as a guide for reference whenever 
 the diseases of animals shall occupy a larger share of scientific and public 
 interest than at present. Acting on this impulse, the task was com- 
 menced, and nothing but the importance and interest that appeared to 
 gather round it as I proceeded could have compensated for the labour 
 required. Unsatisfactory as the result now appears to me, yet I trust it 
 will be found acceptable and useful to those for whom it was written, 
 as a treatise on a subject of national importance. 
 
 In considering the extent and the many difficulties attending such a 
 work, I may say in the words of Pliny, quoted by Paulet, ' Res ardua, 
 
 vetustis novitatem dare, novis autoritatem, obscuris lucem, 
 
 fastiditis gratiam, dubiis fidem, omnibus vero naturam et natura suae 
 omnia.' 
 
 ^ In addition to this and the other works mentioned above, the following also 
 treat of epizootic diseases, tliough generally in a didactic manner, and are seldom, 
 if at all, noticed in the body of this treatise. Wollsiein. Das Buch von den 
 Viehseuchen. Wien, 1811. Werner. Handbuch von den Seuchen des Viehs. 
 Breslau, 1798. Bojanus. Anleitung zur Kenntniss und Behandlung dcr wichtig- 
 sten Seuchen unterdem Rindvicli und Pferden. Wilna, 1830. Plank. Grundriss 
 der Epizoonologie oder Thierseuchenlehre. Munchen, 1833.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction xv 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PERIOD FROM B.C. 1490 TO A.D. 40O. 
 
 Early History of Animal Plagues. Egypt and its ' Murrains.' 
 First Recorded Panzooty in Ireland. Pestilence in Troy. Greek 
 Historians and Plagues. Homer and the Siege of Troy. Droughts 
 and their Effects. Rome and its Epizooties. The Plague of Athens. 
 Aristotle. The * Abortus Epidemicus.' The Siege of Syracuse. Cato 
 the Elder. Locusts. Virgil's Panzooty. First Great Famine in Ire- 
 land. Comets and Eclipses. Columella. A ' Loimic ' Plague. Ir- 
 ruption of the Huns. First Recorded Invasion of the ' Cattle Plague.' 
 Vegetius Renatus i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 400 TO A.D. 1500. 
 
 State of Veterinary Science. Hieroclcs and Pelagonius. First 
 Recorded Mortality among Fish. Pestilence in Britain and Ireland. 
 The Ligurian Plague. Variola and Cattle Disease in Italy and Gaul. 
 Cattle and Horse Epizooty in Touraine. Anthrax in France and 
 Belgium. Destruction among Birds and Fowls. Murrains in Eng- 
 land and Ireland. The 'Maclgarth.' Charlemagne's Campaigns. 
 Mortality among Horses and Cattle. Great Irruption of the Cattle 
 Plague from Asia into Europe ; Britain Invaded. War in Pannonia. 
 Plague amongst Oxen in the Rhine Provinces. Locusts in Britain and 
 Ireland. Arnulph's Campaign. Rabies in a Bear at Lyons. Death
 
 X Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 of Cattle and Birds in Ireland. Cattle Plague in France, Italy, and 
 Germany. A ' Fight ' among Birds. Mortality of Bees in Ireland. 
 Disease among Cattle in the Roman Territories. Destruction of 
 People and Cattle among the Saxons, Britons, and Gauls. Wales 
 and its Agrarian Laws. Pestilences in England and Ireland. Ergot- 
 ism and Carbuncular Fever in France and Germany. Plague of Rats. 
 'Conach' in Ireland. First mention of Swine Disease in Ireland. 
 The ' Ignis Divina.' Plagues in Bavaria, England, and Ireland. 
 The ' Ignis Sacer.' Severe Panzooty in London. Dreadful Murrain 
 in England and Ireland. Epizodty in Belgium and Germany. First 
 Notice of ' Influenza.' The ' Feu Sacr^.' The Mongol Invasions 
 and the ' Cattle Plague,' with Death of Sheep. Anthrax in Ireland. 
 Disease in Mankind, Animals, and Fishes. Anthrax in England. 
 Remarkable Epizooty among Sheep. Ovine Variola : its History. 
 Diseases of Sheep. Horse Epizooty in Iceland, at Seville, and at 
 Rome. Famine and Animal Plagues in England and Gaul. Influenza 
 in Ireland. Deadly Epizodty among Horses and Mules at Yemen. 
 The ' Black Death ' and Animal Plagues. The Manor of Heacham. 
 Cattle Diseases in Somerset and Devon. The ' Second Plague.' 
 Murrain among Deer in England. Epizooty among Horses in the 
 Abruzo. 'Signaculo.' ...... • • 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 150O TO A.D. 1700. 
 
 Progress of Medical Science. Inclement Seasons. Blood-rain. 
 Fracastor's Epizooty. The ' Cattle Plague, in Friuli, Venice, France, 
 Spain, and England. Its Transmission to Sheep. Epizooty among 
 Cats in England. The 'Tac' 'The Sweating Sickness' and Pestilence 
 in Animals. Mortality among Cattle in England. Its Effect on the 
 Mayor and Aldermen of London. Anthrax in Italy. Small-pox of 
 Sheep on the Continent. Influenza. Plague of Mice and Murrain of 
 Cattle in Kent and Essex. Rabies Canina. The 'Cattle Plague' in 
 Italy : Goats affected. Epizodty of Rabies in Paris. Disease in 
 Cats at Constantinople. Epizodty among Fowls in Bohemia. An- 
 thrax in Italy : with the ' Cattle Plague' and Disease in Sheep. 
 Catherine Miget. The 'Flying Pestilence.' Epizodty amongthe French 
 Army Horses in Germany. Ovine Small-pox in Padua. Dangerous 
 Disease among Fish. Destruction of Pelicans. Probable Outbreak 
 of Cattle Plague in Italy : Sheep aff"ected. General 'Rot' in Sheep 
 and Cattle. Great Plague of London. Exanthematous Disease 
 among Cats in Westphalia. ' Rot ' in Denmark. Venomous Insects 
 in Hungary. Disease in Fish in Germany. General Epizodty of 
 Glossanthrax on the Continent. Pestilential Mists. ' Foot and 
 Mouth ' Disease in Silesia. Influenza in Mankind and Horses in
 
 Co7itents. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 England and Ireland. Insects in Ireland. Diseases of Plants. 
 Ramazzini, Diseases in Italy. Glossanthrax in Switzerland. Pul- 
 monic Disease among Cattle in Hesse. Epizootic Catarrh among 
 Horses. Ergotism in Alan and Animals. Epizootic Ekzema in 
 Hesse. Glossanthrax in Sweden. The Small-pox of Birds. Honey- 
 dew and ' Mutterkorn.' 123 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1700 TO A.D. 1715. 
 
 The Condition of Comparative Pathology in the i8th and 19th 
 Centuries. Unpropitious Seasons. Importation of Horses into 
 England Prohibited. A Chamois Epizooty. Epizootic Ekzema in 
 Franconia. Epidemic and Epizootic Influenza. 'Rot' in Sheep in 
 Dublin. Commencement of the Great Epizooty of ' Cattle Plague.' 
 Kanold's History. Gerbezius. Schroeckius. Borromeo. Ramaz- 
 zini's Description. Sheep Small-pox in England. Anthrax and 
 an Epizooty of Rabies among Deer in Hungary. Anthrax in 
 France and Germany. E.xtensive Epizooty among Horses on the 
 Continent. Kanold and Lancisi's Descriptions. The Epizooty of 
 ' Cattle Plague ' : Sheep and Goats affected. Mortality among Cats 
 in Hungary. Lancisi and the ' Cattle Plague.' Horse Plague in 
 Italy. Ovine Small-pox in France and Italy. Canine ' Distemper' 
 in France. The ' Cattle Plague ' in England. Bates' Description 
 and Successful Management 173 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1715 TO A.D. 1 745. 
 
 Lanzoni on the Seasons. Sickness among Horses. The ' Cattle 
 Plague' on the Continent. 'Rot' in Sheep in Ireland. Mortality 
 among Bees and Carp in Silesia, and among Turkeys and Geese in 
 Hungary. Horse Disease in Finland. Termination of the Epizooty 
 of ' Cattle Plague.' Fowl Mortality at Wismar and Silesia. Ecjuine 
 Glossanthrax in Silesia. Silkworm Disease in Italy. Rabies in Dogs. 
 Invasion of Mice in Transylvania and Abortion in Cattle and Horses. 
 Diseases in Provence. Epidemy in Peru and Disease in Animals. 
 Ergotism in Silesia. Storks at Breslau. Laborious Parturition. 
 ' Cattle Plague ' in Sweden. Strange Epizooty in the Venetian States. 
 Death of Fish in Lake Constance. Ovine Small-pox in the Venetian 
 .States and France. Astruc's Observations. ' Sheep-rot ' in Silesia, 
 Poland, and Prussia. ' Cattle Plague ' in Thuringia, Saxony, and 
 Magdeburg. Disease in Mice in Silesia, and Rabies in Dogs and
 
 xii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wolves. Epizooty of ' Grease ' in Horses. Carbuncular Fever 
 among Cattle in Germany. Bovine Contagious Pleuro-pneumonia in 
 Switzerland. Fowl Mortality in Courland. Horse Influenza in 
 England and Ireland. Epidemic Influenza and Diseases in Animals. 
 Destruction of Fish. Plague at Cadiz. ' Cattle Plague ' in Russia, 
 Germany, and the Venetian States. Goelicke and Bruckner. 
 ' Strangles ' among Horses in England. Remarkable Epizooty of 
 Glossanthrax. Epidemy and Epizooty of Influenza. Gibson's De- 
 scriptions. Rabies in England and 'Rot ' in Hares. Poultry Mortality 
 in Coburg. Great ' Sheep-rot ' in England. The ' Cattle Plague ' 
 in Italy. Dog 'Distemper' in South America. Cattle Disease in 
 Scotland. Carbuncular Plague at Tobolsk. Great Sheep and Rabbit 
 ' Rot,' and First Potato ' Rot ' in Ireland. ' Cattle Plague ' in 
 Bohemia and Bavaria. Severe Seasons. Epidemic Influenza. 
 'Cattle Plague' in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Hol- 
 land 225 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1745 TO A.D. 1771. 
 
 The 'Cattle Plague' in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and at Con- 
 stantinople. Its Introduction into England. Mortimer's Description 
 and Observations. Dr Lobb's Remarks. Malcolm Flemming and 
 Dobson on Inoculation. Layard. Legislative Measures. Their In- 
 completeness and Futility. Terrible Destruction of Cattle. Treatises 
 on the Malady. Its Re-introduction into England from Holland. 
 Outbreak at Portsoy. Dr CuUen's Report. Layard's Account of Out- 
 break in Haiflpshire. The Malady on the Continent. Inoculation. 
 Dossie's History of the ' Cattle Plague' Invasion : its Nature and 
 Treatment. Progress of the Plague on the Continent. Clerc's De- 
 scription. Grashius and Mauchart. Goats Affected. Ens' Report. 
 Danish Physicians. Chomel and Sauvages. Goats and Sheep 
 attacked in France. Courtivron, Blondet, Camper, and Engleman. 
 Paulet's Remarks 269 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1746 TO A.D. 1774. 
 
 Sheep Small-pox. Locusts. Sheep-rot in England. Unfavourable 
 Seasons. Epidemic Ergotism. Severe Epizooty of Influenza in 
 England and Ireland. Osmer. Glossanthrax in Hanover. Horse 
 Plague in Austria. Aphthous Fever in Franconia. Sheep Small-pox 
 in Switzerland and Inoculation and Vaccination. Anthrax. ' Cattle
 
 Contents. xiii 
 
 PACE 
 
 Plasnje ' at Eichsfeld and Minden. Anthrax at Minorca. Carbun- 
 
 ■'o'- 
 
 cular Epizooty in France. Chaignebrun's Description. Anthrax in 
 Finland and Russia. Glossanthrax at Verona. Aphthous Disease 
 and ' Cattle Plague' among Reindeer in Lapland. Horse Influenza 
 in England and Scotland. Epidemy and Epizooty in Peru. Fish 
 Mortality in France. 'Louvet' in Switzerland. Epidemic and 
 Epizootic Influenza in England. ' Sheep-rot ' in France. Cattle 
 Disease in Austria. Great Epizooty of Canine 'Distemper.' Epi- 
 zooty among Cattle in Sweden, and among Horses and Cattle in 
 France. Glossanthrax in Switzerland. Numerous Epizootics in 
 Europe. Malignant Anthrax at Rochelle. Nicolau's Description. 
 Extraordinary Epizooty among Fowls. Aphthous Fever in Moravia, 
 France, and Holstein. Sagar's Report. General Prevalence of this 
 Malady. ' Cattle Plague' in Hungary and supposed Infection of 
 Sheep. Unhealthy Seasons in England and General Mortality among 
 Animals. ' Murie.' ' Cattle Plague' in Holland. Vicq-d'Azyr's Ob- 
 servations. Epizooty among Horses in Germany. Cattle Mortality 
 in France and Italy. ' Cattle Plague' on the Continent. Dufot and 
 Le Cat. Epidemic Plague at Moscow and Moldavia. Anthrax in St 
 Domingo and Siberia. Animal Diseases in America. ' Distemper ' in 
 Dogs at Moscow and Wallachia. Destruction of Fowls in Germany. 
 ' Foot and Mouth ' Disease in Paris. ' Cattle Plague ' in Flanders, 
 nailer's Memoir. Raulin and Paulet 3^2 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1 774 TO A.D. 1800. 
 
 Anthrax at St Domingo. Epizooty among Geese in Lorraine. 
 ' Cattle Plague ' in Holland and France. Outbreak in the Southern 
 Provinces. Vicq-d'Azyr's Investigations. De Berg's Description. 
 Bellerocq, Faur, Prat, Doazan, and Guyot. Paulet's Observations. 
 ' Cattle Plague' in Spain and England. Epidemic and Epizootic 
 Influenza in Europe. Epizootic Disease in Fishes and Fowls. 
 ' Cattle Plague ' at Minden. Anthrax in Finland. Disease among 
 Oysters and Lobsters. Glanders in France. Mortality among Foxes 
 and Wolves in Africa. Rabies in the Antilles. ' Ekzema Epizootica ' 
 in Austria. Epizooty among Horses near Turin. Death of Geese at 
 Hanover. Anthrax in Germany and France. Cattle Diseases in 
 Picardy. Vicq-d'Azyr's Memoir. ' Cattle Plague ' in Austria, Styria, 
 and Belgium. Prevalence of Anthracoid Diseases. 'Cattle Plague' 
 in England. Influenza in Mankind, Horses, and Cattle. Darwin's 
 Observations. ' Distemper ' among Cattle in Derbyshire. Volcanic 
 Eruption in Iceland. Its Disastrous Effects. Rabies in Jamaica. 
 Anthrax in the Island of Grenada, Barbadoes, and on the Continent. 
 Glossanthrax in Nassau and Anthrax at Lippc and in Bavaria, &c.
 
 xiv Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Effects of Unfavourable Seasons. Great Epizooty among Fowls in 
 Upper Italy. ' Rot ' in Wurtemberg. Contagious Pleuro-pneumonia. 
 Anthrax in Hungary. Spanish Sheep Foot-rot. Abortion among 
 Cows in Italy. Invasion of Lemmings. Anthrax in France. Gil- 
 bert's Description. Anthrax in Bavaria. ' Cattle Plague ' on the 
 Continent. Various Writers. Epizootic Ekzema in the Tyrol and 
 Verona. Acute Glanders on the Continent. 'Egg-rot' of Bees in 
 Saxony. Extensive Epizooty among Cats. Verminous Disease of 
 Fowls in America. Glanders and Influenza in Horses. ' Foot and 
 Mouth' Disease in Piedmont, the Venetian States, and Lombardy. 
 Supposed outbreaks of ' Cattle Plague ' in England. . . . 465
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When a nation has passed from a savage or semi-savage condition — 
 from that of the hunter or hsherman, caring but little for anything 
 beyond what may be sufficient for the brief but precarious maintenance 
 which is found in the chase — to the more civilized and civilizing state 
 of a pastoral people, a great change is manifested in its character. The 
 most noteworthy feature in this transformation is the high value that 
 begins to be attached to those animals which, in the former stage of 
 civilization, were pursued and destroyed in a wild state, but have now 
 by kindness, and other means founded on motives of economy, become 
 domesticated and soon form the wealth and well-being of their owners. 
 From them the pastoral people derive their subsistence, in the form of 
 food and clothing j and on them they rely for most essential services 
 during life. In return, the welfare of these animals is carefully 
 studied ; their increase in number and in individual value is a matter 
 of social as well as political importance; but the experience necessary 
 for this successful increase and amelioration can only be acquired by 
 long and close observation, the needful training for w_hich exalts and 
 expands the human mind. 
 
 Wandering with their flocks and herds to new pastures, when 
 impelled by the seasons, by the multiplication of tribes and families, 
 or by changes of a terrestrial character, these nomads, ever seeking 
 for the prosperity and safety of the animals on which they depended 
 for existence, were, in prehistoric times, the pioneers of civilization. 
 Their dumb companions in these pilgrimages became, as it were, a
 
 xvi Introdttdion. 
 
 portion of their national life, and exercised no small influence on 
 their moral and intellectual development — on their religion, manners, 
 and customs ; this influence even extending itself to the language, the 
 poetry, and the arts of these primitive shepherds. 
 
 The immense Steppes of Central Asia still furnish us vs^ith examples 
 of this condition of the unsettled races who wander over them with 
 their countless herds and flocks 5 and a recent traveller^ in that region 
 of the world pleasantly describes some of the scenes he witnessed among 
 them. ' Just as the day dawned I turned out to examine our position, 
 when I discovered the snowy peaks of the Syan-Shan. They appeared 
 cold and ghost-like against the deep blue sky 5 presently they were 
 tipped with the sun's rays, and shone forth like rubies. I sat on the 
 crround watching the changes with much interest, till the whole land- 
 scape was lighted up. Immediately near me was a busy scene — on 
 one side the men were milking the mares, to the number of more than 
 one hundred, and carrying the leathern pails of milk to the " Koumis " 
 bag in the " yourt 5 " the young foals being secured in two long lines to 
 pegs driven into the ground. In front, and on the opposite side, the 
 women were milking cows, sheep, and goats, and at a little distance 
 beyond these the camels were suckling their young. Around the 
 " aoul " (camp) the Steppe was filled with animal life. The sultan told 
 me that there were more than two thousand horses, half the number 
 of cows and oxen, two hundred and eighty camels, and more than six 
 thousand sheep and goats. The screams of the camels, the bellowing 
 of the bulls, the neighing of horses, and the bleating of sheep and goats, 
 formed a pastoral chorus such as I had never heard in Europe.' On 
 another occasion he writes : "^ All were out with the dawn, and then 
 commenced a scene in pastoral life highly interesting to me. I had 
 left the " yourt " (tent), and looked around in every direction, but be- 
 held only a mass of living animals. The whole of the herds are 
 brought to the aoul at night, where they are most carefully guarded 
 by watchmen and dogs placed in every direction, rendering it almost 
 impossible to enter any aoul without detection. In my childhood I 
 lived in localities where there were many horses and cattle, and used to 
 think a flock of five or six hundred sheep a large one 5 but was now 
 astonished by the numbers before and around me. The noise at first 
 was almost intolerable — there was the sharp cry of the camels, the 
 neighing of the horses, the bellowing of the bulls, the bleating of the 
 sheep and goats, the barking of the dogs, and the shouting of the men, 
 
 ^ Atkinson. Oriental and Western Siberia, p. 497.
 
 Introduction. xvii 
 
 — a very Babel. I counted one hundred and six camels, including their 
 young 3 there were more than two thousand horses, one thousand oxen 
 and cows, and six thousand sheep and goats. Even these, large as the 
 number may appear, were far short of the total number of animals 
 belonging to the patriarch chief : he had two other aouls, at each of 
 which were one thousand horses and other cattle. Women were busy 
 milking the cows, and the men were preparing to drive these vast herds 
 to their pastures. The horses and camels are driven to the greatest 
 distance — as much as ten and fifteen versts — the oxen come next, 
 and the sheep remain nearest the aoulj but these ramble five or six 
 versts away. It was, indeed, a wonderful sight when they were marched 
 off in different directions, spreading themselves out in living streams, 
 as they moved slowly along the Steppe.' ^ 
 
 Such is man in a pastoral condition. But when a suitable and pro- 
 pitious locality has been found for their animals, the wanderers perhaps 
 become a settled people, and till the ground for themselves while still 
 attending to the herds j and this combination of pursuits, which we term 
 Agriculture, generally ensures a progressive and prosperous civilization. 
 Humboldt,'^ speaking of the Steppes or Llanos of the New World, thus 
 philosophically demonstrates the influence of the larger domesticated 
 animals on civilization and social progress: '^The Llanos separate the 
 chain of the coast of Caraccas and the Andes of New Granada from 
 the region of forests; from that woody region of the Orinoco which, 
 from the first discovery of America, has been inhabited by nations more 
 rude, and further removed from civilization, than the inhabitants of the 
 coast, and still more than the mountaineers of the Cordilleras. The 
 Steppes, however, were no more heretofore the rampart of civilization 
 than they are now the ramparts of the liberty of the hordes that live in 
 the forests. They have not hindered the nations of the lower Orinoco 
 from going up the little rivers and making excursions to the north and 
 the west. If, according to the various distribution of animals on the 
 globe, the pastoral life could have existed in the New World, — if, before 
 the arrival of the Spaniards, the Llanos and the Pampas had been filled 
 with those numerous herds of cows and horses that graze there, Colum- 
 bus would have found the human race in a state quite ditFerent. Pas- 
 toral nations living on milk and cheese, real nomad races, would have 
 spread themselves over those vast plains which communicate with each 
 other. They would have been seen at the period of great droughts, 
 
 1 Ibid., p. 289. 
 ■■* Travels in the L'(|uinocUaI Regions of Amcrita, vol. ii. p. 98.
 
 xviii Introduction. 
 
 and even at that of inundations, fighting for the possession of pastures 5 
 subjugating one another mutually 5 and, united by the common tie ot 
 manners, language, and worship, they would have risen to that state of 
 semi-civiHzation which we observe with surprise in the nations of the 
 Mono-ol and Tartar race. America would then, like the centre of Asia, 
 have had its conquerors, who, ascending from the plains to the table- 
 lands of the Cordilleras, and abandoning a wandering life, would have 
 subdued the civilized nations of Peru and New Granada, overturned 
 the throne of the Incas and of the Zaque (the secular chief of Cun- 
 dinamarca), and substituted for the despotism which is the fruit of 
 theocracy, that despotism which arises from the patriarchal government 
 of a pastoral people. In the New World the human race has not ex- 
 perienced tliese great moral and political changes, because the Steppes, 
 thouo-h more fertile than those of Asia, have remained without herds ; 
 because none of the animals that furnish milk in abundance are natives 
 of the plains of South America 3 and because, in the progressive un- 
 folding of American civilization, the intermediate link is wanting that 
 connects the hunting with the agricultural nations.' 
 
 The primitive herdsman or agriculturist would soon discover that 
 the domestication of animals sometimes entailed great sacrifices. While 
 watching his stars and his gods for favourable omens, diseases un- 
 known to him when the creatures were in a wild state, would ap- 
 pear ; and from their unusual character, the suddenness of their attack, 
 and the great mortality attending them, would strike him with fear 
 and amazement. In his sombre and crude belief in the agency of 
 good and evil spirits, and in his ignorance of the influence of physical 
 phenomena on health, he would only see in these visitations the opera- 
 tion of malignant divinities. All barbarous and ignorant nations have 
 ever substituted for the simple and universal laws of nature, which are 
 unknown to them, the operation of spirits, genii, and strange gods. 
 And when the benignant spirits have been made subordinate to those 
 of a malevolent character, and his cattle decline and die, the half civil- 
 ized man betakes himself to prayers, sacrifices, imprecations, and other 
 rites to avert the loss and assuage his fears. At a more advanced stage 
 he has recourse to magic to obtain a curej the animal and vegetable, 
 more rarely the mineral, kingdoms are ransacked j sorcery, enchantments, 
 incantations, and other unreasonable and unhallowed rituals are devised 
 to appease the wrath of the invisible destroyer ; and while the potion is 
 being prepared or administered, the mystic formula is uttered in a weird 
 imploring voice to the offended spirit. 
 
 Among all people this has been the commencement of what we
 
 Introduction. xi^t 
 
 may term veterinary medicine ; and even in recent times traces of this in- 
 fantile belief have not been effaced from the customs of the most civihzed 
 nations of Europe. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Celts, 
 and other nations — pastoral and agricultural — all resorted to polytheism 
 and the kindred belief in incantations and magic for the cure of dis- 
 eases. History often tells us how these dismal rites were carried out. 
 With half-civilized communities at the present day, we have glimpses 
 of these fantastic notions. 
 
 My friend, Mr Michie,^ tells us of a Mongol superstition, to the 
 practice of which he was a witness. ' As a preventive against cattle 
 being killed by lightning, a horse is devoted to the god of thunder — 
 light grey or white being preferred. He is brought to the door of his 
 owner's tent, and while the Shaman ceremonies are going on, a cup of 
 milk is placed on his back. When the ceremonies are concluded, the 
 horse is cast loose, the milk falls, and the animal is thenceforth sacred. 
 No one may use him again, and, when he dies, his tail and mane are 
 cut off and twisted into those of another horse, which, from that time, 
 also becomes sacred to the god of thunder.' 
 
 But with advancing civilization and a higher development of the 
 intellectual faculties, induced by favourable circumstances, the mind 
 would begin to be disenthralled from the depressing influence of mysti- 
 cism and impotent idolatry ; the benign or malign effects of physical 
 agencies on the domestic animals would at first be almost inappreciably 
 though certainly noted, and the skill of the age invoked to bring them 
 more under the influence of the first and beyond the power of the 
 second 3 while the measures adopted would often be, to a certain 
 extent, aided by the instincts of the creatures themselves, who would 
 naturally shun that which did them harm, and seek for those things 
 which nature indicated as best for them. Their guardians would 
 not be slow in attending to these indications, and in this way would 
 veterinary medicine receive its fundamental empirical teachings. 
 Reason, the divine attribute of the human mind, thus prompted and 
 directed by economic principles, and by that restless, resistless curiosity 
 which seems to seize it whenever it has succeeded in emerging a certain 
 distance from the obscurity of ignorance, would next exert ilself to 
 learn the connection between cause and effect j the phenomena of 
 nature and of life would engage the earliest efforts of a dawning philo- 
 sophy ; and the actions and re-actions ever taking place between agencies 
 external to the body and those operating within it, would load to the 
 
 ' Overland Route from Peking to St Petersburg. London, 1864. P. 200. 
 
 h
 
 XX 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 investigation of the causes of disease, and to their possible discovery m 
 the organs or tissues of the stricken creatures. v 
 
 In this manner may the science of medicine — human and coi^par^- 
 tive — have been begun, and the rudiments of its several branches' feeen 
 slowly but surely acquired. Hippocrates and many of the early phys^i- 
 cians obtained their knowledge of anatomy only from the dissection ot 
 animals, and these men were the founders of modern as well as ancient 
 medical knowledge. ' Choose an ape for dissection,' says Rufus, who 
 lived about the time of Trajan, ' if you have one ; if not, take a bear 5 
 and if you have not a bear, take any animal you can get.' 
 
 The religious rites pertaining to auguries sought for in the entrails 
 of animals 5 the examination of their bodies to discover whether, as 
 food, they were pure or impure 5 and the offerings of portions of im- 
 molated creatures to their deities, were all aiding in this work, and 
 otfering grand opportunities for observation, notwithstanding the super- 
 stitions and impostures of the priests who officiated. 
 
 When the nomad saw that the pestilence among his flocks either 
 preceded, accompanied, or was followed by another equally fatal to his 
 own species, we cannot wonder that appeals and sacrifices were made 
 to the supposed authors of such appalling destruction. In a compara- 
 tively late era, when a beautiful mythology had sprung up among the 
 Greeks, and when epidemics and epizootics appeared nearly always to 
 accompany each other, this was more particularly observable. Apollo, 
 who presided over flocks and herds, showered his arrows among them 
 when displeased, and slew men and beasts alike by his vengeful but 
 unseen darts. Homer speaks of the plague which prostrated the Greek 
 camp at the siege of Troy, and ascribes it to the wrath of that deity, who 
 was offended by an insult otfered to Chryses, his high priest. But 
 though deep-rooted superstition was fain to impose on the gentle god 
 the blame of the hurtful visitation, the great poet does not forget to 
 indicate a powerful auxiliary to the god's malevolence in the filth lying 
 about the camp, and introduces Agamemnon who orders it to be 
 thrown into the sea. This, if the first recorded step in sanitary re- 
 form, is certainly a notable one, and shows the inclination, even in 
 those distant days, to break through the barriers of ignorance and 
 credulity, by seeking out and removing the real causes of pestilential 
 diseases. 
 
 In imperial Rome, so often the seat of fearful plagues, superstition 
 played a prominent part, and during the prevalence of epidemic or 
 epizootic disorders, the Senate had recourse to the Sibylline books and 
 lectisternium to appease the ire of the enraged gods. And the Sallii,
 
 Ijitrodiiction. xxi 
 
 or priests of Mars, were not slow in procuring for themselves greater 
 favours in attributing the abatement of pestilence to their manipula- 
 tion of, and devotion to, the sacred shields. The true nature of the 
 malady, or its predisposing or exciting causes, were seldom the sub- 
 ject for investigation. ' Pestis et ira Deum Stygiis sese extulit ' was 
 generally sufficient to account for its presence among them. Sacrifices, 
 idolatrous prayers, and implicit faith in what the soothsayers or priests 
 thought fit to teach, mark the history of these inflictions in early times. 
 The terror and desperation induced by such a calamity as a plague is 
 well illustrated in the instance cited by Baronius, in which we are told 
 that a visitation of this kind raged with such fury at Carthage, that 
 parents sacrificed their children to appease the gods. 
 
 In our own country many superstitious customs, having reference 
 to the preservation of the domestic animals, appear to have been derived ' 
 from the early traders with Britain — the Phoenicians. Some of these 
 rites, if they do not now exist, were at any rate in vogue at no very 
 distant date. The worship of Baal, Bel, or Belus, the son of Nimrod, 
 was a Phoenician rite. Fires were set blazing for him at certain times 
 of the year, and if the object of their suppHcations demanded it, human 
 beings were offered as a sacrifice ; but on ordinary and later occasions, 
 the person or animal for whom protection was entreated, rushed, or 
 was driven rapidly through the flames. In the Highlands of Scot- 
 land, so late as the middle of the last century, the remains of this 
 gross superstition were noted by Pennant. ' On the first of May, the 
 herdsmen of every village in the Highlands hold their Bel-t'ien, or rural 
 sacrifice. They cut a square trench in the ground, leaving the turf in 
 the middle 5 on that they make a large fire, on which they dress eggs, 
 butter, oatmeal, and milk, and bring, besides, the ingredients for the 
 caudle, plenty of beer and whisky, for each of the company must con- 
 tribute something. The rites begin by pouring some of the caudle on 
 tlie ground by way of libation, on, which every one takes a cake of 
 oatmeal, with nine square knobs raised upon it, each dedicated to some 
 particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to 
 some particular animal, the real destroyer of them. Each person then 
 turns his face to the fire, breaks ofi^ a knob, and flings it over his 
 sh(;ulder, saying, ' This I give to thee ! preserve thou my horses ; this to 
 thee ! preserve thou my sheep ; ' and so on. After that they use the 
 same ceremony to the noxious animals. 'This I give to thee, oh fox, 
 spare thou my Iambs 5 this to thee, oh eagle j this to ihee, oh hooded 
 crow ! '
 
 xxii Introduction. 
 
 ' When the ceremony is over, they dine on the caudle.' ' 
 
 In Ireland 'Bel-tien,' according to Macpherson/ is celebrated on the 
 2 1st of June at the solstice, by making fires on the hill-tops, when peo- 
 ple and beasts are made to pass through them, to ensure protection 
 against pestilence. 
 
 Neither was the influence of the ' evil eye ' less dreaded and 
 guarded against by strange and oftentimes curious rites and customs. 
 It is surprising to find this superstition existing widely over the world 
 in ancient and modern times. Virgil's shepherd exclaims, 'Nescio 
 quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos ! ' The Irish and Scotch 
 believed that their cattle could be blighted by an evil eye ; the Mala- 
 bars, Hindus, Arabians, Turks, and other eastern peoples wear charms 
 to avert its influence ; the Mahometans suspend objects from the 
 'ceilings of their apartments with the same intention ; in Ceylon the 
 Singhalese place white vessels on their gables to guard against the myste- 
 rious agency, which the Tamils at Jaffiia, in the same island, believe to 
 work injury on their herds and flocks. Sir J. Emerson Tennent ^ even 
 asks if there is any hidden connection between the prohibition to covet 
 contained in the tenth commandment, and the horror of the 'evil eye,' 
 so frequently mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 The fear and panic reigning in countries where plagues, either of 
 man or the lower animals, have shown themselves, have never much 
 abated 5 and at the present day, with all our science and enlighten- 
 ment, the public mind is almost as troubled at their appearance as in 
 earlier times : troubled not so much, perhaps, by the apparently inevit- 
 able destruction they are likely to cause, as by the mystery that shrouds 
 their origin. 
 
 Though a Christian civilization has to a great extent remov^ed the 
 influence of superstitious ideas, with regard to the agency of evil spirits 
 or spiteful gods, and though the polytheism of the heroic ages has been 
 supplanted by monotheism, the commencement of these afflictions has 
 still been often enough ascribed to sources as erroneous as before, and 
 only too frequently the wrath of many gods has merely been condensed, 
 if we may use the term, into that of one. Hebrew traditions have 
 brought in the anger of Jehovah as a frequent cause of pestilence, and 
 His displeasure as being made manifest, not on sinful man alone, but 
 also on the unoffending creatures around him. The wise King, Solo- 
 mon, a witness to the participation of the inferior animals in the 
 
 1 Tour in Scotland in 1769, p. 100. 2 Critical Dissertations. 
 
 ^ Ceylon, vol. ii. p. 177.
 
 Introduction. xxiii 
 
 calamities which befell men, enunciated a truthful saying, when draw- 
 ing a comparison between the lord of the creation and his less favoured 
 companions, and which may have had reference to their suffering alike 
 from plagues : ' For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth 
 beasts j even one thing befalleth them : as the one dieth, so dieth the 
 other ; yea, they have all one breath j so that a man hath no pre- 
 eminence above a beast.' ' 
 
 To a people like the primitive Jews, next to a pestilence appearing 
 among themselves, was a plague among their herds and flocks. ' Blessed, ' 
 says Moses, ' shalt thou be in the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy 
 kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.' - And a curse from the Almighty was 
 imagined to be the cause when the health of their cattle and sheep was 
 blighted by sudden disease and death. The Egyptians were told, in the 
 lirst plague which history mentions, that because they would not listen 
 to Moses, or believe in his mission, ' Behold, the hand of the Lord is 
 upon thy cattle which is in the tield, upon the horses, upon the asses, 
 upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep : there shall be a 
 very grievous murrain.' ^ The displeasure of the Creator was the ever- 
 present cause; agencies of a physical nature were left unnoticed, 
 and doubtless ' murrains ' must have been frequent, general, and most 
 severe, when the real exciting or predisposing causes were thus allowed 
 to prevail unchecked. 
 
 The most striking examples of rampant superstition and gross 
 ignorance meet us at nearly every step in our investigation into the 
 history of animal plagues; and one is puzzled whether to lay most 
 blame on those who led ignorant people astray, or on the people who 
 could be so credulous and short-sighted as to be guided and ruined by 
 designing or infatuated men. In the early Christian ages, the sign of the 
 cross was burnt with a hot iron on the heads of menaced or already in- 
 fected flocks, or their bodies were anointed with the oil and water from 
 the lamps of some church in which reposed the musty bones of some 
 saint or other ; or at other times rows of such relics were lauded by the 
 priests as efficacious remedies ; while all the time the diseases — their 
 causes, nature, and distinctive characteristics — were entirely neglected by 
 the gullible priest-ridden people, until they were all but ruined, as is 
 apparent in almost every page of the history of these visitations in the 
 early and middle ages. 
 
 And the obstructive ideas which then prevailed have not even yet 
 abated much in their rancour in many parts of the world. A disj)leased 
 
 ' Ecclcs. ill. 19. 2 Deut. xxviii. 4. ^ Exod. ix. 3.
 
 xxiv Introduction, 
 
 or spiteful Creator is still appealed to by prayers, ceremonies, and sacri- 
 fices to remove the devastating pestilence that revels amid indolence<i 
 bigotry, filth, and impurity. It is generally so much easier to pray than 
 to obey sanitary behests. Laziness and priestcraft; would rather believe 
 in the vengeance of an Almighty power than in the troublesome causes 
 which need active exertion and enlightened minds for their removal 
 or prevention. In the middle of the 19th century processions of 
 Greek and Turkish priests stream barefooted through the plague-swept 
 streets of Constantinople, the former uttering loud appeals for deHverance 
 from the scourge, and the latter calling upon Allah to protect them, 
 though they are opposing the most urgent sanitary measures as contrary 
 to the teachings of the Koran ; all the while the two perplexed sects, 
 in their dismal peregrinations, can scarcely breathe for the putrifying 
 matters surrounding them, through which they have to scramble as 
 they best can, and which is directly or indirectly slaying its thousands 
 of the benighted population.' About the same period, in our own 
 land, a dreadftil contagion is decimating the herds and flocks j physicians 
 prescribe impotent medical treatment 5 fast-days are appointed, and 
 prayers are otfered for riddance of the disease, for whose advent 
 various reasons are given, but which are generally on a par with those 
 of the early period of civilization. The imported ' Cattle Plague ' in 
 Britain is 'attributed by a learned priest (a Roman Cathohc) directly to 
 God's displeasure at our great love for animals, or 'cattle worship,' as 
 he terms it j and he hesitates not to say of his own species, ' Perhaps 
 the cholera is now sent to bring down the pride of the human intellect, 
 and to compel the godless philosophy of the age to admire the inter- 
 vention of the hand of God in all human events.' - In the mean time, 
 all that is necessary is a little energy and wisdom on the part of states- 
 men and people to get rid of a contagion that is readily preventible, and 
 that should never have been allowed to appear, and at any rate to 
 spread. 
 
 But we must not be too hard upon the enlightened bishop for de- 
 claring that kindness to animals, which we have always considered a 
 virtue, and looked upon as a part of Scriptural injunction, should be 
 visited with punishment not on sinful man but on the innocent rumin- 
 ants. During the same visitation the most extraordinary opinions have 
 been emitted by preachers of another rdigious sect. One of these 
 worthies in particular traced the origin of the malady to our national, 
 
 ' See Times' Correspondent's letter from Constantinople, dated September 1st, 
 1865. 
 
 - Dr Ciillcn. On the Approach of the Cholera Morbus and other Evils, 1865.
 
 Introduction. xxv 
 
 but carnal love of beef, for which the murrain was sent as a Divine 
 chastisement ; and more than one clergyman declared the infliction of 
 this painful malady on the creatures who had never sinned to be a 
 mark of the Almighty's anger at the laches of the nation. There was 
 no allusion, however, to the fact of such countries as Ireland or France, 
 which may have been equally sinful, evading the terrible punishment 
 by a little judicious care, and the exercise of that power and know- 
 ledge with which a benevolent, and not a malevolent. Creator, had en- 
 dowed them. Such doctrines are unworthy of Christians, and carry us 
 back to ages when the perpetration of the most atrocious crimes and 
 the cold-blooded slaughter of whole tribes of men, women, and children 
 were laid to the favour or disfavour of the God of mercy and love. 
 
 On the Continent, St Cornelius and other saints of France, and St 
 Antonio of Rome and Italy in general, are the protectors of four-footed 
 creatures j and it is much less troublesome for their owners, and more 
 profitable to the priests, to obtain exemption from an approaching 
 plague through the merits of a mouldy saint than by the adoption 
 of onerous, heretical measures of a hygienic kind, which do not benefit 
 the Church. 
 
 This blind superstition and infatuation, almost amounting to pro- 
 tanity, and which is incompatible with reason or true religion, is now 
 happily on the wanej but in ages gone by it has acted most prejudici- 
 ally, by diverting men's minds from the study of the nature and causes 
 of diseases of this class. For what need was there to investigate or 
 attempt to avert them, when they were sent from Heaven to j)unish 
 sinful man ? 
 
 Chiefly for this reason, we are left much in want of positive in- 
 formation as to the character of the various epizootic diseases which 
 have appeared since history first began " to record them. As old as 
 animated nature itself, their beginning is lost hi the gloom of antiquity. 
 The ancients, often completely ignorant of veterinary science, have left 
 us but little information regarding them, for they seemed to dread 
 transmitting more than vague generalities to posterity ; and several of 
 the detailed accounts are those of poets, who, in describing some one of 
 tho.-je dreadful pests which spread far and wide, and caused fear and 
 desolation to prevail, have probably had poetical efl'ect more in view 
 than accuracy. 
 
 Up to the i4tli or 15th centuries, we can identify but few of the 
 epizoiities mentioned as occurring in the preceding eras ; i'nr {\\v histori- 
 ans of the early, dark, and middle ages were men wlio were either un- 
 acquainted with the forms assumed by disease, and merely tell us of their
 
 xxvi Introduction. 
 
 disastrous effects as public calamities j or they were priests, usually 
 ouly anxious to speak of the marvellous virtues of their prayers and 
 mummeries in driving them from their localities. The natural events 
 of a striking character which have either preceded or accompanied 
 animal plagues, — and which might have led the inquiring mind to a 
 more correct appreciation of the connection between them, and the 
 appearance or disappearance of these maladies, — are, when noticed, 
 generally too briefly described to afford any satisfactory guidance in 
 this respect. It was generally considered sufficient to ascribe their 
 advent to whatever might appear unusual in the celestial or terrestrial 
 worlds J or, if these afforded nothing marvellous, to the wrath of a 
 resentful deity. There was usually no attempt to chronicle those 
 symptoms which would have rendered their descriptions of the 
 greatest value to future historians 5 and it was, as a rule, only necessary 
 to designate them by such general, though vague terms, as conveyed a 
 striking idea of their deadly character, without preserving their distinct- 
 ive features. 
 
 Thus it is that the word -i^'^ deher, signifying plague, was 
 employed in Hebrew speech to denote every kind of epidemic or 
 epizootic disease ; while the Greeks gave the collective denomination of 
 Xot/xocj a plague, pestilence, or koifiiK^ voaoc, a pestilential disease, alike 
 to the general affections of men or animals, no matter what form they 
 assumed or from what cause they arose. The Roman writers were no 
 more explicit, but ambiguously styled them pestis, pestilentia, or strages 
 pecorum ; and the ignis sacer of Lucretius is scarcely more intelligible 
 than any of the other terms employed. 
 
 The chroniclers of the Middle Ages, in transferring these designations 
 to their own times, have added the equally indefinite appellatives of 
 mortalitas, clades, lues, &c. Undoubtedly these vague expressions 
 arose from ignorance and want of observation 5 for the bodies of the 
 affected, while alive, were seldom, if ever, carefially examined, and 
 scrutiny or dissection of the dead which may have perished from plagues 
 of the most diverse character, was neglected or forbidden. Pathologi- 
 cal anatomy had not made such progress as to convince the popular 
 mind of its value ; and, besides, what was the need for this troublesome 
 inquiry when these afflictions were believed to arise from sources beyond 
 the reach or power of man. 
 
 Terms as little significative as those of less enlightened centuries, 
 such as plague, murrain, distemper, &c., are still in use as popular 
 designations for these maladies. The term ' murrain ' is, perhaps, for 
 general purposes that best adapted to express that which technically
 
 Introdtiction. xxvii 
 
 is termed an epizooty. It is a very ancient word, and is to be found in 
 many languages besides English. For example, it appears in Italian as 
 ' moria,' and in French as ' murie.' Its root is found in the Greek 
 l^apaivco — marainoj in the Sanskrit ' mr/ the Latin ' mori,' German 
 ' mar,' and the Celtic ' muire.' 
 
 Whatever term may now be employed, however, whether it be 
 murrain, plague, distemper, or pest, thanks to science we need not fear 
 its obscuring the real nature of the maladies designated, nor veil their 
 possible sources by attributing tliem to agencies beyond man's powers of 
 elucidation and control. 
 
 But from the circumstances before-mentioned, the historian of 
 epizootic diseases who would endeavour to compile a satisfactory chron- 
 ological account of those visitations which have from time to time 
 swept the plain, the homestead, and the stable of their occupants, pre- 
 vious to the centuries indicated, has but a slender chance of doing more 
 than citing meagre facts, solitary, or in opposition to others which 
 might otherwise give these facts more interest and certainty. Even to 
 do this, he must labour earnestly, and gather from many sources the 
 clue necessary to guide him in fixing the advent and duration of these 
 maladies 5 and after all has been accomplished, in the immense ma- 
 jority of instances he will find himself unable to tell with precision 
 what were the morbid characters distinguishing them from each 
 other, or from diseases existing enzootically elsewhere. The only ad- 
 vantage he might obtain in thus studying the plagues of the domestic 
 animals, would be, at rare intervals, to find in the geographical in- 
 vasion of certain epizootics a marked connection between them and 
 contemporary events, which might authorize him in making deductions 
 of some value. It must be borne in mind, also, that famines, droughts, 
 and the destruction of vegetation by locusts and various causes, as well 
 as other mishaps, would atfect domesticated and feral creatures no less, 
 perhaps, than mankind 3 but that in very many instances the sufferings 
 of these would have remained unrecorded when the panic and mortality 
 among his own species entirely engrossed the attention of the historian. 
 Hence, in reading of particular epidemics, particularly in the early cen- 
 turies, we are only able to guess at the existence of contemporary 
 epizootics J and as it would be departing from one object of this work, 
 I have in most instances omitted any mention of plagues described as 
 affecting the human race only. 
 
 It is not until we approach the commencement of the i8th century, 
 that the study of animal plagues becomes really interesting and satis- 
 factory, and that research is abundantly rewarded by the i'uUest descrip-
 
 xxviii Introduction. 
 
 tions of these visitations ; for we find facts grouped according to their 
 atfinity in the series of cause and etfect. This scientific method of 
 transmitting what should be known of the history and nature of animal 
 diseases to future generations, was inaugurated by the Italian physician 
 Ramazzini, who undoubtedly laid the foundation for accurate observa- 
 tion in this department of veterinary science. And to this philosopher 
 history is indebted for much that is known of one of the greatest 
 epizooties of modern days. From that time to the present, maladies 
 of this class have been neither few nor far between 3 but observers 
 have rapidly increased in number, and in proportion as these have at- 
 tained the scientific proficiency i:iecessary for such a ditficult study, so 
 have the nature of animal plagues, and the measures needed for their 
 mitigation and prevention, become better known. 
 
 A detailed description of all the epizootic or panzootic diseases which 
 have occurred would occupy far too large a space, and might not after 
 all be a very useful study 5 those occurring within the last two or three 
 centuries, however, deserve much attention, as competent men have 
 exerted themselves to discover their origin, trace their affinities, define 
 their characteristics, and, best of all, to modify or avert their desolat- 
 ing influences. A record of epizootic diseases founded on history 
 and accurate observation, cannot tail to be a work of great importance 
 to medical science and to civilization. Nothing can be more useful 
 than to possess the most exact details as to the character, progress, 
 duration, and termination of these maladies, and especially if our 
 knowledge of pathological changes of structure be brought to bear 
 in observing and describing the organic lesions effected by them. 
 
 The comparative pathologist can no more aflbrd to dispense with the 
 history of diseases, than the healer of mankind, especially those of a 
 general character j for in proportion as he knows the past, he is in a 
 better position to control the present, and make provision for the future. 
 As an eloquent writer remarks, when about to describe an epidemic dis- 
 order whose cause was very obscure : ' No single generation of medical 
 practitioners can be expected to possess a sufficient range of observation, 
 or to accumulate adequate materials of information on the subject, to 
 enable them to detect the clue by which to thread the intricacies of 
 this inquiry. The past must be scrutinized, and its reflected light 
 brought to our aid 5 old and new facts when collated, by the harmony 
 which they exhibit, become mutually illustrative, and acquire a value 
 previously unknown. It is true, that medical records abound in falla- 
 cious and imperfect observations, transmitted from one generation to 
 another, and that popular prejudices have exercised an influence in dis- 
 
 I
 
 Introduction . x xix 
 
 seminating error, which the obstinacy engendered by the evidence of 
 imperfectly observed facts has tended to contirm and to perpetuate ; 
 but it is possible to manifest too indiscriminate a contempt for state- 
 ments which partake of popular superstition.' 
 
 Vicq-d' A.zyr truly says, that if there is in medicine an object worthy 
 the investigation of scientific men, it is without contradiction the pesti- 
 lential epidemic diseases. Obscure and often mysterious in their causes, 
 rapid in their progress, perplexing in their symptoms, and murderous in 
 tlieir effects, they often sweep away the majority of the individuals 
 attacked, and through their violence put it beyond the power of the 
 physician to diminish the number of victims. And the illustrious 
 Hecker justly affirms that the study of epidemic diseases ' is a subject 
 in which science is deeply interested, and which, according to the 
 direct evidence of nature herself, is one of the most exalted and im- 
 portant that can be submitted to the researches of the learned. How 
 often,' he adds, ' has it appeared on the breaking out of epidemics, as 
 if the experience of so many centuries had been accumulated in vain. 
 Men gazed at the phenomena with astonishment, and even before they 
 had a just perception of their nature, pronounced their opinions, which, 
 as they were divided into strongly-opposed parties, they defended with 
 all the ardour of zealots.' 
 
 The study and prevention of animal scourges, as we have seen, is 
 scarcely second to those affecting our own species, but they are attended 
 with even greater difficulties. The healer of men, consulted when a 
 pestilence is raging, and when death is seizing numberless victims, can, 
 as we are all too painfully aware, affbrd but little aid. The rapidity 
 with which the disease does its work, and its generally obscure nature, 
 throws him into a sea of doubt, from which he can but slowly, if at all, 
 extricate himself. He who ministers to the ailments of animals, and who 
 ordinarily has to contend with obstacles to which the other is a stranger, 
 is seldom in a better plight when a formidable spreading disease visits 
 one or more species. Those people among whose herds a malady ot 
 this kind first appears are too often the opposite of intelligent, and 
 usually see in its invasion the simple effects of some vulgar cause which 
 they imagine can be easily determined j while in the death of their cattle 
 they are only conscious of a local and individual loss, far from involv- 
 ing the most insignificant interests of their country. 
 
 As in man, when general diseases or 'plagues' first appear in llu' 
 lower animals, they are usually very acute, and in consecjuence of this, 
 of the suddenness of their attack and the rapidity of their course, as 
 well as their tendency to spread, it is a matter of the utmost import-
 
 XXX Introduction. 
 
 ance, in order that a nation be spared great loss, inconvenience, and 
 anxiety, that the science of comparative pathology should receive that 
 wide and judicious study and that fostering care to which it may with 
 great justice lay claim. And as it is yet in its infancy in this country, and 
 is obliged to contend with prejudice and charlatanism, it cannot be 
 wondered at that great losses have been sustained, that the science of 
 medicine in general should make but little progress, and that the defect- 
 ive state of our sanitary police should merit the derision of continental 
 nations. 
 
 The medicine of the lower animals differs from that of man in no 
 particular, perhaps, so much as in those principles which may be termed 
 ' utilitarian.' The life, or rather the vigour and sound condition, of all the 
 domestic animals, has a money value which greatly modifies consider- 
 ations of a curative kind, when health and usefulness are replaced by 
 disease and inefficiency. The life of man, though it be robbed of 
 nearly all its attractions or utility, is yet considered too sacred to have a 
 mere pecuniary value. But that of the creatures we have domesticated 
 is in almost every case worthless, if, when they are attacked by disease, 
 the expense of medical treatment exceeds their market price, even 
 though a thorough cure may be possible. But when there are doubts 
 as to the certainty of complete restoration to health and soundness, 
 monetary considerations ordinarily decide against the adoption of re- 
 medial measures. 
 
 This peculiar feature in the medicine of the domesticated animals, 
 brings all the more prominently before us the value of the old adage that 
 'prevention is better than cure.' The comparative pathologist must not 
 only be well skilled in all those branches of science of which medical 
 knowledge is composed, and be able to minister to the varied and nu- 
 merous ailments of the domestic animals, but above all he should be 
 thoroughly conversant with the history and nature of general diseases, 
 their causes, particularly their mode of extension, as well as the best 
 measures to recommend for their prevention and eradication, so as to 
 be able to guard the country from the risk of serious loss and embar- 
 rassment. 
 
 In Britain, as before mentioned, the value of comparative pathology, 
 in the relation it bears to human medicine, to the public health, to 
 agriculture, and to legislation, has been strangely overlooked, — and this, 
 in recent times, has not only been the cause of a great national calamity, 
 but to some extent a national disgrace. 
 
 In consequence of this neglect, but little allowance has been made 
 for the difficulties the comparative pathologist has to contend with, nor
 
 Introduction. xxxi 
 
 has the chief object of this science received much consideration. The 
 rare instances in which animals can be seen by the Veterinary Surgeon 
 in the earliest stages of disease, — when it would prove most amenable to 
 medical treatment, — due to the incapacity of those who have the care of 
 them to recognize these early periods j the fact that animals cannot, ex- 
 cept in a negative way, tell their wrongs or explain their sensations ; the 
 absence of those accessories and comforts of the sick-room which cannot 
 be called in to ameliorate their condition j the violence or stupor, as 
 well as the structural arrangements and position, of the plague-stricken 
 creatures ; the many obstacles to their complete segregation when the 
 malady is of a contagious character j the slender means generally af- 
 forded for attending to recommendations and injunctions ; and the 
 oftentimes intractable nature of general diseases, as well as the utilitarian 
 influences spoken of above 3 — all these, in the majority of instances, 
 militate against the adoption of curative measures, and add a thousand- 
 fold to the value of those which have the prevention of disease for their 
 object. And these considerations demand that the whole aim and skill 
 of the comparative pathologist should be employed not in curing, but 
 in preventing disease. 
 
 That this object has in this country formed but an insignificant 
 element in medical teaching, is amply illustrated in the history of the 
 cattle epizooty of 1865, when this easily suppressed scourge was allowed 
 to spread over the land through the silly endeavour to exorcise it 
 by pills, potions, and fantastic nostrums prescribed by men who neither 
 knew the organization of the animal nor the nature of the malady tor 
 which they were prescribing, and this despite the urgent remon- 
 strances of those who had studied veterinary science. 
 
 To the comparative pathologist, the history and investigation of 
 animal plagues will ever be of paramount interest, as they must always 
 demand his most earnest study. To discover their atfinities in the 
 various species of animals brought under the dominion of man, to 
 ascertain all that can be learned of their nature and the laws by which 
 they are governed, as well as to elucidate the causes which originate 
 them, and their mode of propagation, is no light task ; but it is only 
 by this study that he can reasonably hope to resist them with success. 
 
 Besides this, their investigation is a most attractive occupation for 
 the enlightened mind, apart from its practical bearing. An introduction 
 is afforded to subjects of the mightiest importance in the physical and 
 organic worlds j and the wonderful relationship which exists between 
 life and the elements surrounding it — the reciprocal influence of these, 
 and the connection between cause and efl'ect • — are the most in-
 
 xxxii Introdiictioii. 
 
 teresting and engrossing of any subject the human intellect can grasp 
 for examination. In the beautiful language of Hecker, ' that Omnipo- 
 tence which has called the world with all its living creatures into one 
 animated being, especially reveals himself in the desolation of great 
 pestilences. The powers of creation come into violent coUision ; the 
 sultry dryness of the atmosphere 5 the subterraneous thunders ; the 
 mist of overflowing waters, are all the harbingers of destruction. 
 ; Nature is not satisfied with the ordinary alternations of life and death, 
 < and the destroying angel waves over man and beast his flaming sword.' 
 To the general historian, the history of these plagues proves a valu- 
 able guide in determining the progress of mankind, by showing the 
 checks which have tended to retard that progress and have often pro- 
 duced marked changes in the manners and customs of a nation, in 
 peace as in war. In this history we can clearly trace the advance ot 
 human improvement. 
 
 To the medical philosopher who desires to see his science stand on 
 the broadest basis, as well as to the lover of his species, the study of 
 ' general diseases in animals cannot fail to be of much moment. The 
 same class of causes which generate epidemic maladies are, we may 
 be certain, fertile in inducing similar diseases in the lower animals, 
 and perhaps also in plants, on which the human family so much 
 depends. For it has been a matter of common observation from the 
 earliest times, and our history will testify to its accuracy, that wide- 
 spread pestilence in plants, and murrain in animals, have frequently 
 either preceded, accompanied, or followed closely on those visitations 
 which caused mortality and mourning in the habitations of men 3 show- 
 ing an identity of causation or affinity which strongly tempts the in- 
 quirer to solve the secret of their joint production. And when it is 
 remembered that some of the animal plagvies are readily transmissible 
 to man, and often induce deadly maladies in him, there is additional 
 incitement to their study. 
 
 To the agriculturist and political economist a knowledge of the 
 history of these alfections must always be of the most pressing import- 
 ance, as the science of comparative pathology has clearly shown that 
 many of the diseases of animals which are indigenous to our soil may 
 be deprived of their generating causes, and thus be altogether abolished. 
 Up to a recent period, the almost isolated position of Britain, witli her 
 superb flocks and herds, her matchless breeds of horses, and her fine 
 pastures, has rendered her comparatively secure against an invasion ot 
 those dread epizooties which are foreign to her shores. Since, however, 
 her ports have been opened to the importation of animals from all parts
 
 Introduction. 
 
 XXXIU 
 
 of the world, and since communication by sea and land has become so 
 rapid and extensive, she is scarcely more exempt from these afflictions 
 than her continental neighbours. Nor is she so well prepared to 
 encounter them. The science on which other nations rely, and with 
 such benetit, to suppress these contagions, has scarcely yet found a 
 home in Britain. 
 
 When a destructive disease threatens the domestic animals, and, 
 through tliem, the most valuable section of our national wealth, it should 
 be the duty of all concerned to obey the dictates of science and experience, 
 in order to avert danger and loss. But it must be confessed that to attain 
 successftil results individual etfortsgo for little. It is on the strict observ^- 
 ance of sanitary laws, and to the -wise measures prescribed by authority, 
 that rehance must be placed. In the words of an eminent medical , 
 writer, * The day has gone past for an isolated individual or craft to 
 avert pestilence, as Empedocles did when he shut out the sirocco by' 
 stopping a mountain-gap, and removed intermittent fevers by changing 
 the course of the river H}'psa. These large and beneficent operations • 
 are in our day reserved for Governments ; and our duty as a profes- 
 sion is to urge upon Government, by means of our own governing 
 bodies, the necessity of undertaking the prevention of epidemic disease, 
 both among men and animals, to point out the best modes of securing 
 this prevention, and to see that these measures, when become law, are 
 properly carried out. In a word, it is our duty not to appropriate to 
 ourselves, as is too often erroneously done, but to endeavour to impress 
 upon our rulers the sentiment so nobly urged upon Coesar by Tully, 
 ' Homines enim ad Deos nulla re proprius accedent quam salutem 
 hominibus dando.' 
 
 Agriculture must ever occupy a higher position than manufactures ; i 
 and the prevention of epizootic diseases should be regarded as a political 
 question, involving more or less the well-being of the whole com- ^ 
 munity; not merely affecting those who own or who endeavour to derive 
 profit from rearing animals, but also affecting the public at large, as 
 regards health, the supply of food, and other essentials. In the exten- 
 sion of a disease of this kind, not only is there loss to the individuals 
 who possess the animals, but also to the public, who have not only a 
 diminished quantity or more expensive supply of food, but also often 
 incur the risk of obtaining it of an inferior or injurious (juality, or are 
 otherwise inconvenienced. 
 
 No more startling fact is afforded us in the history of animal plagues, 
 than that which proves that the cattle of this country have been per- 
 secuted by contagious diseases of a most destructi\e character for nearly
 
 xxxiv Introduction. 
 
 thirty years without any attempt worthy of the name having been 
 made to check them, though they were, and are now, of a preventible 
 nature, and spread solely through the medium of infectious or con- 
 tagious principles. The losses from only two exotic bovine maladies 
 (' contagious pleuro-pneumonia ' and the so-called ' foot and mouth dis- 
 ease' ) have been estimated to amount, during the thirty years that have 
 elapsed since our ports were thrown open to foreign cattle, to 5,549,780 
 head, roughly valued at ,^83,616,854. The late Invasion of 'Cattle 
 Plague,' which was suppressed within two years of its introduction, has 
 been calculated to have caused a money loss of from five to eight millions 
 of pounds. But these examples and estimates, after all, give but a slender 
 idea of the devastation, misery, embarrassment, and loss that has been 
 due to our ignorance, apathy, and neglect of the teachings of veterinary 
 and sanitary science, which must, nevertheless, claim the merit of 
 having conclusively demonstrated that the most formidable diseases can 
 be readily repressed or altogether abolished, though not by attempting 
 to cure them j and having done so, nothing remains for these sciences 
 to accomplish than to indicate the steps necessary to make the legis- 
 lation of a wise Government effective in its dealings with animal plagues 
 in sreneral.
 
 ^^ HISTORY 
 
 ANIMAL PLAGUES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PERIOD FROM B.C. 1490 TO A.D. 40O. 
 
 History can never inform us of the ]ono;-continuecl and 
 great losses which have befallen the nomadic tribes, many of 
 whom have never heard bread even mentioned, and who derive 
 their subsistence entirely from the milk and flesh of their domes- 
 ticated animals. 
 
 True, the fossil remains of creatures exposed now and then 
 in the upper crust of the earth make us acquainted, to a certain 
 extent, with diseases to which the lower orders of creatures were 
 subject, ' long ere the waters overflowed and the mountains sank,^ 
 but their feeble testimony serves us but little. We can only 
 learn that infinite myriads paid their debt to nature untold ages 
 before mankind appeared in the world ; but of the cosmical 
 changes which induced their destruction, or the general maladies 
 which may have swept oft" whole species, we are in ignorance. 
 
 So that, in reality, the history of e]iizo6tic diseases, as noted 
 in the records of civilization, is limited, and embraces but a 
 small portion of that great history whicli can never be written, 
 because the materials for it have never been chronicled. 
 
 Our earliest researches begin w ith the laud of Egypt as the 
 unenviable birth-place of plagues aftecting the inferior creatures, 
 no less than mankind. Its geographical position and its physical
 
 2 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 conficruration have contributed much to render it insaUibrious, 
 The lower country is annually exposed to far-spreading inunda- 
 tions by the flooding of the Nile; and the retiring sea leaves 
 behind it a reeking morass^ which, owing to the nature of the 
 deposit left behind, together with the large amount of moisture, 
 and the hot sun shedding its rays direct upon it, shortly after 
 becomes a beautifully green plain, covered with the rankest and 
 most luxuriant vegetation, aiid pools of stagnant corrupted water. 
 Then quickly succeeds a period when it is an arid desert, deeply 
 laid with dust and hot sand, and endowed with nothing that 
 could tend to the welfare of animal life. 
 
 The indefatigable professor of the school at Abou Zabel, M. 
 Hamont, says of Egypt, relative to epizootic maladies: 'The 
 breed of cattle in Egypt is generally weak in constitution, and 
 neglected. Epizootic diseases frequently effect the most dread- 
 ful ravages among them ; sometimes they devastate the coun- 
 try to such a degree that men are harnessed to the plough 
 and the cart, in order that the land may be, although im- 
 perfectly, cultivated, and some assistance obtained.' Horses 
 sufl^er much from farcy, and the same authority adds: 'Soften- 
 ing of the liver in Egypt is a primitive and essential malady, very 
 widespread in the army and in the country, more common in 
 summer than in winter, and attacking by preference the fattest 
 horses, and those of an adult age. It is a very redoubtable dis- 
 ease, and kills many horses.' 
 
 Intestinal hemorrhages are also very frequent and most fatal 
 to horses. These animals — cattle, sheep, and camels, also — suffer 
 from a deadly dysentery. Hamont continues : ^ Dysentery is 
 very conmion in summer among troop and other horses, attack- 
 ing those which live in the open air, as well as those which in- 
 habit low, badly ventilated stables. In regiments there some- 
 times breaks out, during the months of July and August, an 
 acute form of dysentery which kills the horses in a few hours. 
 The mud, earth, and sand which the water of the Nile contains, 
 and which these animals drink, is the cause of this dysentery; 
 these matters are found in the intestines. The great crowding 
 of animals, the intense heat, too dry and unvaried food, are also 
 determining causes. . . . The dysentery of cattle is especially
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 3 
 
 widespread, attacking the oxen in the villages and towns, and 
 all over the country ; as well as the government herds. It is a 
 murderous disease, destroying life with great rapidity. . . . The 
 dysentery of camels is sometimes acute, sometimes chronic, and 
 kills a very great number; when it is acute its course is very 
 rapid. At Cairo, the camels are lodged in great enclosures open 
 on nearly every side. There they pass their days and nights in 
 the cold season, after a very hot summer, and in this state, of 
 course, they must experience the troublesome effects of the sud- 
 den diminutions of temperature which take place.' 
 
 One of the forms of anthrax, which is enzootic and epizootic 
 in i^gypt, appears to be very destructive among cattle in the form 
 of gangrenous sore-throat. ' This disease reigns over the whole 
 of Egypt in winter, summer, springtime, and autumn. It is con- 
 tagious, and carries off the animals in two, four, and six hours. 
 It has its seat in the throat ; a tumour appears there, quickly 
 increases in size and extent, and at last causes death. The ex- 
 pired air and the saliva communicate the disease, as experience 
 has testified. It is sporadic, enzootic, and epizootic, and its 
 causes are unknown. If the practitioner arrives in the com- 
 mencement of the disease, he ought at once to apply the actual 
 cautery to the throat, then some blistering ointment.' ^ 
 
 Splenic apoplexy is also very frequent among ruminants, and 
 malignant pustule is seen in the horse in the months of May and 
 June, during the prev^alence of the very hot wind of the Kames- 
 sine. On the extreme confines of history — but not until long 
 after civilization had made great progress — and among its earliest 
 notices, do we find striking descriptions of the havoc that reigned 
 in that ancient region. 
 
 In the 80th year of the life of Moses, in the reign of Pharaoh 
 IV., King of that country, ^a very grievous murrain,' known as 
 the ' Fifth Plague,' fell upon the flocks and herds of the Egyptians, 
 and destroyed them. Many perturbations in the natural world 
 were noted. After a damp winter, an unhealthy sunnner set in, 
 the days being hot and fiery, the nights cold and dewy, and 
 sometimes rainy. Towards the autunui there was thunder and 
 
 ' Ilamoiit. T.'Egypte sous Mehcmct Ali, vol. i. pp. 564, 565, 574, 577, 5S3.
 
 4 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 liohtnino- heavy hailstorms, and excessive drouoht. The air 
 seemed pestilential, and as if of fire, while the nights were damp 
 and chilling. Storms of sand and dust thickly enveloped every- 
 thing as they were borne along on the sultry wind ; and cattle, as 
 well as the human species, were exposed to great risk of suffoca- 
 tion. The waters, owing to their impregnation with some sub- 
 stance, or to the sudden appearance of some animal or vegetable 
 matter, became of a red or blood colour. In the rivers and 
 streams all the fish died ; and these, as well as the lakes, became 
 putrid throughout the lowlands of Egypt. The peculiar condi- 
 tion of the atmosphere, and the corrupt state of the water, caused 
 the rapid growth of immense swarms of frogs, which invaded 
 every place. By some unknown agency these were all destroyed, 
 and \\ hen their remains were gathered into great mounds by the 
 fear-stricken inhabitants, the disgusting odour from the putrefy- 
 ing heaps became a deadly poison. Vermin covered the bodies 
 of men and animals ; clouds of winged insects harassed them 
 night and day; and these misfortunes, together with the tem- 
 pestuous weather, originated a fearful pestilence among all the 
 domestic creatures then kept by the Egyptians, The human 
 species were next attacked, and suffered much ; and a terrible 
 storm of lightning and hail destroyed cattle and vegetation. 
 Masses of locusts, carried over the land by the east wind, black- 
 ened the face of the earth and devoured what was left of the 
 herbage. Other horrors were added, and, to crown all, a dread 
 distemper slew the firstborn of man and beast. 
 
 If we can judge by the meagre description of the malady 
 that attacked the Egyptians at the same time that their cattle 
 were suffering, and which was known as the ^ sixth plague,' the 
 epidemy and epizooty would appear to have iicen of a carbun- 
 cular nature.-^ Paulet ^ remarks, with reference to the character 
 of the disease : ' II y a apparence que ces idceres etoient la suite 
 de tumeurs inflammatoires, n'etoient autre chose que des char- 
 bons ou des bubons pestilcntiels, surtout de charbons, converts 
 de cloches ou de vescies, qui s'abscedoient, ce qui arrive souvent 
 dans ce cas, et constituoient une peste, vraiscmblablement moins 
 
 ^ Exodus, chap. ix. 
 - Recherchas sur les Maladies Epizootiques. Paris, 1775. Vol. i. p. 22.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. t 
 
 meurtriere que la premiere, qui f'ut mortelle pour tous les ani- 
 maux, et designee par ces mots, pest'is valde gravis. Ce qui 
 suppose un degre de force de plus.' 
 
 Whewell ^ says that it is supposed the murrain only attacked 
 those cattle which were exposed on open pasture ; another proof 
 as to the probability of the disease being anthrax. A still 
 stronger proof than this, however, is to be found in the exemp- 
 tion of the cattle of the Israelites from the plague of boils as well 
 as flies, and which has been judiciously ascribed, I think, to the 
 fact, that ' the land of Goshen, in which the Israelites dwelt,' 
 was sandy pasture above the level of the river, while the rest of 
 Egypt was low-lying, and its soil submerged by the rising of the 
 Niie.2 ■ ' 
 
 We might surmise, however, that the Israelites and their 
 flocks and herds escaped destruction owing very much, besides 
 the miraculous intervention of Providence, to the oreat care 
 with which Moses inculcated upon that people the necessity for 
 separating the clean from the unclean, the healthy from the dis- 
 eased, and taught the value of disinfection;^ as if the influence 
 of contagion had been already known to mankind. 
 
 That the Egyptians were accjuainted with the Veterinary Art 
 from a very early period is certain, for on their most ancient 
 frescoes veterinary surgeons are accurately depicted attending to 
 the maladies of oxen and other animals, while the written cha- 
 racters indicating physician or doctor of these various creatures 
 are plainly inscribed underneath the jiaintings.* We can well 
 imacrine the severe trial their skill would undcro-o in contendins: 
 with such a murderous pest as that just noticed. 
 
 B.C. 2048 (a.m. 2820.) Anepidcmyand epizooty in Ireland. 
 The Partholani, or tribe of Parthalon, waged war with ' rebellious 
 miscreants and tyrannous giants,' whom they utterly annihilated 
 in a fierce battle, and cast their carcases out ' like a sort of dead 
 dogs, whereof through stinke of the same, such an infective i)esti- 
 lence ensued in all places throughout the island, bv corrn|)tion of 
 the ague, that few escaped with life cxcejit those that got them 
 
 ' History of the Jews. - li^cstuioocl. The Eiilomologisl's Text Book. 
 
 ^ Leviticus, chap. xiii. 
 
 * Wilkinson. Popular Account of tlie Ancient Egyptians.
 
 6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 away by sea; yea^ the infection was so great of those cursed car- 
 cases of Cham and his posterity, that the dogs and wolves died 
 thereof.'^ The chronology of the Irish epizootics up to the 
 Christian era is not so well established as one could desire. I 
 can only make an approximation to the dates, those given in 
 brackets being the ones shown in the ' Census of Ireland for the 
 year 1851, part 5/ 
 
 B.C. 1260. To Seneca we are indebted for the description of 
 an epizooty and epidemy in Troy during the reign of King 
 Laomedon. ' The first fury of the pestilence struck the listless 
 sheep by their loathing the rich grass. The priest stood ready 
 to strike, whilst his hand raised on high threatened instant death. 
 The sluggish bull with gilded horns staggers : with unrestrained 
 neck, he suffers from a tremendous blow. Nor did his blood 
 stain the iron instrument with which he was killed for sacrifice. 
 Black corrupt blood welled forth from the wound. The horse, 
 still more torpid, fell in his Course in the ring, and threw his rider 
 with his shoulder to the ground. The cattle in the fields lie 
 down. The bull, the herd perishing, pines away. The shepherd 
 is disheartened, his herds and flocks being diminished, and he 
 dies in the midst of the rapidly wasting oxen. The stags do not 
 fear the ravenous wolves; the roaring of the angry lion ceases; 
 there is no fierceness in the shaggy bear ; the slothful snake ex- 
 hibits symptoms of the plague, is dried up, and dies with his 
 poison v^pid. The woods lack their beautiful foliage, which 
 usually affords shade to the dense mountains. The country does 
 not flourish with the fruitfulness of the soil.^ ^ 
 
 (a.m. 3197.) Grafton, speaking of Riuallus, King of Bri- 
 tain, who reigned at this period, writes : * In his time (as Gau- 
 fride sayeth) it rained blood by the space of three days continu- 
 ally within the land of Britain. After which rain ensued a 
 great and exceeding number and multitude of files, the which 
 were so noisome and contagious that they slew many people. 
 And after this (as sayeth an old author) ensued great sickness 
 and mortality, to the great desolation of this land.'^ 
 
 ^ Hanmer. Chronicle of Ireland. ^ Qidipus, v. 37, 70, 124, 201. 
 
 ^ Graftou A Chronicle at large and Meere History of the Affayres of Eng- 
 land. London, 1569. 
 
 i
 
 History of Animal Plagues. y 
 
 (a.m. 39/2.) In Ireland it is mentioned that 'every cow 
 that was calved in FindoU's reign was white-headed.'^ 
 
 B.C. 1 200. During the reign of Minos, the island of ^Egina 
 was visited bv a plague which did fearful injury to living crea- 
 tures, and which Ovid has most graphically described. M, 
 Paulet imagines the disease to have been a form of gangrenous 
 sore-throat, accompanied by acute fever, and perhaps erysipelas, 
 and of a contagious nature. The cause of it, of course, was the 
 wrath of an enraged god, though the long-continued heat and 
 damp state of the weather, predisposing to malignant and 
 putrid disease, is not overlooked in the description. The poet^ 
 makes the distressed ^Eacus relate its commencement and 
 course. Dogs, birds, sheep, and oxen, as well as wild creatures, 
 were attacked by the pestilence before mankind, a fact worthy 
 of notice in this poem, which, as might be expected, bears traces 
 of exacrcreration and fanciful description, mixed up with much 
 that must have been gathered from observation. 
 
 The early Greek historians have left but few records of pesti- 
 lential diseases among the domestic animals. The fathers of 
 medicine may have bestowed more attention on the maladies 
 incidental to their own species than to those of the creatures they 
 had domesticated, and thus neglected the study of the diseases to 
 which they were liable. But perhaps the principal reason why 
 epizootic affections are not alluded to arose from their rarit)', the 
 natural salubrity of the climate of Greece, and the isolated situa- 
 tion of its various islands, which afforded but little opportunity 
 for the origin or diffusion of general affections. Hippocrates, 
 who appears to have collected all the medical knowledge existing 
 before his time, and who often examined dead animals, scarcely 
 notices the diseases peculiar to them. In one passage, he ob- 
 serves that goats and sheep are very liable to epilepsy {Lib. de 
 Morbo Sacro), probably due to hydatids on the brain; in 
 another it is remarked that cattle are much disposed to luxations 
 of the hip [Lib. de Articulis); and most remarkable of all, he 
 refers to oxen, sheep, and swine as infested by hydatids, when 
 endeavouring to prove that dropsy in man often de])euds on 
 
 ' Book of Lecan. "^ Metamorphoses, Book vii.
 
 8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the presence of these entozoa. ' Hydropem etiam ex phymatis 
 oriri mihi argumento sunt boves, oves, et sues; in his enim 
 fere quadrupedibus puhiionis phymataoriuntur, quae aquam con- 
 tinent : sectione namque facta citissime cognoveris cum aqua 
 effluet/ {De interim Affect, par. v.) fie speaks of having been 
 informed by those who understood horses, that these animals 
 were Hable to all the infirmities with which mankind is afflicted. 
 
 (a.m. 5001.) 'There was a great mortality of kine in Ire- 
 land in BreasaPs reio'n.'^ From this circumstance the kins; 
 receiv^ed the cognomen of Bodhiobhadh (cow destruction), or 
 Breasal Bodivo. ' In his (Breasal's) time there was such a mor- 
 reen (murrain) of cows in the land, as there were no more then 
 left alive but one bull and one heifer in the whole kingdom, 
 which bull and heifer lived in a place called Gleam-Samasge.^^ 
 The tradition of this event is still preserved in Glensawisk, or 
 the Glen of the Heifer, in the parish of Lower Bodoney, County 
 Tyrone, This is the first cattle epizocity on record in Ireland, 
 
 B.C. 1 1 83. An epidemy and epizooty broke out, according 
 to Homer (h.c. 907), during the siege of Troy. At that time, 
 'whence to Greece unnumbered ills arose/ Chryses, high-priest 
 of Apollo, was dismissed by Atrides, with threats, when he 
 went to the Grecian camp to ransom his daughter from the 
 hands of her captors. The old man in his anger prays to Apol- 
 lo for revenge : 
 
 ' . . . . his pray'r Apollo heard : 
 Along Olympus' heights he pass'd, his heart 
 Burning with wrath ; behind his shoulder hung 
 His bow, and ample quiver; at his back 
 Rattled the fateful arrows as he moved : 
 Like the night-cloud he pass'd ; and from afar 
 He bent against the ships, and sped the bolt ; 
 And fierce and deadly twang'd the silver bow. 
 First on the mules and dogs, on man the last, 
 Was pour'd the arrowy storm ; and through the camp, 
 Constant and num'rous, blazed the fun'ral fires. 
 Nine days the heav'nly archer on the troops 
 Hurl'd his dread shafts.' ^ 
 
 ' Annals of the Four Masters. - Annals of Clonmacnoise. 
 
 2 Hornet'' s Iliad, Book i., Earl Derby's Translation.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 9 
 
 Homer docs not forget to indicate the cause or the probably 
 contagious character of the pestilence^ by describing the precau- 
 tions taken in the Greek camp to cleanse and purify, and to 
 throw all filth and obnoxious matter into the sea. 
 
 B.C. 1 100. There were twenty-five years' drought in Spain, 
 so that there was neither food for man nor pasture for cattle. 
 Springs dried up, rivers failed or became stagnant, and only a 
 few olive trees on the banks of the Ebro and Guadalquiver 
 remained to testify to the little vitality vet left in the veo-etable 
 kingdom. The land was full of ' dreadful mortalities, plagues, 
 and miseries of every description.' 
 
 The occurrence of drouohts almost invariably, as we will I 
 have occasion to notice, forebodes disease to man and beast, and 
 they have ever been looked upon with dread. 
 
 ' While travelling through the country, I received several 
 vivid descriptions of the effects of a late great drought, and the 
 account of this may throw some light on the cases where vast 
 numbers of animals have been embedded together. The period 
 included between the years 1827 and 1830 is called the "Gran 
 seco," or the <2;reat drousrht. Durino- this time so little rain fell 
 that the vegetation, even to the thistles, failed; the brooks were 
 dried up, and the whole country assumed the appearance of a 
 dusty high-road. This was especially the case in the northern 
 part of the province of Buenos Ayres and the southern part of St 
 Fe, Very great numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, and 
 horses perished from the want of food and water. A man told 
 me that the deer used to come into his courtyard to the well 
 which he had been obliged to dig to supply his own family with 
 water, and that the partridges had hardly strength to fly away 
 when pursued. The lowest estimation of the loss of cattle in 
 the province of Buenos Ayres alone was taken at one million 
 head. A proprietor at San Pedro had previously to this 20,000 
 cattle; at the end not one remained.'^ 
 
 jj.c. 753. Plutarch^ informs us that soon after the uiiu-dcr 
 of Tatius a great pestilence broke out at Rome, which was in- 
 
 ' C. Darwin. Journal of Researches. 6lh edit. London, 1S45, p. 133. 
 
 '■' Vita Romulus.
 
 lo History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 stantaneously fatal to animals and men. It did great evil^ and 
 durino; its furv blood is said to have been rained. The red colour 
 of the rain was due^ no doubt, to the presence of a vegetable organ- 
 ism in the atmosphere, owing to some favourable conditions for 
 its development. Zonaras says that the earth and cattle were 
 barren: ^sterilitas agrorum et pecudum.' The crops failed,, and 
 the beautiful and ferti'e country of Campania, before greatly 
 depressed by the murder of Tatius, was now sadly troubled by 
 famine, pestilence, and the sword. 
 
 From the earliest ages animal plagues recur in the history of 
 Rome, a city which was afterwards to become so famous for terrible 
 calamities that Livy styled it ' urbs assiduis exhausta funeribus.^ 
 Tacitus, in his description of Rome, intimates the almost regular 
 occurrence of ^ tempus grave aut annus pestilentiae.' Its situation, 
 no doubt, greatly favoured these attacks. Built on the low banks 
 of the Tiber, surrounded by malarious tracts of country, and 
 subject to inundations and commotions of the elements, it fur- 
 nished for centuries the most fearful examples of epidemic and 
 epizootic visitations. To the south lay the Pontine marshes^ a 
 tract of land extending from Nettuno to Terracina, about 45 
 miles long and from 4 to 11 broad, which at no distant period 
 before had been covered by the sea. In the early times of the 
 Roman Republic, according to Pliny, 0^^ cities existed there; but 
 these, either by wars or increasing miasma, very soon dis- 
 appeared. What are termed the marshes are formed by great 
 quantities of water, received from innumerable streams, which, 
 rising in the neighbouring mountains, run into the plain, where, 
 for want of a sufficient declivity towards the sea, their course is 
 very slow, until they become stagnant, and at length lose them- 
 selves in the sand. They now contain immense pastures, where 
 horses, cattle, and herds of buffaloes graze as in the early ages 
 of that once great empire. The air, particularly in some seasons 
 of the year, is even at present very unwholesome. The inhabit- 
 ants are pale and sallow, suffer much from fever, and the lower 
 animals are subject to various maladies peculiar to such situa- 
 tions. 
 
 In the south part of Tuscany, and not far from the Eternal 
 City, lies the Maremma, another marshy region, which, by reason
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 1 1 
 
 of its being pervaded by unhealthy exhalations from a soil 
 abounding in sulphur and alum, cannot be inhabited in summer 
 without danger, for then the population is driven away by fever, 
 and the maVar'ia frequently sweeps down the streets of Rome. 
 
 The great Ostiensian marshes, similar to the Pontine, added 
 their insalubrious emanations to those from the other sources; so 
 that, during unfavourable seasons, Rome and its environs gen- 
 erally suffered severely. Even the most fertile and healthv 
 districts, on which the Romans depended for grain and cattle, 
 were sometimes exposed to these influences ; and Campania, 
 still one of the most beautiful and productive parts of Italy, once 
 the resort of the most distinguished patricians, and where, as 
 Goethe says, ' it is worth while to till the ground,' did not escape 
 those devastations for which the country in general was so noted. 
 Eusebius, the Father of Ecclesiastical History, when describing 
 a plague which reigned in the Roman Empire in a.d. 314, men- 
 tions the state of the atmosphere. ' The air was so noxious and 
 everywhere so deranged with corrupt vapours, fumes from the 
 earth so putrid, winds from the sea, exhalations from marshes 
 and rivers, so injurious, that a certain poisonous liquor, as it 
 were from putrid carcases, was brought by the elements, and 
 covered the subjacent seats or benches, walls, and sides of houses, 
 and the dew appeared' like the sanies of dead bodies.'^ Much 
 was also due, no doubt, to the unsettled state of the empire. 
 Constant wars and revolutions retarded agricultural operations, 
 desolation often reigned, and severe famine was but too frequently 
 a consequence. Hygiene was neglected, even the rivers and 
 fields were filled with putrefying matter; so that men and beasts, 
 birds and fishes, perished together, vulgato per omne genus anima- 
 Uum morlo. At tlic present day, notwithstanding attempts at 
 drainage around Rome, the plain of Latium and the country 
 near it are uninhabited deserts, miasmatic to a deadly degree. 
 
 The e])izo6tic maladies of the domestic animals, I)ut especi- 
 ally of the ox, a creature particularlv susceptible of disease, would 
 be very serious with such a peo])le as the Romans, who dejiended so 
 much upon the services to be obtained from them. A destruction 
 
 ' Eitscbius. Clironicun. Paris, 162S.
 
 12 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 of cattle was with them a destruction of the earth's produce, for 
 the soil could not be tilled, and from this would arise a famine. 
 ' Sine quibus (sc. Bobus) nee terra excoli nee humanum genus 
 sustentari ullatenus poterunt/ says Vegetius. Livy mentions 
 that neglect of culture and scarcity of corn were the usual effects 
 of epidemical sickness : Defuncta c'witate plurimorum rnorbis per- 
 paucis funeribus pestilentem annum inupia frugiim neglecto cultii 
 agrorum, ut pie rum que jit, excepit. This neglect of agriculture 
 might, on many occasions, be the effect of disease among the 
 cattle, as it was here of sickness among men; in which case it 
 would be the cause of an epidemic, as it is here said to have 
 been the effect of it. 
 
 B.C. 545-6. A great famine and pestilence at Rome and in 
 the plain of Latium. Vast numbers of cattle died from a murrain, 
 and to such extremities were the inhabitants reduced that the 
 Volsci were compelled to petition the Romans for assistance in 
 re-peopling their cities.^ 
 
 B.C. 488. A plague of animals and of men. 'A certain 
 pestilential disease affected all creatures, and made great havoc 
 amongst cattle. The mortality among mankind, however, was 
 not great, for they escaped the dangers arising from this dis- 
 ease.'' ^ 
 
 B.C. 476. During this year, and for some years subse- 
 quent to this period, Spain was visited by various pestilences.^ 
 
 B.C. 473. According to Mariana'* a plague reigned through- 
 out nearly the whole world. It began in Egypt, and at length 
 reached Spain, the disease generally commencing among the 
 cattle. A peculiar feature in its progress was that it nearly 
 always appeared in the country districts before it reached the 
 towns. 
 
 B.C. 463. During a year of great heat and drought, the 
 Latins and Hernici were devastating the country around Rome. 
 The evil consequences arising from the fatigues of war were 
 greatly increased by crowds of country people, who, with their 
 
 ^ Dionysiits Ilalicaniassus, Fuiictiiis, and Miiratori. 
 ^ Dionysuts llaHcarnassus. Anticj. Rom. vii. 68. 
 ^ Florian de Campo. Vol. i. lib. ii. chap. 45. 
 * Jua7i de Mariana. Historia General de Espaila. 
 
 I
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 13 
 
 herds and flocks, fled for safety from the plundering tribes within 
 the walls of the imperial capital. As a result of the over-crowd- 
 ing and the other misfortunes, disease appeared about the calends 
 of September, and caused great mortality until the end of Novem- 
 ber. Horses and cattle were first attacked, then man. Dlony- 
 sius writes : ' When first attacked by this disease, the horses and 
 the oxen fell victims. After them goats and sheep succumbed, 
 so that it was necessary to destroy all four-footed beasts. Then 
 it (the pestilence) attacked herdsmen and farmers, and passing 
 over the whole countrv, at length fell upon the city.' ^ 
 
 (a.m. 5160.) To show the mildness of the season in Ire- 
 land, we are told that in the reign of Conaire there was abund- 
 ance of nuts. 'The cattle were without keepers in Ireland in 
 his reign, on account of the greatness of the peace and concord. 
 The wind did not take a hair off" the cattle from the middle of 
 autumn to the middle of spring. Little but the trees bent from 
 the greatness of their fruit during his time.' ^ 
 
 B.C. 453. According to Llvy and Dlonvslus, the pestilence 
 loimikie (probably anthrax) destroyed nearly one-half the in- 
 habitants of Rome as well as their cattle. The disease spread to 
 the ^Equl, wSablnes, and Volsci, and inflicted great loss on them, 
 killing their herds and flocks, and causing such havoc that the 
 land was left uncultivated, and famine thereby induced. Another 
 plague succeeded this, which lasted from B.C. 443 to 438.'' 
 
 B.C. 431. At Rome a disease appeared among animals in 
 this year, which extended to mankind. Llvy writes concerning it : 
 ' Great suflering prevailed that year in consequence of drought. 
 Not only were the heavens without water, but the earth, being 
 deprived of its natural moisture, hardly su])plied the perennial 
 rivers. Everywhere the cattle died from thirst around dry foun- 
 tains and streams. The murrain having ceased, common con- 
 tagious diseases seized the people; those residing in the country 
 were first affected, after which the city was ravaged. Nor were 
 their bodies alone affected by the pestilence, for their minds were 
 also assailed by manifold religious ceremonies, most of them of 
 
 toreiirn ori<i;in.' * 
 
 c o 
 
 ' Op. cit. ix. 67. 2 Annals of the Four Masters. 
 
 3 Livv. Lib. ill. 32. Diouys. Lil). x. 53. •» Livy. Lib. iv. 25, 30.
 
 1 4 History of A nimal Plag2Lcs. 
 
 B.C. 430. The plague of Athens, so lucidly described b) 
 Thucydides, occurred during the second year of the Peloponnesian 
 war. Thucydides and Lucretius mention that birds were rare, dogs 
 died, and that rapacious animals would not devour the bodies of 
 the dead. ' For the same reason there came a disease to cattle, also 
 sickness to bleating flocks. And although many unburied bodies 
 lay on the ground, yet the birds and beasts of prey either kept at 
 a distance to escape the stench, or when they had eaten of them 
 they began to grow weak as death approached. Neither did 
 any birds rashly appear in these lands, nor did the wild beasts 
 leave their haunts in the woods at night, for they began to 
 languish from the pestilence and die. But, foremost of all, the 
 faithful doo; was attacked, taintinsr the air in the hio:hwavs with 
 his disease, while the ruthless poison drove the sickening spirit 
 from every limb.' ^ 
 
 Thucydides gives us the supposed cause. *^As they (the 
 Athenians) had no houses, but dwelt in booths all the summer 
 season, and in which there was scarcely room to breathe, the 
 pestilence destroyed with the greatest confusion ; so that they 
 lay together in heaps, the dying upon the dead, and the dead 
 upon the dying. They were tumbling one over the other in the 
 public streets, or lay expiring round every fountain, whither they 
 had crept to assuage the intolerable thirst which was consuming 
 them. The temples of which they had taken possession were 
 
 full of the dead bodies of those who had expired there For 
 
 as this distemper was in general virulent beyond expression, and 
 its every part more grievous than had yet fallen to the lot of 
 human nature, so in one particular feature it appeared to be 
 none of the natural infirmities of man, since the birds and beasts 
 that prey on human flesh either never approached the dead 
 bodies, of which many lay uninterred, or certainly perished if 
 they ever tasted it. One proof of this is the total disappearance 
 at that time of such birds, for not one was to be seen either in 
 any other place or near the carcases. But the dogs, because 
 of their constant familiarity with man, afforded a more notorious 
 proof of this event.' ^ 
 
 ' Lucretius. Lib. vi. 1 123, et seq. ^ Thucydides. Bello Pclop. ii. 49.
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 15 
 
 A similar pestilence raged in Persia, Egypt, Libya, and 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 B.C. 399. A great epizootv at Rome is described by Livv. 
 'The year was remarkable for its stormy and frosty winter; so 
 severe. was it that the Tiber was unnavigable. Either in con- 
 sequence of the unseasonableness of the weather — a sudden 
 change having taken place, or from some other cause, a trying, 
 and to all animals a pestilential, summer, succeeded the terrible 
 winter. Neither the cause nor the termination of this incurable 
 mortality could be divined In the former year an un- 
 bearable and almost miraculous winter set in ; in the following 
 year pestilence raged through town and country, as though the 
 angry gods were venting their displeasure.' ^ 
 
 It is somewhat strano;e that Aristotle, who lived about this 
 period, did not give any detailed description of epizootic diseases 
 in his History of Animals. He mentions scabies, canine mad- 
 ness, and arthritis — a disease endemic and enzootic in Greece, 
 and the only one, according to this writer, to which the unbroken 
 droves of horses wandering over the plains were liable. Some 
 of the maladies of animals are enumerated by him, such as 
 tetanus, the iliac passion, and phthisis of cattle, but the great 
 animal plagues are forgotten, if we except the one termed mal'is 
 which, he says, was peculiar to the ass species. This word was 
 used by the Greeks to signify the most serious diseases of ani- 
 mals, in something the same manner as the word lo'imos was 
 employed to distinguish the pestilential maladies of man. 
 
 The malls manifested itself principally by a discharge of thick 
 mucosities from the nostrils, and it was believed the seat of the 
 disease was usually in the head. ' If the malady reached the chest,' 
 says Aristotle, ' they died, but if it was confined to the head it 
 could be cured.' The etymology of the word signified nothing 
 more than a glanderous discharge, and the Romans translated or 
 rendered it by the term projbw'ium attlcum, a disease, or rather 
 a symptom, according to them, nearly always fatal in animals, 
 but which characterized more particularly what we now term 
 ' glanders ' in horses and asses. 
 
 Oi). cit. V. 13—15.
 
 1 6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Aristotle excluded fishes from the list of animals subject to 
 pestilential diseases. ' Morbus pestilens null us insidere piscibus 
 videtur, qualis plerumque hominibus et quadrupedibus^ equis, et 
 bubus, et reliquis generis nonnullis accidit turn feris tum urbanis/ 
 (Histor. Animal, lib. viii. chap. 19.) 
 
 B.C. 333^ 296, 391, 278. The Tarentian war was succeeded 
 by a most desolating pestilence, invading both cities and suburbs, 
 and carrying off' chiefly women and cattle. In 278 it was known 
 as the Abortus epidemicits, and was particularly fatal to pregnant 
 females and cows at Rome. 'A grievous pestilence invaded the 
 city and its environs, which attacked all, but especially the women. 
 The fcEtus was killed in the womb, and discharged from it. 
 Miscarriages exposed mothers to great danger; so much so, that 
 it was feared that a future population and breed of animals would 
 be wanting.^ ^ 
 
 B.C. 218. In Spain there was a fatal epizooty among dogs 
 and birds." 
 
 B.C. 216. Polybius mentions that the horses of HannibaPs 
 army were attacked by a disease while they were in the marshes 
 of Etruria, and through which they lost their hoofs. ' Equorum 
 etiam multis, ob longum per paludes iter, ungulae exciderunt.^ ^ 
 
 B.C. 212. At the siege of Syracuse, a putrid disease broke 
 out among the Cartha2"inians and Romans who were under the 
 command of Marcellus. It was supposed to have arisen from 
 over-crowding, a badly cultivated and undrained country, scarcity 
 and bad quality of provisions, and the inundations from a stag- 
 nant lake which was always suspected of being the cause of 
 maladies. After speaking of the excessive heat of the autumn, 
 and the miasma arising from the marshes, Silius Italicus goes on 
 to say, — ' First the dogs felt the effects of the plague ; next, the 
 pestilential vapours in their rapid course attacked the birds, then 
 laid low the wild beasts in the woods. Still surely onwards 
 crept the infernal pest, and finally devastated the camp by 
 destroying the troops. The tongue became drv, and a cold sweat 
 crept over the trembling body; the drooping jaws denied the 
 
 ' P. Orosii. Ilistor. Lib. iv. p. 2. ^ Mariana. Op. cit. 
 
 ^ Universal History.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 17 
 
 proffered food, a hacking cough wore out their Iungs_, and the 
 hot breath came out from the parched mouth.' ^ 
 
 B.C. 203. In the neighbourhood of Capua, a mightv swarm 
 of locusts lilled the country, and caused general destruction every- 
 where.^ 
 
 B.C. 200. Cato the Elder, who lived about this time, in his 
 valuable and admired treatise on husbandry makes allusion to the 
 epizootic and other diseases of the lower animals. While giving 
 superstition its full share of attention, he wisely has an earnest 
 desire to be more practical. ' If there be reason to fear,' says he, 
 'the presence of an epizootic disease, it is most essential to give 
 to the cattle a mixture of salt, laurel leaves, onions, cloves of 
 garlic,'' incense, powdered rue, and burning charcoal, made up 
 with a little wine.' So much for his preventive treatment. His 
 remedial measures were simpler. ' If an animal becomes affected 
 with the disease, make it swallow an egg whole, and the next 
 day give a clove of garlic beaten up in wine.' To restore the 
 appetite of oxen which are sick, he recommends sprinkling their 
 forage with oil dregs, and this fluid might also be given in a 
 little water every four or five davs as a restorative and fortifiant. 
 'By this means,' he adds, 'cattle will be insured against disease 
 and kept in a thriving state.'* 
 
 B.C. 175-6. Rome was again the scene of a dreadful pesti- 
 lence. This was preceded by a most inclement season, and while 
 the malady lasted swarms of locusts ravaged Apulia and cleared 
 off the vegetation before them. Sicinius the praetor was sent 
 with an armv to drive them away. Livy says that the disease 
 began amongst the cattle, and soon after attacked mankind. 
 Those who lived for seven days did so with great difficulty, and 
 were liable to be seized with a quartan fever. The lower classes 
 were the principal sufferers, and their dead bodies lay about the 
 roads, untouched by dogs or vultures, and were allowed to rot 
 there. No vultures were seen in this, nor yet in the former year.^ 
 
 ' Silitis Ilalictis. Punic War, cliap. xiv. v. 5S0 — 626. 
 - Livy. Lib. xxx. 2. 
 
 ' Onions and garlic formed the principal ingredients in a pretended specific for 
 cattle plague in a.d. 1865. 
 
 * Kci Kustica Scriptores Veteres. Leipsic, 1735. * Livy. Lib. xli. 18 — 21. 
 
 2
 
 i8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 B.C. 134. The army of Scipio ^milianus, the Nuinantlne^ 
 was operating in Palestine and the adjacent countries. Water 
 proved to be so scarce that wells had to be made, but the liquid 
 obtained from them gave rise to a malignant epizooty among 
 the horses and beasts of burden. Great loss was sustained ; 
 and the disease continuing to spread, the army had to be 
 moved to the healthier plains of Numantia, in order to get rid of 
 the pestilence. 
 
 B.C. 126, An eruption of Mount Etna. The following year 
 (127) pestilence in Africa, which was attributed to shoals of 
 dead locusts. These creatures having been brought over by a 
 strong east wind, and having devoured all vegetation, even to 
 the bark of the trees, were driven by a southerly gale into the 
 Mediterranean and drowned, after which they were again washed 
 on shore during hot weather, and putrefied there. The pestilence 
 occasioned by the decomposition of their bodies destroyed more 
 than a million of people, and the domestic animals also suffered. 
 The odour was intolerable. 
 
 Thomson has well said that plagues are ^ the offspring of in- 
 clement skies, and of legions of putrefying locusts.' The visits 
 of these creatures to eastern countries have frequently induced 
 famine, pestilence, and death, and history records these effects 
 of their incursions, alas! too often. 
 
 B.C. 43. Eruptions of Etna; an excessively hot summer; 
 dark, gloomy weather; heavy rains; extensive inundations of 
 the Po, the Ciuca, Segre, and the Isonzo, were the cause of 
 many diseases, but especially those of a carbuncular nature 
 affecting oxen, horses, dogs, and even many other crea- 
 tures. The deer tribe in the forests were not exempt from the 
 attacks. 
 
 This period is remarkable for the poetical description of 
 some of these epizootic diseases written by the illustrious Ro- 
 man poet Virgil, he who sang of 'shepherds, fields, and heroes' 
 deeds.' 
 
 If he had made veterinary science a special study, he could 
 not have sung more truthfully or learnedly for the age in which 
 he lived. The frequent visitations of^ and sad havoc wrought by, 
 epizootic diseases seems to have struck him as an alarming fact.
 
 History of A iiimal Plagues. 1 9 
 
 ' Not whirlwinds from the sea so frequent rush, 
 Big with the storm, as pests 'mid cattle rage. 
 Nor individuals sole disorders seize. 
 But, suddenl)^ whole flocks, with every hope, 
 At once, and, from the youngest, all the race.' 
 
 And when the pestilence had broken out, and 
 
 ' Tisiphone, all pale, before her drives 
 Disease and fear, and each succeeding day 
 Tow'rs more and more with her detested brow — ' 
 
 who so careful to watch her progress and note her mani- 
 festations as the Mantuan bard? In the third book of his 
 Georgics he gives an account of a dire disease which destroyed 
 nearly all the living creatures on land or in the water in the vicin- 
 ity of the Julian Alps, Some authorities imagine that he has at- 
 tempted to describe the different diseases of each species : tlie ma- 
 lignant exanthematous affections or the ardent pestilential lever 
 accompanied by vertigo of the horse, the pleuro-pneumonia of the 
 cow, the inflammatory fever of the sheep, the malignant sore- 
 throat of the pig, and the rabies of the dog ; but in all probability 
 it is an account of one of those dreadful calamities that smote 
 all, from man downwards, perhaps a little exaggerated for poetical 
 eflect, though of this we must not judge too harshly. In his other 
 descriptions of kindred subjects in the same poem we find great 
 accuracy, and a fidelity which will hold good even now, and for 
 all time; therefore we must conclude that an adherence to truth 
 was his great object, and that the real value of his precepts was 
 never sacrificed to his poetical genius, but only polished and 
 embellished by the mind of a fjreat master. 
 
 The apparent causes of the disease were severe autunuial 
 iieat, impure water, and rank pasturage. 
 
 ' From tainted air arose 
 A dreadful storm, inflamed by autumn's heat, 
 And gave to death all cattle, tame or wild. 
 Corrupting lakes, poisoning the grassy food.' 
 
 Death was fearfully sudden, for he says, 
 
 ' Oft at the altar as the victim stood, 
 Amidst the sacred honours of the gods,
 
 20 ' History of Animal Plagues, 
 
 While the white fillet cover'd that of wool, 
 As paused the lingering priest, it fell and died : 
 Or had the flamen timely struck the blow, 
 On altars placed, fibres refuse their blaze, 
 And question'd prophets can no answer give : 
 And scarce the steel employ'd is tinged with blood, 
 That barely stains the surface of the soil.' 
 
 His pictures of the various animals passing through the 
 different stages of the disease are most vivid and strikino; and 
 betray much feehng for the sufferings they endure. 
 
 ' Hence amidst springing grass young cattle die. 
 And yield their gentle lives at loaded stalls ; 
 Hence madden fawning dogs, and the sick swine 
 With suffocation shake, and panting cough.' 
 
 The horse obtains the larii'est share of notice. 
 
 ' He falls — his fire all lost — his grass forgot — 
 The victor horse ; from fountains turns away, 
 And quick and oft beats with his feet the ground ; 
 Fallen are his ears — uncertain is his heat. 
 And clammy chills proclaim approaching death ; 
 Arid and hard, his skin resists the touch. 
 These earliest signs announce the fatal pest ; 
 But if in progress the disease grows fierce. 
 Then are the eyes inflamed, and deep the breath 
 Is drawn, sometimes with heavy groans ; the flanks 
 Distend with lengthen'd sobs ; the nostrils run 
 \ Black blood, and the rough tongue clings 
 To the obstructed jaws. Through the inserted horn 
 Lenasan streams infused once gave relief. 
 And this for the dying seem'd the only hope. 
 But this inflamed the pest, when strong in rage 
 They burn'd, and now themselves, 'mid pangs of death 
 (May the gods guard the pious, and thus curse our foes I) 
 Tore their own mangled limbs with naked teeth.' 
 
 'o* 
 
 Next, the toiHng, ' traihng-footcd ox ^ has his history told. 
 
 ' Lo ! as the bull under the plough-share smokes, 
 He falls, and vomits mingled foam and gore. 
 And makes his final groan. The ploughman sad 
 Disjoins the ox that mourns his brother's fate,
 
 History of Annual Plagues. 21 
 
 And leaves the rooted plough, the work half done. 
 The shades of deep'ning groves, the softest meads 
 Move him not now, nor stream through rocky bed 
 That pure as amber freshens all the plain. 
 His flanks are all relax'd, and his dull eye 
 A stupor covers, and to earth his neck 
 Down rushes with the heavy weight it bore. 
 What profit then their service and their toil 1 
 Yet not the sparkUng flow of Massic wine. 
 Nor feasts replenish'd, ever injured them; 
 They feed on leaves, and eat the simplest herbs, 
 Their cup the liquid founts and rapid streams ; 
 They have no cares to break their wholesome sleep.' 
 
 So deadly had been the plague among cattle that 
 
 ' No other time, they say, those regions knew 
 When cows were sought for Juno's sacred rites. 
 And unmatch'd bulls drew to her shrine the car. 
 Therefore men toiling break the earth with rakes. 
 And with their very nails prepare the crops, 
 And over lofty hills, with outstretch'd necks, 
 Drag on the creaking cart.' 
 
 The species of the victims increase. 
 
 ' The felon wolf 
 No longer lays his plots around the fold, 
 Or takes his nightly walk ; a sterner care 
 Subdues him. Timid deer and flying stags 
 Now amongst dogs and horses range at large ; 
 Whilst of the sea immense, all swimming things 
 On the shore's verge, like shipwreck'd bodies, float, 
 Wash'd by the wave. Phocce to rivers fly, 
 And seek a refuge never known before. 
 In vain defended by his winding den, 
 The viper dies, and with his scales erect. 
 The frightcn'd hydra; while the birds themselves 
 Insufferable find the tainted gale. 
 And fyiUing, leave in lofty air tlieir lives.' 
 
 All remedies seem to have been in vain, for we are told that 
 
 ' No change of food affords relief. 
 And art implored destroys ; '
 
 11 Histo7y of Animal Plagues. 
 
 sig-aifying, probablv, that the medicines employed tended only 
 to aggravate the disease. The shepherd could do nothing but, 
 
 * Sitting still, pray heav'n for better luck,' 
 
 or take advice, and 
 
 ' With speedy knife the fault coerce, ere yet 
 The dire disease creeps through the careless flock.' 
 
 Human skill was foiled. 
 
 ' The masters yield, 
 Philyrian Chiron, and Melampus sage.' 
 
 The mortality among the domesticated animals increases 
 fearfully, 
 
 ' Till men dig deep. and bury them in earth. 
 The skins are useless, nor the tainted flesh 
 Can water cleanse, nor raging fire subdue ; 
 Nor is it possible to sheer the fleece. 
 So damaged with disease and filthiness ; 
 Nor can the weaver touch the putrid web. 
 But should a man attempt the odious garb, 
 With burning pimples and disgusting sweat 
 His limbs are seized, and in no lengthen'd time, 
 The fire accursed consumes his poison'd frame.' ' 
 
 A.D. lo — 14. After the destruction of the Milesian nobility 
 ■by the Attacotti, the first great famine which we read of in 
 Christian times occurred in Ireland in the reia^n of Cairbre the 
 ' Cat-headed,^ the last king of the Aitheach-Tuatha. ' The 
 earth did not yield its fruits to the Attacotti after the great mas- 
 sacre which they had made of the nobility of Ireland, so that the 
 corn, fruits, and produce of Ireland were barren ; for there used 
 to be but one grain upon the stalk, one acorn upon the oak, and 
 one nut upon the hazel. Fruitless were her arbours, milkless her 
 
 ^ Virgil. Georgics, lib. iii. v. 495, et seq. Some commentators are of opinion 
 that Virgil's description of tliis dreadful epizootic anthrax fever (which much i-e- 
 sembles the South American derrengadera, as described by Don Ramoro Paez for 
 the year 1838) has been written in imitation of Thucydides and Lucretius. Others, 
 again, think that the principal facts have been derived from personal observation 
 in the year 43 B.C., a dreadful period in history, and described in his first Georgic. 
 — &^ Heynes' 'Notes.'
 
 History of AniDuil Plagues. 23 
 
 cattle^ so that a general famine prevailed over Ireland/^ during 
 the five years that Cairbre was in the sovereignty. 
 
 A.D. 67. A comet was seen this year, after which followed a 
 destructive tempest in Campania. Earthquakes took place at 
 Hicropolis and Laodicea. Six hundred sheep were killed in Italy 
 by gases emitted during an earthquake.^ 
 
 'The desire shown by ancient writers to preserve the records 
 of eclipses which preceded or followed any important event is of 
 the greatest value, as we can thus easily fix the date of such 
 events; for the chronology of eclipses is founded on immutable 
 causes, and any fact stated to have occurred synchronously with 
 phenomena of the kind, can at once, by that very circumstance, 
 find its determined place in chronology .^^ By eclipses we can 1 
 also test the veracity of a historian, and frequently discover the ' 
 system of his chronology. An idea prevailed very extensively, 
 and to a certain degree obtains credence still among writers upon 
 philosophy as well as medicine^ that eclipses and cometary in- 
 fluences affect the organized world, and are one of the causes of 
 blights and pestilences ; and it was probably from being imbued j 
 with such impressions, that the early annalists noted eclipses of ' 
 the sun and moon so carefully. But the object of introducing 
 their occurrence into a modeni history of these pestilences is 
 more with a view to fix a clue to the date and authenticity of 
 these, than to favour such theories.'* 
 
 A.D. 69. During the reign of the Emperor Nero it rained so 
 much of the so-called blood in Albania, that rivers ran blood. 
 An epizooty broke out among the domestic animals, and an 
 epidemy in man.^ The accounts "of some Roman authors would 
 lead to the inference that the symptoms of the malady corre- 
 sponded with those of the epizootic pleuro-pneumonia of our own 
 times. 
 
 Columella, who lived at this period, and whose influence on 
 the progress of Veterinary Science in that early age was very 
 
 ' O'Clcary. Book of Conquests. 
 
 ^ Seneca. Also Orosius, vii. ; and Magd. Eccles. Hist. ii. 53. 
 
 ^ L'Art de Verifier les Dates, &c. Paris, 1783, vol. i. 
 
 * The Census of Ireland. 
 
 * Tacitus. Annals, xvi, Suetonius. Vita Nero, 39.
 
 24 History of Aiiimal Plagues. 
 
 great^ speaks of many of the diseases of the lower animals ; and 
 after mentioning the symptoms of this attack^ says that the 
 death of the cattle might be averted if a seton was put in the 
 ear^ by means of a fibre from the hellebore root, and giving 
 them for many days a pint of leek juice, mixed with a like 
 quantity of olive oil and a pint of wine. The pest was deadly 
 — a kind of phthisis : Est etiam ilia gravis pernicies cum pulmo 
 exulceratur, inde tussis et macies et ad ultimum phthisis invadit. 
 The same writer also mentions a kind of pest which affected 
 mares, but the symptoms described do not permit us to recog- 
 nize it. The animals became suddenly emaciated, and died in a 
 short time. In the commencement of the maladv, it was useful 
 to inject fish-brine every day into the nostrils, in order, as he 
 says, to purge the pituitary membrane, and cure the patients. 
 He likewise describes an epizootic affection that showed itself 
 in lambs and young goats, and which Paulet says bears some 
 resemblance to a peculiar ovine disease now known, which local- 
 izes itself in the skin of the face, and is analogous to ring-worm. 
 The shepherds of those days called it me/it'tgo or ostigo, and it 
 ''consisted in ulcers of a bad character about the lips and inside 
 / the mouth. Its ordinary cause was eating herbage yet covered 
 ' with dew. It was fatal to the unweaned animals : — lahes morti- 
 fera lactantihus. The remedy was to rub the affected parts with 
 a decoction of equal parts of hyssop and salt ; to wash them 
 with vinegar, and then to dress them with an ointment com- 
 posed of liquid pitch and lard. In all likelihood it was an 
 aphthous afl'ection. 
 
 The flocks of sheep and goats were very subject to general 
 diseases. Such was the goat plague — caprarum pestiientia, a 
 most formidable and deadly malady, which swept off whole 
 flocks in a very brief space. 'These animals, usually so lively and 
 hardv, do not lose condition or show languor, like other animals 
 when attacked, but they drop all at once, as if struck by light- 
 ning, and quickly perish. From the moment one is seen to be 
 affected, the whole flock should be bled, the sickly ones should be 
 killed, and those yet in health have the juice of reed-roots and 
 hawthorn to drink in rain-water.' 
 
 The pneumonia of sheep is indicated ; the treatment was to
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 25 
 
 be the same as that for pigs — ovem pulmonariam ut suem curare 
 convenit, &c. 
 
 There was another disease, to which the inhabitants of the 
 Campagna gave the name of Coriago. It consisted in so close 
 an adherence of the skin to the ribs, that it was impossible to 
 detach it. Columella attributed it to the heavy rains to which 
 the oxen were exposed during their labour. His remedy was to 
 rub them frequently with wine in the sunshine. 
 
 Much attention is given to the ignis sacer of sheep. He says, 
 ' Est etiam insanabilis ignis sacer, quern pusulam vocant pas- 
 tores.' ' If it is not arrested,' he adds, 'when the first animal is 
 attacked, it soon affects the whole flock. There is no remedy for 
 it. The disease is irritated by the least touch, and nothino; but 
 the milk of goats can help to allay its intensity.' Dolus Mcnde- 
 sius, a veterinarian of Egyptian origin, is cited by him as one who 
 was able to give the method of recognizing and arresting the dis- 
 ease. This method consisted in often examining the backs of 
 the sheep, and if the slightest redness was perceptible, they were 
 to be promptly killed, and buried in their skins. Was this the 
 ovine small-pox ? Some authors have thought it was. There are 
 some circumstances in favour of this opinion, which we will 
 notice at a later period. 
 
 In the ninth chapter of the sixth book ^ Columella goes on to 
 say, ' When an ox has the fever,' — which may have been that 
 peculiar type of Cattle Plague of which we have had such painful 
 experience, — ' he must not be allowed to eat for the space of a 
 day; after which, and before he has eaten anything, a little 
 blood must be abstracted from under the tail, then he must 
 be made to swallow thirty cabbage leaves baked in oil. This 
 food is to be given for five days, and while fasting, and he is to 
 have, besides, the tops of the lentisk, the olive tree, or any other 
 species of tender-leaved plants, or branches of the vine, and cold 
 water is to be allowed him to drink three times a-day.' 'This 
 treatment,' he insists, ' ou^ht to be followed out in the cow- 
 house, and the animal should not be allowed in the open air 
 until cured.' 'The fever is present,' he adds, 'when tears are 
 
 ' Scriploicb Rci Rublica. Gcsner, 1787.
 
 i6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 trickling clown the face, when the head is carried low and heavily, 
 and the eyes are closed ; when the saliva flows from the mouth ; 
 when the respiration is shorter than in health, and seemingly 
 embarrassed, or sometimes accompanied by groaning/ In chapter 
 xiv. we have a description of the epizooty. ' It is a grave disease, 
 consisting in ulceration of the lungs. It produces cough, loss 
 of flesh, and consumption. Another disease is noticed, in which 
 sometimes there arises a swelling of the palate, which causes the 
 animal to refuse food, to sigh, sitspirios^ lahorantes, and to seem 
 uncertain on which side he should fall. The palate must be 
 torn with the iron to make it bleed, and he n]ust be given 
 softened vetches.' Change of air he lays much stress on, after 
 recommending setons in the ears. — Suspiriose luboravtibus auri- 
 cidce ferro rescindendce, mulandceque regiones ; quod in omnibus 
 viOTbis ac pestibus Jieri debere censemus. 
 
 The most sensible advice he gives, with regard to the treat- 
 ment of animals, is to separate the healthy from the unhealthy 
 — Segregandi a sanis morbidi; and he sarcastically makes 
 mention of Dolus Mendesius, a contemporary veterinarian, as a 
 man who recommended that the first sheep that was attacked by 
 thQignissacer, goxigxtnons erysipelas (?), should be killed and buried 
 at the entrance of the sheep-fold, as if he thought it a danger- 
 ous custom in those days; for this disease was often epizootic, 
 and it is believed now to be very contagious when so. 
 
 A.D. 76. ' God took vengeance on the Aitheach-Tuatha 
 (Attacotti) for their evil deed (the slaughter by King Fiacha of 
 the white cattle in a.d. 56) during the time that Elim was in 
 the sovereignty, namely, Ireland was without corn, without 
 milk, without fruit, without fish, and without every other great 
 advantage.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 92. A loimic plague is described by the Jewish philoso- 
 pher Philo, who believed it to have been caused by hot dust. 
 ' The clouds of dust suddenly falling on men and cattle, pro- 
 duced over the whole skin a severe and intractable ulceration. m 
 The body immediately became tumid with efflorescences, or ■! 
 
 ' i 
 1 Annals of the Four Masters. i
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 27 
 
 purulent plilyctenae, which appeared hke blisters excited by a 
 secret fire beneath/ 
 
 A. D. T90. 'About this time a great pestilence raged over 
 all Italv, and became most violent in Rome by reason of the 
 great concourse of people assembled from all quarters of the 
 world. Wherefore a great loss of life took place amongst oxeii 
 and men, the excited cattle perishing amongst the people/ ^ 
 The sweet smell of the laurel-tree was supposed to counteract 
 the contagion. The people of Rome were advised bv their phy- 
 sicians to fill their noses and ears with odorous substances, and 
 tO|Use perfumes, sp as to nullify human effluvia and the con- 
 tagious atmosphere. Famine and pestilence raged for three 
 years. 
 
 A. D. 216. Widespread pestilence in Italy, affecting man 
 and beast.- 
 
 A.D. 238. In Ceylon ' a great famine and plague occurred 
 during this reign, attributed to the malignity of the red-eyed 
 demon. It was to appease this demon that a devil-dance was 
 instituted, which is kept up to this day.^ ^ Forbes thinks this 
 was smallpox, a disease which afterwards ravaged that island on 
 many occasions, 
 
 A.D. 260. When Saphor, King of Persia, was besieging 
 Nisibus, his elephants and beasts of' burden were so suddenly 
 and furiously attacked by swarms of gnats, as to kill or disable 
 them, thus causing the siege to be raised, and subsequently lead- 
 ing to the discomfiture of that monarch's army.-** 
 
 A.D. 314. In the reign of Constantine the Great, the large 
 island of Cyprus was 36 years without rain. So great a 
 famine ensued that all its animal inhabitants forsook it and 
 fied.^ 
 
 A.D. 376. In this long interval, epidemics of various kinds 
 had reigned throughout the world, and caused incalculable mor- 
 tality; but though some of these, from their nature, may have 
 extended themselves to the lower animals, and thus rendered 
 
 ' Ilerodian. Mist., book i. ' Hdvetius. Cavriol. Hist. Brix. 
 
 ■'' Forbes. Eleven Years in Ceylon. Appendix, p. 286. 
 
 * Thcodorilc. Hist. Ecclcs. book ii., chap. 30. ^ Pelaviiis.
 
 2 8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 their infliction doubly severe, there is no mention of their having 
 done so. In these obscure ages, and in nearly every subsequent 
 one, as we will often have occasion to observe, when plagues 
 have slain myriads of human beings, the greater evil has swallowed 
 up the lesser, or rather veiled it, and no record is made of epizo- 
 otic diseases, though we may strongly suspect that they have 
 often accompanied, if they have not preceded and perhaps caused, 
 directly or indirectly, those widespread maladies in mankind. 
 
 In this year, after the sanguinary irruption of the Huns 
 under Attila, the expulsion of the Goths from Hungary, and the 
 fierce internecine wars of the whole Germanic population, there 
 was an extraordinary famine and a deadly epidemic. The pre- 
 ceding winter had been very cold, the summer very dry, and 
 shocks of earthquake had been frequent. 
 
 A most severe and memorable epizooty began in the east of 
 Europe and spread westward. It was exceedingly fatal, and 
 caused great loss, the cattle being no sooner attacked than they 
 died. Curative measures proved useless, and no healthy animal 
 was safe unless it was branded on the forehead with a red-hot 
 I iron in the form of a cross. So says, at any rate, the credulous 
 and marvel-loving Cardinal Baronius,^ who of course adds that 
 this miracle converted crowds of people to Christianity. 
 
 Paulet and Dupuy think there may have really been some 
 virtue in this application of the actual cautery, but only that of a 
 physical kind. As might be expected, any benefit supposed to 
 be conferred on the animals by means of this crucial firing, when 
 suggested by the miracle-working priests, would be readily placed 
 to the credit of the Church. The shape of the iron was all- 
 important, and Camper fancied that the custom of painting 
 white crosses on the stable-doors in Holland was the remains of 
 this superstition. 
 
 As is well known, Europe was in a sadly disturbed state at 
 this time from the invasions of the so-called barbarians, while the 
 consternation and fear their advance and depredations occasioned 
 was rendered more embarrassing by this Cattle Plague. St Am- 
 brose, who lived at this period, plaintively writes: ' Hunni in 
 
 ^ Baronius. Annales Ecclesiasticse, vol. iv. 
 
 I
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 29 
 
 Alanos, Alani in Gothos, Gotbi in Taifalos et Sarmatos insur- 
 rexerunt. Nos quoque in Illyrico — exules patrice, Gothorum 
 exilia fecerunt et nondum est finis. Quae omnium esset fames 
 lues pariter hominum caeteriqne pecoris, ut etiam nos qui bellum 
 non pertulimus, debellatis tamen pares fecerit pestilential ^ 
 
 From the course pursncd by the epizootyand its deadliness, 
 we have every reason to beheve that it was the veritable ' Cattle 
 Placjue/ so called, of our own days. In a curious poem, entitled 
 ' De Mortibus Boum/ written by Sanctus Severus/ one of the 
 earliest Christian poets, and a native of Aquitania, who lived in 
 the 4th century, its progress and fatality are particularly dwelt 
 upon, and for the first time we have mention made of Hungary 
 as the birth-place of plagues — a country which for centuries after- 
 wards was to bear this unenviable reputation. The poem is in 
 the form of an eclogue, in which three shepherds are introduced. 
 One of these, Buculus, is lamenting his Ijad fortune in having 
 lost all his cattle, while the others try to console him in offerinti; 
 their sympathy. In this lament we are enlightened as to the 
 origin, symptoms, and most efficacious treatment of the malady, 
 the sign of the cross being the one certain preventive recom- 
 mended. The disease appears to have travelled from Hungary, 
 through Austria, to Dalmatia. By Brabant it obtained access 
 to the Low Countries, Flanders, Picardy, and so on to the other 
 provinces of France. 
 
 A.D. 381. 'i'heodosius being emperor, Constantinople 
 suflTered much by an earthquake. Fifty-seven of its late-built 
 towers on the walls were thrown down. It lasted by fits for 
 six months, demolished many fair churches and fortresses, and 
 expelled the citizens from their houses to the fields. It raged 
 also by sea, swallowed uj) many ships and several fine islands, 
 
 These earthquakes were followed by a great famine, and 
 
 the air was so infected that many thousands of people perished byi 
 the contagion, with multitudes of cattle.^ 
 
 Vegetius Kcnatus, whose writings we will notice more par- 
 ticularly hereafter, was a skilful agriculturist and hippiatrist, was 
 
 ' Commentar. in Luc. Lib. ix. 21. 
 
 * Magna IJiljliothcca Octcrum I'atrum, per M. de la Bit^no, p. 334. 
 
 ' Clark. Exanipl.
 
 30 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 probably contemporary with the invasion of the Huns at this 
 period, and may have been an observer of this epizooty. He gives 
 us the following description of what he terms the ynalis or malleus 
 (designated maul in the old English translation), and which may 
 have been the Cattle Plague. After dwelling on the care 
 to be taken of oxen while in health, and showing that no less 
 care and diligence must be employed against their maladies than 
 against those of horses, he says of this malleus : ' As this disease, 
 and removing in different species of distempers from one to many, 
 does by its infection destroy the horse kind, so it also kills oxen, 
 though by different persons it is called by a different name, and for 
 the most part by that which the common people give it. If at any 
 time this disease attacks an ox, it is recognized by the following 
 symptoms : The hair is erect, and the animal appears sad, his eyes 
 stupid and languid, the head and neck drooping, and saliva con- 
 tinually flowing from his mouth ; his walk is slower than usual ; 
 his spine appears to be stiff; he shows a very great loathing, and 
 ruminates very little. If about the beginning of the distemper 
 you attempt to give him relief, he will escape the danger; but if 
 through negligence you be too slow in applying a remedy, the 
 destructive quality of a disease that is become inveterate cannot 
 be overcome.' After describing the treatment to be pursued, 
 and the necessity for mixing salt with the fodder of oxen, he 
 remarks as to the causes of disease in these animals, but particu- 
 larly this malls, in these words : ' If oxen be roused up, so as 
 to be put upon running at their full speed, at any time of the 
 year, but especially in summer, either they contract thereby a 
 looseness which proves pernicious to them, or it gives occasion 
 to slight fevers; for this animal being naturally slow, and rather 
 adapted to labour than to swift motion, is grievously hurt if 
 
 forced to any work to which it is not accustomed But if 
 
 an ox has swallowed hog^s excrement, then he presently under- 
 goes the plague of that contagious disease called the maul (I 
 quote from the old English translation), which, when once 
 it has broken in upon a herd, either of great or small cattle, 
 whether of such as are trained for labour or otherwise, presently 
 all the animals which have the least suspicion of the distemper 
 must be removed from the usual pasture-ground and distributed
 
 History of Animal Plagties. 31 
 
 in those places where no cattle arc pastured, so that thcv may 
 neither hurt one another nor thenjselves ; for, bv feedino- on the 
 grass, they infect it, and the fountains, also, by drinking in them ; 
 and they also infect the cribs in the stalls where they stand : so 
 that oxen, though previously perfectly sound and in good health, 
 perish by the smell and bv the breath of those that are sick and 
 diseased blowing upon them. The dead carcases also must be 
 thrown out at a great distance beyond the bounds of the villa, 
 and buried very deej) in the earth, lest the bodies of those that 
 are sound be infected by them, and they perish. This distem- 
 per is called by one general name, the Plague, or Pestilence, but 
 there are many varieties of it.^ The nature of this malady can- 
 not be accurately determined by the symptoms enumerated, but 
 it is obvious that several affections are included in this general 
 designation. For instance, ' it is named the " humid distemper" 
 when a humour flows from the ox's mouth and nostrils, and a 
 loathing and sickness follows upon it. It is called the "dry dis- 
 temper" when no discharge appears, but the animal loses con- 
 dition daily, and has no appetite. It is called the "articular dis- 
 ease" when the oxen go lame, sometimes in their fore-feet, and 
 sometimes in their hind-feet, although their hoofs are perfectly 
 sound. It is called the " subrenal disease" whenever there ap- 
 pears a weakness in their hinder parts, and because they are 
 supposed to have a jiain in their loins. It is called the"farci- 
 minous disease" when tubercles come out over the oxen's whole 
 body, open themselves, and are healed, and break out again in 
 other places. It is also called the " subcutaneous disease" when- 
 ever a very bad humour breaks out in different parts of the oxen's 
 body, and discharges. It is called " elephantiasis" when very 
 small cicatrices appear like scabs, or like small lentils. It is 
 called a "mania" or "madness," which takes away the senses 
 from oxen that are in good condition, so that they neither hear 
 nor see in their usual manner; of which distemper they very 
 quickly die, though they may look fat and cheerfid. 
 
 'All these diseases are very contagious, and if one animal be 
 seized by them they ])ass immediately to all; and so they bring 
 destruction somctiuies either upon whole herds or ujion ;ill flu)>e 
 that are fully domesticated and trained to labour. Therefore it
 
 32- History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 is that the anunals which have been attacked must, with all dili- 
 gence and care, be separated from the herd, put apart by them- 
 selves, and sent to those places where no animal is pastured, lest 
 by their contagion they endanger all the rest, and the negligence 
 of the owner be imputed (as is usually done by fools) to the 
 Divine displeasure/ ^ 
 
 Apsyrtus, a renowned Greek Veterinarian of this period, 
 also speaks in his writings of this malls (juaXts), though it is 
 quite as evident that he mixes up indiscriminately the character- 
 istics of several dangerous maladies under the indefinite term, 
 
 ' Vegetms Renatus. Ars Veter. London, 1748, p- 221.
 
 33 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 40O TO A.D. 1 50O. 
 
 A.D. 400. In this century we find veterinary science progressing, 
 and becoming more fit to take cognizance of epizootic diseases. 
 The authors who treat of veterinary subjects are more numerous, 
 and some of their works are yet extant. The Emperor of the 
 Eastern Empire, Constantine, gave every encouragement to the 
 noble emulation he had raised in regard to the conservation of 
 the domestic animals, and the perfecting of the veterinary art, 
 and many ai)le writers dedicated the results of their researches 
 to him. Among these we have Vegetius Renatus, Count of 
 Constantinople, who complains that in his time the science was 
 much neglected, and did not receive all the attention which its 
 importance demanded, and which he estimates next to that 
 of human medicine. In his ' Treatise on the Veterinary Art ^ 
 he has left us a clearer, more precise, and a more extended cata- 
 logue of diseases than any of his predecessors. There is much, 
 of course, in the treatise derived from ignorance and supersti- 
 tion. As a proof of this, wc may notice that he avers that if an 
 ox eats the excrement of a pig, he must be treated as a pestifer- 
 ous animal.^ These weaknesses wc must tolerate in return for 
 
 ' Si atttem porcimim stercus bos devoraverit stalim pextilentiam contagionis illiu^ 
 mallei sustinet morbi. Book iii. chap. ii. It is curious to find Columella giving 
 a similar opinion : Et id prcecipuc qtiod egerit sus ccgra pcstilentiam faccre valet. 
 Book vi. cliap. v. 
 
 3
 
 34 History of Animal Plagiies. 
 
 the anxiety he displays to add to the slender stock of knowledge 
 in this department of science. He enumerates a great number 
 of pests^ all of which he specifies as contagious, but of the cor- 
 rectness of this we may justly have our suspicions. 
 
 The humid pest, or malls of the Greeks, — the prqfluvimn 
 attiaim of the Romans, — was marked by a mucus, or purulent 
 discharge from the nostrils and mouth, and loathing of food. It 
 appears to have been the glanders of the horse, and in all proba- 
 bility a cattle plague; Nam equinum genus morbus qui appella- 
 tur MALLEUS, diverso genere passiomim emigrans per plures con- 
 tagione consumit. Boves quoque idem morbus interjicit sed a 
 diversis diverso nomine vocatur. The articular pest was character- 
 ized by lameness of the anterior or posterior limbs, the feet 
 being also affected. The skin or subcutaneous pest was con- 
 ta2;ious, and due to the presence of an acrid humour, which 
 attacked different parts of the body, and did much harm. The 
 animals were continually rubbing themselves. The plague of 
 elephantiasis, or leprosy, was another affection of the skin. The 
 mad plague, in which the oxen neither heard nor saw, and from 
 which they died quickly, although they were lively and in good 
 condition but a short time before. There were also the farcinous, 
 the dry, the renal, and other plagues. According to this writer, 
 whenever an animal was affected by any of these pests, it imme- 
 diately infected all the others ; hence the urgent reason for 
 separating all the diseased at once from those yet in health, and 
 in such a manner that no contact, mediate or immediate, could 
 take place. Cohabitation was always a source of great danger. 
 A change of air and situation was particularly lauded : ?ie cof(- 
 tagione sua omnibus periculum generet et negUgentia Domini sicut 
 solet a stultis fieri, divincE imputentur ojfensce. When all this 
 had been done, and not till then, every effort was to be made to 
 cure the tainted. Incense and other medicaments, powdered 
 and dissolved in wine, were prescribed and administered by the 
 nostrils. Perfuming and deodorizing with sulphur, bitumen, and 
 marjorum were enjoined, because not only did they favour the 
 operation of the remedies, but they assisted in destroying the 
 pestilential virus, and preserving other animals from the plague.'^ 
 ^ Vegethis Renatiis. Re Veterinaria.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. <!$ 
 
 Apsyrtus, a famous veterinarian, though not treatino- of 
 epizootic aflbctions in his ' Hippiatrica/ appears to be better 
 informed than \"egetius on diseases in general, and his treat- 
 ment is always simple. His descriptions of the symptoms of 
 disease are more exact and life-like, and he seems to have in- 
 vestiti;ated the causes of maladies with much skill. We have an 
 example of this in what he says of the horse when sufl'erino- from 
 what he terms fever. ^ When the horse is sick from fever, he 
 carries his head heavily, and as if immovable; the eyes are swollen, 
 and he can scarcely open them. The lips and all the body are 
 flaccid, the testicles pendent, the breath and the body have a burn- 
 ing heat ; he fixes his limbs, and is insensible to blows, and when 
 compelled to walk, he is every moment likely to fall/ We may 
 notice in passing that his picture of fever reminds one most forci- 
 bly of the symptoms we observe in influenza of the horse. The 
 causes of fever, he explains, are violent riding, heat, cold, and in- 
 digestion, especially that form which arises from having eaten too 
 much grass in the spring-time. His curative measures were bleed- 
 ing from the temples, and giving exercise moderately the first day. 
 In winter it was necessary to clothe and to keep the patient in a 
 warm stable. If he began to walk better, it was then advisable, 
 if circumstances permitted, to let him go to pasture, or sprinkle 
 his hay with fresh water, but only to allow food gradually. 
 Barley-water could also be given with advantage. To know if 
 a horse had fever, one had only to present him with oats or 
 barley; if he ate, then was he only fatigued, for a feverish horse 
 abhors food, is dull, and only cares to drink. He throws himself 
 on -the ground, and is scarcely able to rise. In bleeding it was 
 necessary to take away the blood from veins which were not 
 near nerves (tendons?), because if injured they suffer distension. 
 ' If the disease increases in intensity, the horse dies in three days, 
 not being able to support the violence of the fever any longer 
 than that time. Wc ought not to believe those who pretend 
 that they can reco";nize fever by touching; the cars or the 
 sliouldcrs. We outrht not tr) bleed the fati trued horse, heeausc 
 it weakens his strength, and may jiroduec dangerous con- 
 se(]uences. It is only necessary when the hciid is overcharged 
 with blood, and the disease requires it.' He tells us that the
 
 ^6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ignis sacer (gangrenous erysipelas or carbuncle) usually affected 
 the back of the horse, and consisted of a tumour filled with 
 matter, at other times a hard swelling, covered by a crust or 
 scab. The treatment was to open it, dress with pomegranate 
 powder, and poultice with meal. The next day pounded cypress 
 leaves were to be applied, mixed with vinegar, after the wound 
 had been washed. Cabbage leaves bruised in meal were to be 
 used subsequently.^ 
 
 Hierocles, a Greek hippiatrist, of whose work only three 
 chapters remain, says that the horse is exposed to many kinds of 
 fevers or plagues : one which runs its course in twenty-four 
 hours, and is caused by excesses of any kind., It is an inflammation 
 of the spirits, which afl'ects the blood, and is cured bv repose. 
 The second fever begins by shivering, and finishes by perspir- 
 ation. The paroxysms last only twelve hours, and when they 
 go beyond that time it is termed bastard fever. To cure it, 
 blood must be abstracted in larger quantity than authors indi- 
 cate, and experience teaches that bleeding from the neck is very 
 beneficial. Refreshing drinks are also efficacious. Much good 
 results by keeping the bowels open by lavements of mallow, 
 mercury, honey, &c. The next fever is one of a continuous 
 nature, and pestilential, due to the presence of corrupt humours 
 in the interior of the vessels, and which it was necessary to treat 
 by blood-letting from the neck, and giving refreshing and cool- 
 inf food, barley gruel, and enemas. Its cause is owing to too 
 much phlegm in the system, in consequence of bad feeding. 
 Horses too fat and flabby are usually attacked by it in the autunm, 
 and it is difficult to cure. Moderate exercise is necessary for 
 these cases, and the skin should be rubbed with hot oil; while 
 their food should be stimulating and nourishing. This writer 
 only notices the carbuncular disease spoken of by Vegetius as 
 very dangerous to mares, and that it is necessary to dress the 
 tumours, which are hard, and to bathe them with vinegar. 
 
 Another Greek veterinarian, by name Pclagonius, who 
 lived about this time, imagines that horses had the pest from too 
 much severe labour, by excessive heat, by great cold, sometimes 
 
 ' ApsyrtHs. Scrip. Gra;c. Vet.
 
 History of Afiwial Plagues. 37 
 
 from having suffered from starvation, at other times from havino; 
 been put to full speed after a long rest, or drinking while hot 
 and perspiring. His remedies were two. The first was an 
 antidote, composed of myrrh, laurel leaves, scrapings of ivory, 
 gentian, and other articles, mixed with wine, and given in doses 
 until the horse was cured. The second smacks stronoiv of the 
 disgusting quackery of a much later time. A cygnet was to be 
 taken with its feathers on, and simmered in a pot until reduced 
 to ashes. Of these, a portion was to be given in good wine, 
 until the disease disappeared. Salt brine was to be administered 
 at the same time by the nostrils. It was observed in the time of 
 this writer that pestilential and contagious diseases often broke 
 out among the horses of an army when on active service in the 
 field, and were thought to be due to bad nourishment. But 
 when these diseases broke out in time of peace, and in town and 
 country alike, then were the causes more obscure, though they 
 could generally be traced to improper or tainted forage, putrid 
 water, and the foul. atmosphere of stables. Much stress is laid 
 in ascertaining the causes of these maladies, and nothing was to 
 be left undone in discovering them. Then means were to be 
 adopted for destroying the poison by medicaments — such as 
 gentian, ivory raspings, laurel leaves^ &c. If the horse was of 
 a sanguine nature, he was to be bled from the jugular veins, and 
 enemas were to be given. The symptoms of contagious diseases 
 were sin)ilar to those of fever, only there was a drier and more 
 furred mouth, and the breathing was more frequent.^ 
 
 About this time St Jerome writes : ' We have seen in our 
 days swarms of locusts over the land of Judaea, which were after- 
 wards, through the mercy of God, driven by the wind into the 
 first and last sea [in mure primiim et novissimum — the Eastern 
 and Western Sea). And when the shores of both seas were filled 
 with heaps of dead locusts, the putrefaction and stench of them 
 were noxious to such a degree as to corrupt tlie air, and produce 
 a pestilence both among n\G.n and some kinds of animals {pesti- 
 lenlia tarn jumentorum cjuain humhium gigneretur).' - 
 
 A.D. 443. The winter was dreadfully severe. So much snow 
 
 ' La Veterinaria di Pelagonio. I'odova, 1S28. 
 '^ Jlicronymiis. Comment in Joel, chap. ii.
 
 38 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 fell that it was scarcely dissolved iu six months after; hence 
 a great destruction of people and cattle,^ 
 
 A.D. 444. A comet; repeated earthquakes in Turkey followed, 
 and then fever, and, lastly, the plague most extensively. A great 
 mortality among fish. The pabulum of plants seemed at length 
 to be vitiated, and in England there was a great scarcity.^ 
 
 A.D. 446. In September a severe earthquake, accompanied 
 by disease and famine, at Constantinople. 'At this time a 
 famine invaded Constantinople. ... A great portion of the 
 city walls with fifty-seven towers fell to the ground. Many 
 cities were destroyed. Famine and the stench of the atmosphere 
 killed a great number of men and a thousand oxen.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 466. A grievous famine prevailed in Britain, and a 
 pestiferous smell in the air killed both man and beast." 
 
 A.D. 484. There was such a drought in Africa that all the 
 springs and rivers were dried up, and men and animals struggled 
 for the withered grass roots in the open fields. So great was the 
 famine, that all living creatures died in heaps, and their bodies 
 lay in every road, without any one to bury them. There was 
 neither dew nor rain, the earth was parched, no corn, vines, 
 olives, or other fruits, nor leaves on any tree. Hence a grievous 
 plague.^ 
 
 A.D. 502. Scotland suffered very much from an epidemy and 
 epizooty, which killed great nvnnbers of men and animals. 
 
 A.D. 547. St Filo fled from Wales, first to Cornwall and 
 then to Armorica, ' on account of the pestilence which nearly 
 destroyed the whole nation.' This disorder ' raffed not only 
 against men, but also against beasts and reptiles.' " ' There was 
 a mortality in Britain and Ireland.' '' During the yellow pesti- 
 lence in Britain and Ireland, cattle were affected.* 
 
 A.D. 561. In Ireland 'a poisoned pool made its appearance in 
 that region (Meath), through a chasm of the earth, and a vapour 
 proceeded from it which produced a fatal disease in men and 
 
 ^ Christ. Matth. - Niccphonis, xv. 10. 
 
 ^ Bede. Eccles. Hist. ii. p. 66. * Baronius. ^ Ibid. 
 
 ^ Book of Landaff. ' Cambrian Annals. 
 
 * Liber Landavensis. ' Mortalitas magna quae dicebatur "crom conaille" vel 
 flava scabies. '^7}^^;'«, year 550.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 39 
 
 beasts of burden/ ^ ' At that time a dreadful pestilence {huidhe 
 chonnaill) was ravaging the eommou people/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 565. The whole world suffered more or less from epi- 
 demic diseases for a number of years. The Ligurian plague 
 ra^ed durinir this and the followincj years amono; mankind. 
 Paulus Diaconus writes^ ' Dwellings are vacant and towns 
 deserted, men have disappeared, and there is a great destruction 
 of animals.'^ While the plague was at its height Nicephorus 
 describes a strange fact. ' Certain little marks appeared on the 
 doors and outsides of their houses, on their o-arments, and on 
 their utensils ; some white crusts of a peculiar deposition from 
 the air adhered to all things as damp moulds do on the walls or 
 dwellings, or dew on grass."* This unhappy state of afiairs was 
 more particularly noted in France, Italy, and Germany. 
 
 A.D. 569. ' In this year a great disease, accompanied by dy- 
 sentery and variola/ afflicted Italy and Gaul, and neat cattle 
 especially perished in these countries.' " 
 
 A.D. 570. According to Marius, Bishop of Avranches, an 
 epizooty spread in France and Italy which destroyed nearly all 
 the cattle. This may have been a continuance of that which is 
 mentioned as occurring in the last year. A glandular affection 
 also manifested itself amonsr men/ 
 
 D 
 
 ' St ^dus, vol. i. p. 422. 
 
 - St Brigidia, vol. ii. p. 536. In the ancient Irish records mention is often 
 made of the Buidhe Chonnaill, which was a disease affecting both the human and 
 bovine species. 
 
 ^ Paid. Diacon. Caps. iv. x.xiii. Muraton. Scrip. Rerum Ital., vol. i. p. 426. 
 
 * Nucplioriis. Hist. Eccles. 
 
 * Grave doubts are entertained as to the etymology of this word, and the ques- 
 tion remains a disputed one as to whether it be the variolus disease that is here meant. 
 Ileusinger thinks that this variola, because it is mentioned with other maladies of 
 a pustular and bubonic nature, was nothing else than the true plague, and he only 
 believes in the appearance of small-pox at a much later period. There can be now 
 no doubt, however, that the learned j)athologist is incorrect : small-pox is fretpient- 
 ly mentioned in the early Saxon writings, Ijolh by its common and Latin designa- 
 tions, and its presence in Ireland is indicated at a period not far removed hum this 
 mentioned by Marius. Ilecker [Aiiiialcn, 1828) is, therefore, I think, <|uite justi- 
 fied in writing ' wir stehen nicht liinger an die pustularfest im sechslen jaiirhundert 
 fur pocken zu erklaren.' For the notices of this disease in early England refer to 
 Saxon Lccchdovis, London, 1866. 
 
 •' Marius. Episcop. Chronicon. Diiclusnc. Scriji. Ker. I'ranc. vol. i. p. 215. 
 ' Ibid.
 
 40 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 571. On September 24 there was a prodigious slaughter 
 of wild fowl in a fight.^ 
 
 A.D. 580. Great floods, tempests, earthquakes, hail, and other 
 misfortunes, ushered in a dreadful plague of a dysenteric nature, 
 and great loss of cattle, during the fifth year of the reign of King 
 Childebert. 
 
 A.D. 581. There was in this year an epizooty among the cattle 
 in Touraine, which, according to Gregory of Tours, could not 
 be prevented or cured until the Church interfered, when a 
 religious ceremony had the wished-for effect in driving away the 
 malady." The same credulous worthy informs us that about this 
 time an epizooty also broke out among the horses of Bordelais, 
 which would not cease its ravages until vows were made to St 
 Martin, and the solipeds had their foreheads branded with a red- 
 hot key, probably belonging to the church door. 
 
 A.D. 582. In Ireland 'great snow, — great cattle mortality.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 583. Inundations in France. ' A disease amongst cat- 
 tle followed this inundation, so that scarcely one remained, 
 and it was a novelty for any one to see an ox or a heifer in the 
 land.'* 
 
 A.D. 584. ^ Locusts in the province of Carpitania, which they 
 laid waste for five years. In this year they departed by the 
 public roads to another province. The hoar frost greatly dam- 
 aged the vines, and a tempest of hailstones followed, which de- 
 stroyed them, and also the crops in many places. A severe 
 drought finished the w^ork of the hailstorm. But little fruit was 
 seen on some vines, on others none; so that men being wroth 
 with the gods, threw open their vineyards, and the cattle trod all 
 down. The trees which brought forth apples in July had a 
 second crop in September. A disease of cattle invaded them a 
 second time, so that scarcely one remained.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 589. Great floods in Italy, doing much damage. The 
 Tiber overflowed its banks, deluged Rome and the surrounding- 
 country, drowning great numbers of men and cattle. On the 
 
 ^ T. Short. A General Chronological History of the Air, etc. London, 1749, 
 vol. i. p. 73. 
 
 - Greg. Tiir. De Mirac. St Martin, lib. iii. cap. 18. 
 
 3 Annals of Innisfallen. * St Gregory. Francor. Histor. vol. vi. p. 31. 
 
 ^ Ibid. vi. Bouquet, vol. ii. p. 289.
 
 History of Animal Plagiics. 41 
 
 disappearance of the waters, all the fields were found covered with 
 slime and mud, the grain was all destroyed, and myriads of ser- 
 pents and other creatures lay putrefying in the hot steaming 
 atmosphere. This is supposed to have given rise to the plague 
 which soon broke out in mankind and the lower animals/ 
 
 A,D. 591. A plague of locusts invaded Italy. They were 
 supposed to have come from Africa. After eating up every 
 green herb or leaf, they were, as usual, blown into the sea, and 
 being washed on shore again, their putrefaction was the cause of 
 disease, which killed nearly a million of men and beasts. Man- 
 kind in Britain, Turenne, and the provinces of Arragon and 
 Vivares, suflt-red much from an epidemic named ingu'inaria, 
 marked chiefly by buboes. St Gregory gives us the following 
 account of an epizooty which appeared in France and Belgium. 
 ' In the second month of this year a great pestilence destroyed 
 the people and a fearful drought ensued, which no kind of 
 herb escaped ; from this arose a grievous plague amongst catties 
 and oxen, which increasing, left scarcely any to breed fromJ 
 Not only did this plague aflfect the domestic animals, — it also 
 attacked wild creatures. The remains of a multitude of stag's 
 and other beasts were found dead in the forests. Forage was 
 destroyed by the overflowing of the rivers and streams, and corn 
 there was none. Vines, however, were heavily laden, but acorns 
 did not attain their full development.^ ^ Wirth is of opinion that 
 the epizooty was one of anthrax or ' milzbrand.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 605-6. In these years there was excessively hot 
 weather with droughts, which gave rise to a famine, and conse- 
 quent plague in mankind and in cattle throughout Italy.* 
 
 A.D. 661. ' After one year more, there was a great pestilence 
 among the birds, so that there was an intolerable stench by sea 
 and land,arising from the carcases of birds, both great and small. '^ 
 
 A.D. 671. ' This year there was a great mortality among the 
 fowls {fuglaval)! ^ 
 
 A.D. 684. 'A mortality (r/r-slaughtcr) upon all animals in 
 
 ' Baroniiis. Imper. I list. * St Gregoiy. Op. cit., vol. x. ]i. 30. 
 
 ' Wirth, Lehrbuch dcr Seuchen und Anstcckenden Krankheiten dcr Ilaus- 
 thicre. Ziirich, 1846, p. 85. ■* /uirouius. Op. cit. 
 
 ' The Chronicle of Kabius Etiiclwcrd. " Chronic. .Saxon. Edit. 6'//viw, p. 41.
 
 42. History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 general throughout the whole world for the space of three years, 
 \ so that there escaped not one out of the thousand of any kind of 
 animals. There was great frost in this year, so that the lakes 
 and rivers of Ireland were frozen; and the sea between Ireland 
 and Scotland was frozen, so that there was a communication 
 between them on the ice. Adamnan went to Saxon land/^ 
 
 A.i>, 689. An epizooty devastated the cattle of Ireland. 
 ' It rained blood in Leinster this year; butter was turned into 
 the colour of blood. ^ ^ ' It rained blood seven days together 
 through all Britain ; and milk, cheese, and butter turned to 
 blood.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 694. ' A great morren of cattle throughout all Eng- 
 land.'* 
 
 Hardyng,^ narrating the distress in England about this 
 period, writes : 
 
 ' Their catell dyed for faute of fode eche daye, 
 Withouten meate or any sustenance, 
 In townes and feldes, and the common waye, 
 Through which their infecte was by that chance, 
 That mukitude of follce, in great substaunce, 
 On hepys laye full lyke unto the mountaynes 
 That horrible was of sight above the playns.' 
 
 A.D. 695. ' The same morren of cowes came into Ireland 
 the next year, and began in Moythrea, in Teaffia. There was 
 such famyne and scarcitie in Ireland for three years together, 
 that men and women did eat one another for want.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 696. 'A mortality broke out among cows in Hibernia, 
 on the Kalends of February, in Magh Treagha, in Teathbha . . . 
 Great frost in this year, so that the lakes and rivers of Erinn 
 were frozen over, and the sea between Erinn and Alba was frozen 
 to such an extent that people used to travel to and fro on the 
 ice. Famine and pestilence prevailed during three years in 
 Hibernia, to that degree that man ate man.' ''' 
 
 ' The Annals of the Four Masters. ^ Annals of Clonmacnoise. 
 
 ^ Isac. Chronic. Clark's Mirrour. * Annals of Clonmacnoise. 
 
 ^ The Chronicle of John Hardyng, composed in the 14th century. 
 ^ Annals of Clonmacnoise. '' Chronicon Scotorum.
 
 History of Animal P /agues. 43 
 
 A.D. 698. ' Cattle destruction in Saxon land.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 699* ^A mortality of cattle raged in Ireland in the 
 Kalends of February, in the plain of Trego, in the reijion of 
 Teffia/ - now Moytra, in the county of Longford. 'The mor- 
 tality of cattle broke out on the first of the Calends of Febru- 
 arVj in Magh Tregha, in Tethbha.'^ 'Destruction of black 
 cattle in Saxonia (Saxon land).-** 
 
 A.D. 700, 701, 704, 707. 'A distemper of black cattle 
 kindled in Ireland on the first of February, in the plain of Trego, 
 in Teffia.' ' A mortality of cattle.' — Bovina mortalitas.^ 
 
 A.D. 708. 'The plague which is called Baccagn (lameness), 
 with dysentery in Ireland.' ° The term Baccacn is sometimes 
 applied to the dry murrain in cattle in this island. (Sir W. 
 Wylde, Census of Ireland.) 
 
 A.D. 744, 747, 748. Snow of unusual depth, so that almost 
 all the cattle of Ireland perished, followed in 744 and 748 by 
 unaccustomed drought."^ 
 
 A.D. 765. In Ireland, ' Great mortality among cows this 
 year.' * 
 
 A.D. 770. 'There reigned many diseases in Ireland this 
 vcar. A great morren of cows ran over the whole kingdom, 
 called the Moylegarou .' ^ This is the first introduction of the 
 term Maelgarth, a skin disease of cattle characterized by rough- 
 ness and loss of hair, and which appeared frequently in after 
 times. It is difficult to make out what malady is meant, whe- 
 ther it be scabies, erysipelas, or even the carbuncular form of 
 anthrax. 
 
 ' Annals of Clonmacnoise. - Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ^ Chronicon Scotorum. * Annals of Tighernach. 
 
 * Ibid. Annals of Ulster. Chronicon .Scotorum, Edit. 1867. In early Irish 
 history, epizootics are defined as Ar, mortality : such as Bo-ar, cattle mortality, 
 usually rendered by the early English translators of the annals, 'a murrain.' Oc- 
 casionally the term Dibhadlt, loss, or total failure, is ap])licd to cattle pesti- 
 lences ; thus, one of the ancient kings is styled Breasal Bodhibhadh, ' Brassil of 
 the cow-mortality,' because in his reign it is said nearly all the cows of Ireland be- 
 came extinct. Di//i, loss, want, destruction — applies to inanimate things as well 
 as to mortality of men or animals. 
 
 '' Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ' Annals of Clonmacnoise. Annals of Ulster. Annals of Tighernach. 
 
 " Annals of Innisfallen. ' Annals of Clonmacnoise.
 
 44 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 772. 'l^he murrain of the cows in Ireland still con- 
 tinuedj and which was worse, great scarcity and penury of 
 victuals among men continued. The pox (small-pox) came all 
 over the kingdom/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 776. 'A great fall of rain and great wind. Dysentery 
 [Rithfoln) and many diseases besides. Mortality almost; the 
 great mortality of cows (Bo-ar-mor).' ^ 
 
 A.D. 777. In Ireland^ 'The running of blood {Ritu-fola, 
 dysentery). The great mortality of cows {Bo-nr-mor).' ^ 
 
 A.D. 778. In Ireland, ' Mortality of cattle {Bovum mor tali- 
 ins) ceased not, and the mortality of men from want. The 
 small-pox [Bolgach) all over Erinn. A very great wind at the 
 end of autumn.' * 
 
 A.D. 784. In Germany a severe drought, and a plague 
 among men and animals.^ 
 
 A.D. 791. Campaign of Charlemagne against the Huns, 
 beyond the Danube, and in Bavaria and Austria. 'This ex- 
 pedition was accomplished without any mishap, except that in 
 the portion of the army led by the king (while in Hungary) 
 there broke out so great a plague among the horses that it is said 
 scarcely a tenth part of the many thousands remained.'® We 
 are left in doubt as to the nature of the malady. 
 
 A.D. 797. In Ireland, 'destruction of cows among the 
 Momonians, Darians, and Adhuar, son of Nechin."^ 
 
 A.D. 798. In Ireland, 'great snow, in which much cattle 
 and people perished.' * 
 
 A.D. 800. A great earthquake and a severe winter. Cattle 
 epizootics in various places, as well as epidemics. ' In this year 
 the sea overflowed its boundaries, forgetting that which the 
 Psalmist says, " I have placed this boundary, which shall not be 
 transgressed." It caused great havoc among cattle in many 
 parts.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 801. Earthquakes experienced in France, Germany, 
 
 ^ Annals of Clonmacnoise. "^ Annals of Ulster. 
 
 3 Ibid. * Ibid. 
 
 * Hagek and Liboczati. Annal. Bohemor., vol. i. p. 348. 
 
 ® Einhardi. Annal. Pertz., M. i. p. 1 77. 
 
 ' Annals of Innisfallen. ^ Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ^ Simon Duiidtnetts. De Gest. Rer. Angl. Twysdoi. Scrip. His. Angl. p. 116.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 45 
 
 and Italy. St Paul's, at Rome, was thrown down in the month 
 of April. 'Plagues and epizootics, following sanguinary wars, 
 as well as shocks of earthquake, occurred in the realms of Char- 
 lemagne, soon after the crowning of that monarch/ ^ 
 
 Agobard, an archbishop of Lyons, who lived in the reign of 
 Charlemagne, recounts the history of a great epizooty amonsc 
 cattle in France. Its origin was attributed to Grimoald, Duke 
 of Benevento, who, it was said, hated the Christian king, and 
 sent emissaries with enchanted powders to sprinkle over the land ; 
 these powders were composed of a substance capable of killing 
 animals. This poisonous ingredient was sprinkled over the pas- 
 ture on mountain and plain, or on the cattle; even the springs 
 of water were rendered deadly by it. Some of the men were 
 seized, and, when tortured, confessed that they had been using 
 powders to cause the death of the oxen ; after which confession 
 they were tied to planks and thrown into a river.^ Such is the 
 archbishop's version of the story. 
 
 The great mortality would lead one to infer that it was the 
 real ' hovum pestiletis,' conveyed from the districts in which the 
 great emperor had been conqueror, and where he had, no doubt, 
 levied taxes in kind on the conquered. But poisons of this nature 
 were often supposed to be propagated by wicked or stupid 
 people, in ages of darkness, and even in those of more enlightened 
 times. Indeed, it would seem that from the time of Thucy- 
 dides to the present day, when a strange disease suddenly 
 appeared, the masses have always entertained suspicions as to 
 its mortal effects being due to poisonous substances introduced 
 into the water, food, or air, by malicious people. 
 
 A.D. 804. In Bohemia, 'a plague raged not only in man, 
 but in all kinds of animals, and attacked Mnata himself.'^ 
 
 A.D. 809-10. A great epizooty among cattle on the Con- 
 tinent. It came from the cast and penetrated to the west.-* A 
 Saxon poet gives us the following description : ' On all sides the 
 peace of the present year had gladdened the empire to its bound- 
 
 ^ Meiaxa. Delle Malattie Contagiose ed Epizootiche, etc. Roma, i Si 7. Vol. 
 i. p. 133. ''■ Baluze. Annal. de Franc. Year 801. 
 
 •* iJagc'/c and Liboczan. Annals of Hohcmia, vol. i. p. 413. 
 * Chronicon Moissiac. Pcrtz, M. i. p. 309.
 
 4-6 History of Animal Plagties. 
 
 aries ; hut a certain sadness had touched many lands, for a 
 very fierce pestilence destroyed every kind of cattle. Joyfully 
 the shepherds drove their flocks and herds to the green fields, 
 from whence, however, but a small portion returned, drooping 
 and heavy, showing symptoms of disease and the near approach 
 of death in their emaciated condition. The greater number lay 
 stretched in the meadows, where they breathed forth their lives 
 amid the sweet herbage. And now the pastures stink from the 
 
 dead bodies spread out on them The stables were cleansed 
 
 with such great labour, that when they saw an animal sick and 
 about to die they preferred rather to slay it. This they did with 
 an iron instrument. Immediately from the bloody wound there 
 flowed the poison which betrayed its effects throughout the 
 whole body. Noricus and the neighbouring regions are said to 
 have suffered most grievously from this plague.^ ^ 
 
 This, in all probability, was another invasion of the dreadful 
 '■ Rinderpest,' which appears to have extended beyond Norica, 
 and to have committed havoc in this country; for we read that 
 ' eight hundred and ten was the year of Christ when the 
 moon turned black on Christmas Day (according to Petrie and 
 Sharp, " Monunienta Historica Britannica," this was in 809), 
 and Menevia was burnt, and there happened the greatest 
 mortality among horned cattle in Britain that is on record.' ^ 
 "^ A mortality among cattle in Britain [mortalitas pecoriim in 
 Britannia).^ ^ 
 
 It would be most interesting if we could trace this disease 
 in its progress to the British isles, but I think there can be no 
 doubt whatever as to the existence of the 'Cattle Plague' in 
 
 o 
 
 Britain at this early period. The Archives of the Imperial 
 Agricultural Society of Southern Russia state that the disease 
 at this period was imported from the Asian shores of the Black 
 Sea into Europe. It appeared in Hungary and Illyria, and from 
 thence spread rapidly throughout Germany, Austria, and Flanders, 
 destroying enormous numbers of cattle. From thence it was 
 probably imported into England. 
 
 1 Poetoe Saxon. Annal. Boitqjiet, vol. v. p. 169, v. 236. 
 - Brut y Tywysogion, or Chronicles of the Prince of Wales. 
 3 Annalcs Cambriie.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 47 
 
 The origin of the malady, or rather the cause of its spread, 
 might be ascribed to the wars then occurring. 
 
 Indeed, we read for 810, that in the campaign of Charle- 
 maerne against the Northmen or Scandinavians on the Elbe and 
 Weser, 'So great was the pestilence of oxen in this expedition 
 that scarcely in the whole army did one remain, but all perish- 
 ed ; and not only there, but a plague among animals, causing 
 a dreadful mortality, broke out in all the provinces conquered 
 bv the Emperor/^ Elsewhere for this year it is noted: 'A 
 very great mortality amongst oxen laid waste nearly the whole 
 of Europe, and more especially Britain/-^ In the Chronicle of 
 St Denis it is mentioned that the oxen and the l^tes aumailles 
 in France perished in great numbers.^ Wirth* speaks of anthrax 
 being prevalent in Germany, but it may have been this ' Cattle 
 Plague.' 
 
 A.D. 820. Excessive rains and cold damp weather, with 
 inundations and scarcity of food, in Gaul. War against the 
 Sclavonians in Pannonia. 'In this year, on account of the per- 
 petual rains and the moist state of the atmosphere, great evils 
 occurred. For a pestilence soon spread both to man and beast, 
 so that scarcely any part of the whole kingdom of the Franks 
 escaped its ravages. The corn, also, and the leguminous plants 
 were damaged by the continual rains. The grapes did not ripen; 
 they were sour and unpleasant.' ^ 
 
 The ' Cattle Plague' appeared in Hungary, and after raging 
 there with great violence, passed away to the west of Europe.** 
 This may have been the malady mentioned above as devastating 
 the kingdom of the Franks. 
 
 A.D. 823. A severe winter and a dry summer, with heavy 
 storms. The snow lay on the ground for twenty-nine weeks, 
 and caused great loss of human and animal life. Pestilence in 
 the summer. ' In many places the crops were destroyed by hail- 
 storms, and in certain localities stones of ininunse weight fell. . . 
 
 ' Einhardi. Annales. Pertz, M. i. p. 198. Aniial. Fuldcns. Ibid. i. 
 2 Ilii^dcni. Polychronicon. Gale. Scrip. Hist. P)iit., i. p. 252. 
 ' Cliroiiiqucs de Si Denis. Edit. Pauline, 1837. 
 
 * Wirth. Op. cit. ]). 85. 
 
 * Eiiiluirdi. (Jp. til. p. 207. Annal. Fuldcns, p. 357. 
 •■' Arciiives Imp. Agric Soc. of Suulliciii Kussia.
 
 48 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Men and other animals were killed by lightning. Then fol- 
 lowed a great plague among men, which extended through the 
 whole of France in a fearful manner, destroying multitudes of 
 different sexes and ages.'^ This plague of an unknown character 
 extended to Germany, killing men and animals. 
 
 A.D. 829. 'There was a plague in Greece, Thrace, and Bul- 
 garia, contemporaneously with an epizooty among sheep.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 842. 'A dreadful famine and consequent mortality, with 
 a ^'murrian " among cattle, caused great calamities throughout 
 the world. ^^ 
 
 A.D. 850. Great mortality among the cattle in France, so 
 that many provinces were nearly entirely cleared of their horned 
 stock.* This appears to have been another invasion of the * Cattle 
 Plague,^ which also ravaged Germany and Spain at this time.^ 
 
 A.D. 860. The preceding winter was so severe that the 
 Mediterranean was frozen over to such an extent, that carriages 
 were driven on the Adriatic Sea. ^ A severe winter and mor- 
 tality amongst animals.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 866. 'This year a disease of animals took place, and in 
 the third year afterwards a mortality followed in the human 
 species.'^ 
 
 A.D. 868. ' A comet, severe famine, and mortality of men and 
 animals.' ^ This occurred in Germany, and nearly all over Eu- 
 rope, but France appears to have suffered most." ' In this year 
 the Northmen invaded England ; and plundering the country, 
 retired to York with their booty. A great famine, and a fearful 
 mortality among cattle and the human race occurred.' ^'^ 
 
 A.D. 869. ' In the year of our Lord's incarnation 869, 
 which was the twenty-first of King Alfred's life, there was a 
 great famine (in England), and mortality of men, and a pesti- 
 lence among the cattle.' " 
 
 1 Einhardi. Op. cit. p. 212. ^ Frari. Delia Peste, vol. ii. p. 211. 
 
 ^ Odcricus Vitalis. Eccles. Hist., book i. cap. 24. 
 
 * Belleforest. Annales tie France. 
 
 5 Arch. Agric. .Soc. of Southern Russia. 
 
 ^ Annales Sangallens. Pertz, M. i. p. 76. "^ Eulogium Historiarum. 
 
 ** Duchesne. Vol. iii. p. 473. ^ Annal. Verdun. 
 
 " Assei: De Rebus Gestis Alfredi, p. 20. Edit. Oxon. 1722. 
 
 " The Chronicle of Fabius Ethelwerd. Chronicle of St Evroult.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 49 
 
 A.D. 870. A hot and dry summer, and nudtitudes of locusts 
 in France. ' A pestilence among cattle in some parts of France, 
 which spread so rapidly as to cause great loss to many.' ^ Tem- 
 pests of hail and lightning did great damage to people, cattle, 
 and grain.- 
 
 A.D. 873-4. An invasion of locusts in Gaul.^ A very 
 severe and long winter, which destroyed great numbers of 
 animals and men.* 
 
 A.D. 878. 'An eclipse of the moon in October. An eclipse 
 of the sun in November. In Germany, a great plague amongst 
 oxen, especially in the Rhine provinces. Soon after a pestilence 
 appeared in man, which resembled that in cattle.'" A certain 
 town in Wormacense, not far from the Palatinate of Ingalen- 
 heim, named Walahesheim, had wonderful things happen in it ; 
 for whilst dead animals were daily dragged from their stables into 
 the fields, the dogs which were m this town, as is their custom, 
 devoured the dead bodies by tearing them to pieces. On a 
 certain day, however, nearly all of them being congregated in 
 one place, they all went away, and so completely had they dis- 
 appeared, that none of them, either living or dead, were ever 
 found.' ^ 'A mortal pestilence amongst cattle, especially about 
 the Rhine. Dogs and birds, which at first collected round the 
 dead bodies, suddenly disappeared.' " This was in all probability 
 an cpizooty of anthrax, and the carnivorous creatures were no 
 doubt poisoned by feeding on the carcases. In Ireland, ' Great 
 dearth {ascolt mor) of cattle-food in the spring ; a great flux 
 {Jluxu.s mag n us) in the autumn.' * 
 
 A.D. 883. A famine and plague in Italy, and in the follow- 
 ing year a pestilence at Oxford, which also aflbcted the cattle, 
 slaying great numbers. 
 
 A.D. 886. ' This year pestilence in animals throughout the 
 whole world.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 887. The previous year had been very wet, and there 
 were great inundations. 'A very severe and tedious winter, 
 
 ' Annales Fuldcns. Pertz, M. v. p. 383. - Chronic. Magtlcburg. 
 
 ' Ret^nnonis. Chronic, book ii. '' Annal. Fuldens. 
 
 * Ibid. « Il)id. '' Pislor. German. Hist., vol. ii. ]). 570. 
 
 * Annals of Ulster. " Eulogiuni Ilistoriarum. 
 
 4
 
 5o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 also a plague amongst oxen and sheep extended beyond measure 
 in France, so that scarcely any of these animals were left/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 888. The campaign of the Emperor Arnulph, or Arnold, 
 of Germany, in Upper Italy, towards Friuli. ' In this march, 
 great consternation was caused bv the horses dying so rapidly, 
 that the loss was unparalleled in history/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 894. Anthrax prevailed among animals in Italy.^ 
 
 A.D. 895-7. The first recorded invasion of locusts in Britain 
 and Ireland, preceded by bloody rain, and followed by a general 
 scarcity, when great mortality of cattle and other animals occur- 
 red : the effects lasted thirteen years. All the authorities who 
 mention it are Welsh. ' Provisions failed in Ireland ; for vermin 
 of a mole-like nature, each having two teeth, fell from heaven, 
 which devoured all the food ; and through fasting and prayer 
 they were driven away.^* 'After this, anno 897, poore Ireland 
 had another scourge ; for, saith Caradoc Lhancarvan in his 
 British Chronicle, and likewise Polichronicon, this country was 
 destroyed bv strange worms, having two teeth, so that there was 
 neither corn nor grasse, nor food for man or beast, for all was 
 consumed that was greene in the land for the season of the 
 yeare.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 896. A dreadful famine and pestilence, caused by un- 
 seasonable weather, in Gaul, Germany, and Italv. Arnulph, on 
 his return from Italy across the Alps, seems again to have had 
 an epizooty among his horses. 'The great plague amongst the 
 horses increased, being aggravated by the extraordinary diffi- 
 culties of the march ; so that, contrary to custom, oxen were 
 employed to draw the litters instead of horses.'^ Wirth speaks 
 of anthrax having prevailed on a most extensive scale amongst 
 the domestic animals in Europe, and of its being without doubt 
 transmitted to mankind, as an epidemy of this nature was 
 prevalent. '^ 
 
 A.D. 897. Great famine in France and Germany, but especi- 
 ally in Bavaria. In England, disease in cattle and in men. 'In the 
 summer of this year went the army, some into East Anglia, and 
 
 1 Annal. Fuldens. ^ Yq^I. » Wirth. Op. cit. p. 85. 
 
 * Chronicles of Wales. ^ Haiimer. Chronicle. 
 
 * Annal. Fuldens, v. ' Op. cit. p. 85.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 51 
 
 sonic into Northumbria; and those that were penniless got 
 them ships, and went south over sea to the Seine. The enemy 
 had not, thank God, entirely destroyed the English nation ; but 
 it was much more weakened in these three vears bv the disease 
 in cattle, and, most of all, in men, so that many of the mightiest 
 of the King's thanes that were in the land, died within three 
 years.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 899. In Ireland, 'a rainy year; a great dearth; mor- 
 tality of cattle.' - Rabies in a bear at Lyons, and singular 
 escape of some men whom it had bitten. ' About the vear 900 
 of our era immense forests covered Burgundy, Maconnais, 
 Brescia, and part of Lyonnais. These forests were tenanted by 
 wild boars, wolves, bears, and other ferocious animals. One day, 
 a mad bear, following the course of the river Saone, at last 
 reached the quay at Lyons. Everybody fled at its approach, 
 except some boatmen who, armed with heavy sticks, attempted 
 to kill it. The bear, however, little intimidated by their num- 
 ber, rushed amongst them, and bit many — about twenty. Of 
 this party six were smothered in about twenty-seven days, in 
 consequence of fearful madness. The other fourteen, however, 
 had thrown themselves into the river to escape the animal's 
 attacks, and having to swim to the opposite bank, were thus 
 preserved from the effects of the poison ; the water of the river 
 had saved them, for in beating against their wounds it had 
 washed away the venom.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 903. In Ireland, ^ great mortality of cattle and birds, 
 so that the voice of thrush or blackbird was not heard this 
 
 year.' * 
 
 A.D. 908. In Ireland, "^ mortality of cattle.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 916. 'Great snow, cold, and unusual frost in this year, 
 so that the chief lakes and rivers of Ireland were passable; and 
 a destruction was brought upon cattle, birds, and salmon. Evil 
 signs, too ; the heavens seemed to glow with comets, a flame of 
 fire arose, and passed from beyond the west of Ireland imtil 
 it passed over the sea eastwards.' " 
 
 ' Chronicles of the Saxons. * Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ' Mcssager de Provence. * Annals of Innisfallen. 
 
 ^ Annals of Ulster. « Tl.i.l.
 
 5 2 History of A nimal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 918. In Ireland, ' great cold [coisne) and snow, which 
 brought on mortality of cattle.'^ 
 
 A.D. 929. A most severe winter, and the Thames frozen 
 over. 
 
 A.D. 939. ^ Kalend. Jun. die Sabbati hora nona flammaexivit 
 de mari et incendit phirimas villas et urbes et homines et bestias, 
 et in ipso mari pinnas incendit.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 940. An epizooty among the cattle in France, Italy, 
 and Germany.^ Probably the ' Rinderpest.' 
 
 A.D. 941. An epizooty of a deadly character in the north of 
 Europe. Thousands of cattle died. 'A comet was seen, and 
 an extensive mortality amongst the oxen followed its appear- 
 ance.' * After this animal plague, which may have been the 
 same as in the previous year, an epidemy broke out in man. 
 
 A.D. 942. Inundations, and subsequently a murrain among 
 cattle in Germany.^ 'A great famine throughout the whole of 
 France and Burgundy, and extensiv^e mortality among the oxen, 
 which increased to such a degree that few remained in these 
 countries.' ® Comets appeared in the month of October, which 
 lasted for twenty-one days, and after that time there happened 
 a disease among oxen.' '' ' In this year (941) a comet appeared 
 in the western heavens. The year following there was a severe 
 murrain among oxen throughout the whole of Germany, France, 
 Burgundy, Aquitaine, and Italy, but it did not last long in the 
 latter country.' * 
 
 In Ireland, a disease or ^ fiirht ' amone: birds. ^ There was 
 contention seen to be between the fowls of the sea and the fowls 
 of the land at Clonvicknose, where there was a great slaughter 
 of crows of one side.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 943. For this year we find the continental historians 
 
 ' Chronicon Scotorum. ^ Chronicon Burgens. Espana Sagrada. 
 
 ^ Herman. Chronicon. 
 I * Reginon. Chronic. Pistor. Scrip. Rerum German., i. \>. 104. 
 
 ^ Widukindi. Lib. ii. Pertz, M. v. p. 446. 
 
 ^ Chronicon Frodoardi. Bouquet. Vol. viii. p. 196. 
 
 '' Chronic. Monast. Florent. Bojiquet. Vol. i.x. p. 55. Lobineaii. Hist, de 
 Bretagne. 
 
 '^ Chronic. Andegav. Bouquet. Vol. viii. p. 252. 
 
 " Annals of Clonmacnoise.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. ^'y> 
 
 mention the same events as in the previous year, and as occur- 
 ring in the same countries.^ Wirth speaks of the epizooty in 
 Germanv as anthrax. 
 
 A.D. 945. ' There was in this year a furious mortality of 
 people throughout France, caused not only by the famine and 
 scarcitv of food, but by an epidemic malady known as the 
 ' faim canine/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 950. In Ireland, 'a mortality of bees. ^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 952. ' A destruction in Ireland through unknown 
 insects having two teeth. ^* Evidently locusts. 
 
 A.D. 953. 'A great destruction of cows throughout Ireland.^'' 
 
 A.D. 955. ' There was a great dearth of cattle this vear, and 
 many diseases generally reigned all over Ireland, by reason of 
 the great frost and snow, which procured the intemperature of 
 the air.'^ 
 
 A.D. 959. In Ireland, ''a bolt of fire passed southwards 
 through Leinster, and it killed a thousand persons and flocks, as 
 far as Athclaith.^ '' In 960, 'an arrow of fire came from the 
 south-west along Leinster, and killed hundred thousands of 
 men and cattle, with the houses of Dublin burned.' ^ To what 
 extent the lightning caused this mortality cannot be surmised, 
 but it is not improbable that the effects of epidemic and epi- 
 zootic disorders may be referred to, the lio'litnins: beino; used 
 figuratively. 
 
 A.D. 960. A widely-spread destructive malady amongst 
 cattle in the Roman territories. ' And in those days, even long 
 ago, there went on both invading the land of the Romans, and 
 ravaffino; and destroyinc; the horned cattle, the infectious and 
 pestilential affection which is called " crabra." And they say 
 that this affection or disease took its rise in the days of the old 
 Roman (Romanus I., Emperor of the East?); for when very 
 near to the cistern or reservoir (/cti'OTepi'rjs) of Bonus, the Roman 
 was erecting, as a resting-place for himself, a summer palace (or 
 
 ' Chronic. .St Maxent. Bouquet. Vol. ix. p. 8. 
 
 ^ iMczeray. Hist, de France, 1685. Vol. i. p. 677. 
 
 ^ Annals of Ulster. ^ Dowlutg. Annals of Ireland. ■'' Annals of Ulster. 
 
 •"' Annals of Clonmacnoise. 
 
 ' Annals of the Four Masters. " Annals of Ulster.
 
 54 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 palaces for the summer season), and they were laying the found- 
 ations, it was reported that there was found a marble ox's head, 
 which the finders having broken up, cast into the lime-kiln. 
 From that time, and up to the present, the breeds of cattle have 
 not ceased to be destroyed in all parts of the earth wheresoever 
 the Empire of the Romans extends.' ^ 
 
 In Ireland, '^ A great [plaigh) upon cattle, with snow and 
 diseases {galar).' ^ 
 
 A.D. 975. A severe winter and scarcity of food in London, 
 and also in Italy. A comet was seen. ' In the time of this 
 Edward (the martyr) appeared a blazing star, after which en- 
 sued many inconveniences, as well to man as to beasts, such as 
 hunger, sickness, murrain, and other like calamities, but none of 
 these things happened in the days of this Edward, but after his 
 death.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 981. A inoilgarh, or epizooty of a cutaneous character, 
 previously unknown in Ireland until 770, began, and preceded a 
 most severe form of colic, called ' pestilential.' ' This year began 
 the murrain of cows, called, in Ireland, the Moilgarbh.' * 
 
 A.D. 986. ' In this year first came the great murrain {yrf- 
 cvalm) among the cattle into England.'^ 'A great sudden de- 
 struction, which caused a loss of people and cattle among the 
 Saxons, Britons, and Gauls.' ^ ^ And the same year there was a 
 great murrain (morei/n) of cattle through all Wales.''' 
 
 ' Godfrey, son of Harold, with the black host, devastated the 
 isle of Mona, and two thousand men were blinded (captured ?), 
 and the remainder Maredudd, son of Owain, took with him to 
 Ceredigion and Dyved. And then a mortality [uara-olyaeth) 
 took place among all the cattle over the whole island of 
 Britain.' * 
 
 What the nature of this very prevalent and destructive epi- 
 zooty may have been it is difficult now to conjecture ; but from 
 
 1 G. Cedremis. Synop. Historiarum. Edit. Bonn, ii. p. 343. 
 
 - Chronicon Scotorum. The edition of 1867 gives 959 as the date. 
 
 3 Grafton. Chronicles of the History of England. London, 1569. 
 
 * Annals of Clonmacnoise. ^ Chronic. Saxon. ^ Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ' D. Powel. The History of Cambria, 1584. 
 
 8 Brut y Tywysogion, or Chronicles of the Prince of Wales. 
 
 II
 
 History of Animal Piagucs. '-^^ 
 
 what is narrated for the subsequent year, it would appear to 
 have been of a dysenteric character. What is worthy of note, 
 however, in reference to the condition of comparative pathology 
 and agriculture at this period, is, that though Wales often suf- 
 fered from the evil effects of general diseases among animals, 
 yet, from the earliest days of her written history, we find the 
 ancient Welsh far in advance of other western nations in agri- 
 culture and the rearing and preservation of the domesticated 
 animals. The state of their medical science is less known, and 
 regret must be expressed that the Red Book of Hergest {Aled- 
 dygoti JSlijddfat) has not yet found a translator;^ containing, 
 as it may do, very much that would be of value to the student 
 
 * -^ ^ 
 
 of medicine. 
 
 From her agrarian laws, which are greatly superior to those 
 of France or Germany at that somewhat remote epoch, we find 
 every provision made for equitable dealing in animals, and some- 
 times also a reference to important maladies of a sporadic or 
 general kind. The laws of warranty appear to have been very 
 wisely framed, and enumerate the chief animal disorders as fol- 
 lows : — ^ 
 
 'A horse is to be warranted ao;ainst three disorders : aoainst 
 the stairofers, for three dew-falls ; against the "black stran»"les'^ 
 (this has been literally translated, as the latter term is, at present, 
 the appellation for that distemper. With the prefix ''black," 
 it may mean the " glanders " ), for three moons ; and against the 
 farcy (the original " llynmeirich ^' appears to signify some disorder 
 accompanied with serious humours) for one year.' 'The worth 
 of a horse's foot is his full worth, and a third of his worth is an 
 eye, and the worth of the other eye is another third. For every 
 blemish in a horse, one third of his worth is to be returned, his 
 ears and tail included. 
 
 ' If a horse be sold in which there is a fault, but not visible 
 on the skin, it is not to be compensated, unless it be one of the 
 three natural disorders, but an oath is to be made of its not be- 
 ing shown. 
 
 ' Tlie MS. is now, I believe, at Oxford. 
 
 '■' These extracts are from tiie Laws of Ilowel the Good, wliich were revised 
 about A.u. 1026.
 
 ^6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ' Whosoever shall sell a steer to another, it is right for him to 
 be answerable for the three disorders incident to cattle; and, 
 further, for the mange {claiiery) until the feast of Saint Patrick. 
 The person who shall buy it is to keep it in pasture, and in a 
 healthy place, and in a building wherein no mange has previously 
 occurred for seven years; and for the staggers three dew-falls/ 
 
 The teithi of a sow are, that she be not always brimming, and 
 that she do not devour her pigs ; and to be warranted three 
 nights and three days against the quinsey (the original signifies 
 some disorder affecting the throat). ' If the boar be gelded and 
 die, his two testicles are worth two sows, and his carcase equal 
 to another.^ ^ 
 
 Sheep were to be warranted against the rot ' until the calends 
 of May, when she shall have satiated herself three times with the 
 new herbage.^ (B. iii. c. 8.) 
 
 ' Whoever shall sell a horse is to insure its dilysrwydd until 
 death ; and against the staggers, for three dew-falls; against the 
 strangles, for three moons; against the farcy, a year; and, in 
 addition, he is to insure it against any inward disorder.' (B. ii. 
 c. 28.) 2 
 
 ' Whoever shall sell sheep, let him be answerable for three 
 diseases : the rot '[y lledora), the red-water {ar daris or dauyr rud), 
 and the scab {ar clauri) ; until they obtain their fill three times 
 of the new grass in spring, if he sell them after the kalends of 
 winter.^ (B. ii. c. 12.) ^ 
 
 * The judges of Howel the Good were notable to fix a legal 
 worth on a brock : for, during the year that the swine were 
 affected with the quinsey, it obtained the privilege of a dog (with 
 regard to value), and during the year that there was a madness 
 among the dogs, it then obtained the privilege of a sow.^ (Gwen- 
 tian Code, B. ii. c. 23.) 
 
 In other codes of about the same period we find, for pigs, 
 the following : — 
 
 ' Siquis uendiderit sues, debet esse sub tribus : id est, dylys- 
 sruyt (evictione) ; et morbo menyclauch (strumarum) tribus die- 
 
 1 These are from the Venedolian Code. 
 ^ From the Dimetian Code. ^ From the Gwentian Code.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. ^ 57 
 
 bus et tribus noctibus, et ne comedant porcellos; et si comc- 
 derint, tercia pars precii reddatur emptori^ nee recambire debent 
 inditio/ 
 
 And for sheep : — 
 
 ' Signis oves vendiderit, debet esse sub dylyssruyt (evictione) ; 
 et sub dere (vertigine) tribus diebus et tribus noctibus ; et sub 
 llederu (morbo pulmonis) a festo Sancti Michaelis in autumno 
 usque ad medium Aprilis, donee ter comederunt usque ad 
 satietatem ac novis parellis in vere/ 
 
 'Agnorum venditor debet esse sub dilyssruyt (evictione); et 
 sub dere (vertigine) tribus diebus et noctibus ; et sub Scah'ie a 
 festo Omnium Sanctorum usque ad Kalendas Aprilis ; et sub 
 llederu (morbo pulmonis) a predicto festo usque Kalendas Maii; 
 emptor non debet ducere eos agnos Scalnosos septem annis 
 ante/ 
 
 A.D. 987. An excessive drought and a most scorching heat 
 during the summer. Bad weather brought a famine on many 
 countries/ A serious epizooty appeared among cattle in Eng- 
 land in the form of dysentery, which caused a great mortality. 
 Malignant fevers among the people, ' In this year two plagues 
 of an unknown character appeared in England, to wit : fever 
 among men, and pestilence among aniinals and men, which the 
 English term ' scitta/ but which in Latin is known as dysentery 
 [Jluxus). These ravaged the whole of England, and the destruc- 
 tion to men and animals was quite incredible/ - 
 
 These pestilences appear to have prevailed in Ireland at 
 the same time. ' Great and unusual wind. Preternatural [i.e. 
 magical) sickness {tregait Fithnaisi, demoniacal colic), by demons, 
 in the east of Ireland, which caused mortality (or-slaughtcr) of 
 men plainly before men's eyes.' ' The commencement of the 
 great murrain of cows [bo-ar mor) — the strange " maelgarbh," 
 which had never come before/ ^ ' A pestilence {treg/iail-coYn:) 
 ill the eastern parts of Ireland from demons, which caused a 
 
 ' Ftinctius. Chronicon. 
 
 ^ Simeon Diiuelnicn. De Gest. Reg. Angl. Scrip. Hist. Angl. (Twysdcn) 
 p. i6t. See also Joh. Brompton. Hist. Angl. p. 878. Henry dc Kuyghtoii. Do 
 EvL-iit. Angl., p. 2314. 
 
 ■* Annals of the Four Masters.
 
 58 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 slaughter (or) of people ; and they used to be before the eyes of the 
 people visibly (in daylight). The beginning of the great mor- 
 tality of oxen (bo-ar), that is, the unknown " maelgarbh/^ hav- 
 ing come for the first time/ ^ This expression Dr O'Connor 
 translates ' scabies valde insolita.' 
 
 A.D. 992. A long and severe winter, and an extremely dry 
 summer, followed by famine. The wheat crops were affected 
 with blight or ergot, and the forage was generally of a bad 
 quality. Soon after there was a widespread and deadly epidemy 
 of ergotism {fou sacrd) in France. In this year, in Germany, 
 there was an extensive epizooty of carbuncular fever in the lower 
 animals." 
 
 ' A great mortality upon men {duine-hadh), cattle, and bees 
 in Ireland this year.' ^ Bees were largely kept in Ireland at 
 this time, and were a great source of wealth to the people. 
 
 ^ After these great troubles, there followed within a year after 
 such famine and scarcitie in South Wales, that many perished 
 for want of food.' * 
 
 A.D. 994. 'A very rigorous winter, commencing on the nth 
 November, and lasting till the nth May. Pestilential and cold 
 winds blew, and heavy dews fell. Towards the middle of July 
 there was a great frost, and so severe was the drought, that the 
 fish died in many pools, and numbers of trees withered. The 
 flax and corn perished. A terrible plague broke out amongst 
 men, pigs, and sheep. In this year a grievous famine in many 
 parts of Saxony.' ^ In France ergotism {feu sacr4) was pre- 
 valent. 
 
 A.D. 995. A comet was seen this year in England. A deadly 
 form of dysentery attacked man and beast, and proved most 
 destructive.® It was 'a worse year in Saxony than the former, 
 for so great a pestilence, which was named Osterludi, raged 
 amongst them, that not only their houses, but many of their 
 towns, remained empty, their inhabitants being dead.' "^ ' A 
 
 1 Annals of Tighernach. 
 
 ' Spangenberg. Op. cit. Fabricius. Origines Saxon, p. 218. Wirth. Op. 
 cit. p. 85. 
 
 ^ Annals of Ulster. * D. Pcnvel. Hist, of Cambria. 
 
 * Annales Quedlinburgens. Pertz, M. v. p. 72. 
 
 ^ Short. Op. cit. p. 93. ' Annal. Quedlin.
 
 History of Animal P /agues. 59 
 
 notable year for its drought, many people and cattle dyino- of 
 thirst.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1014. ' Tn the previous year there had been many pre- 
 cursory celestial signs, omens of strange import, which were 
 verified this year in Bohemia, where there was a fearful heat and 
 drought. During the whole of the spring, and for nearly the 
 whole summer, the weather was hotter than molten lava; the 
 plains and the beautiful woods were scorched by the heat of the 
 sun. The rivers were dried up, the springs were exhausted, the 
 lakes and ponds were corrupted and putrescent, many people 
 perished, as well as the greatest part of all kinds of animals. 
 Especially did immense numbers of fish die.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1015. In Ireland, ' a disease of the legs [Cos ghalar, 
 probably scurvy) among the Danes, and a plague of rats (or mice, 
 LiLch) among the Danes and the Leinstermen.' ^ The term 
 Lnch is applied indiscriminately to rats or mice. The word 
 ' Narraway' is still used by the Irish-speaking people for the 
 modern brown rat, which, it is believed by naturalists, replaced 
 the old Irish black rat. They were probably introduced by the 
 Scandinavian vessels, then so numerous on the coasts of Ireland. 
 The Chronicon Scotorum gives the year 1013, as the date of 
 this occurrence. Mr Wenessev thinks that the irruption of rats 
 should be translated a plague of putrefaction among the foreign- 
 ers and Lagenenians. 
 
 A.D. 1016. In Ireland, 'great mortality of cattle on account 
 of the excessive rains/ * 
 
 A.D. 1022. A most unfortunate year, in which a great mor- 
 tality prevailed amongst animals, and pestilence in mankind. 
 Fruits and plants were destroyed,^ and in Spain there was an 
 invasion of locusts. 
 
 A.D. 1028. ' In the present year an invasion of cicadae and 
 caterpillars in Bohemia, following a very plentiful harvest. In- 
 numerable swarms of butterflies also appeared, so that every- 
 thing green in garden and field or in the woods was devoured. 
 Dense and foul-smelling vapours had preceded this visitation, 
 
 ' Annal. .Sangall. ^ //rt^t-/' and IJlwczan. Annal. Bolicnior., v. p. 74. 
 
 ^ Chronic. .Scotorum. * Annals of Innisfallcii. 
 
 * Mirac. Vcroli. Presbyt. Acta Sancta. iJolland., p. 385.
 
 6o ' History of Aiiimal Plagues. 
 
 rising as they did about Easter^ when the spring was coming in. 
 After these insects had eaten everything up, they themselves in- 
 creased the stench; the trees, also, stripped of their leaves, died 
 and rotted. As a consequence, there was great mortality 
 amongst men and animals, but especially in dogs, in the autumn.'^ 
 England and Gaul, and indeed the whole of Europe, suffered in 
 the same way, and from the same causes. 
 
 A.D. 1030. In the old translation of the Ulster Annals in 
 the British Museum it is recorded — ' Maelduin Mac Ciarmaic, 
 (who had profaned the effigy of) the Lady Mary, of Kindred 
 Binni of Glans, killed by the disease that killeth cattle, in Irish 
 called Conacli' If this be a correct translation, which is dis- 
 puted, it would be the earliest instance to be found in the Irish 
 annals of mankind being affected by the diseases of animals. It 
 is difficult to make out the disease, however, for the term Conach 
 has had its origin in the popular belief, not yet extinct, that 
 horned cattle, if they eat the grass over which the Conach or 
 Connough IVorm (the large fleshy caterpillar of the Sphinx 
 Elephas moth) has passed, become afflicted with a fatal distem- 
 per characterized by madness, a sort of hydrophobia.^ 
 
 A.D. 1035. A very severe winter, the summer extremely 
 dry. 'This year there was an unheard-of loss amongst animals, 
 and this, with the destruction of bees, afflicted the whole of Ba- 
 varia.' ^ The weather was so cold in England, in June, that all 
 the corn and fruit was destroyed. 
 
 A.D. 1040. In Ireland, 'abundance of produce (??7^i^^ 7nor.- 
 fructum ahundantia) this year, and mortality of cattle and 
 swine.^ * This is the first epizooty specially mentioned as affect- 
 ing swine in Ireland. 
 
 A.D. 1 041. Alost unpropitious weather, accompanied by 
 earthquakes, tempests, and inundations. It snowed heavily 
 
 ^ Hagek and Liboczaii. Op. cit., vol. v. p. 152. 
 
 ^ There is nothing at all astonishing in this relation of the Irish chief dying 
 from some cattle malady, probably anthrax. Such cases must have been extremely 
 frequent, if the ancient records are to be received as proof. Anthracoid erysipelas 
 (omait or homan) may have been one of those forms of anthrax which affected 
 men and animals in this country. 
 
 ^ y. Stainddii. Chronicle of Qifele. Scrip, rer. Boic, vol. i. p. 472. 
 
 * Annals of Innisfallen.
 
 History of Aniiiial Plagues. 6i 
 
 during harvest time; in many parts of Europe there were heaw 
 rains throughout the year. Flanders was inundated bv the sea, 
 and there were great storms. The consequences of these dis- 
 turbances were famine and disease in England, Germany, and 
 France. Cattle and men appear to have suffered equally. 'The 
 plague of Divine Fire {jgn'is divinn, ergotism or erysipelas) afflict- 
 ed many, who were only saved through the merits of the blessed 
 Virgin.^ ^ 'And in all that year it was very sad in many and 
 various things, both in tempests and in earth's fruits. And so 
 much cattle perished in this year as no man before remembered, 
 both through various diseases and through bad weather.' ^ (Refer 
 to 1044.) 
 
 A.D. 1044. An eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In Germany, 
 * Plague in cattle ; the winter very severe, and heavy snows 
 fcll.'^ 'There died at this time (1043), '^^ ^^'^ neighbourhood, 
 many people, and there also reigned a special epizooty amongst 
 cattle.'* 
 
 For Ireland we read, ' Clonmacnoise was plundered by the 
 people Conmhaicne (County Longford), whereupon God and 
 Ciaran sent upon them the unknown distemper {Tamil anaithi- 
 nldh), which killed almost all their people and cattle.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1046. ' And this same year after Candlemas (Feb. 2nd) 
 came the severe winter with frost and snow, and with all kinds 
 of heavy weather, so that there was no man alive who could 
 remember so severe a winter as that was, both through mortali- 
 ty of men and murrain of cattle; both birds and fishes perished 
 through the great cold and hunger.'" 
 
 A.D. 1047. O" January 1st there fell in the West of Eng- 
 land a very great and deep snow, which broke down most woods. 
 It lay till March ist. The ensuing summer had such tempests 
 of thunder and lightning that the growing corn was burnt and 
 blasted, and several towns the lightning reduced to ashes. There 
 
 ' Chronic. St Bavonis. Corp. Chronic. Flandr., i. p. 385. 
 "^ The Anglo-.Saxon Chronicle. ' Chronic. Ursperg. 
 
 * Spangcnberg. Op. cit. 
 
 ' Chronic. .Scotorum. .See also, Annals of the Four Masters. Annals of 
 Clonmacnoise. 
 
 " The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
 
 62 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 followed a great dearth, and death of people and cattle.^ On 
 March ist there was an earthquake. The great mortality fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 In Ireland it is mentioned : ' Great snow this year from the 
 festival of Mary in winter (8th Dec.) to the festival of Patrick 
 (7th March), the like of which had not been known ; with a 
 destruction of men, cattle, and of the wild animals of the sea, 
 and birds.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1048. An eruption of Vesuvius, In Germany swarms 
 of mice appeared. Earthquakes occurred in many parts of Eng- 
 land and Scotland. ' And in this year was also an earthquake, 
 on the Kal. of May (May ist) in many places, at Worcester, 
 at Wick, and at Derby, and elsewhere ; there was also a great 
 mortality among men, and a murrain among cattle, and the 
 wildfire {ignis aerius vulgo dictus sylvaticus) also did much evil 
 in Derbyshire and elsewhere.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1054. Famine in Germany. Cedrenus* writes : ' A 
 pestilential disease smote the country, so that the living had 
 not strength to bear away the dead, and this great affliction was 
 endured throughout the whole summer. Not only were many 
 men destroyed by it, but also animals.' 
 
 England appears also to have suffered. * And in this year 
 was so great a murrain among the cattle as no man remembered 
 for many winters [vlntrimi) before.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1059. For Bavaria it is recorded : ' In this year there 
 was an abundant harvest of corn and grapes, but a direful 
 plague smote man and beast throughout the whole province.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1060. In Ireland ' a great storm in the autunni of 
 this year, and very great destruction of crops. In this year 
 foxes were taken among the herds, and in such numbers as the 
 people chose, on account of the great number of dead car- 
 cases.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1078. ^ Snow and great frost, so that the principal 
 rivers and lakes in Ireland were passable dry-shod. Great mor- 
 
 1 Ranulf. Hilgd. ^ Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ^ Simeon Dunelmen. Op. cit , p. 183. ^ Cedrenus. Hist. Comp., ii. p. 609. 
 ^ Saxon Chronic. " Staindelii. Chronic. QEfele .Scrip. Boic, i. p. 477. 
 
 ' Annals of Innisfallen.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 63 
 
 tality of cattle in this year [ar mor Jors na-cearthra). Great 
 mortality among the people {mortlaid mor) of Ireland, and the 
 cattle, which carried off a great number of men. Great store 
 of the fruits of the earth this year.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1084. In Ireland pestilence in mankind, possibly 
 tvphus fever, began, and continued for thirteen years. It was 
 believed to be caused by demons (the demons of pestilence). 
 ' This is the best year that came for its fertility in fruits and 
 crops. Great mortality amongst cattle in this year, in the 
 southern half of Ireland, called the half of Mogha (Munster).'^ 
 
 A.D. 1085. Epidemic erysipelas (ergotism ?) in France, with 
 inundations and famine. ' In the year 1085 there was disease in 
 plants and also in animals throughout the world. ^^ 
 
 In England, intemperate weather and a great death of 
 cattle.* 
 
 In Ireland, ''there was destruction of men and cattle in this 
 year to such an extent that rich men were made husbandmen in 
 
 it.^^ 
 
 A.D. 1086. ' There was a very sev^ere season, and a swinkful 
 and sorrowful year in England, in murrain of cattle, and corn 
 and fruits were at a standstill, and so much untowardness in the 
 weather, as a man may not easily think. So tremendous was 
 the thunder and lightning, that it killed many men." 
 
 Hemingsford says that sheep as w-ell as cattle suffered from 
 the great intemperature of the air." Several other old chroni- 
 clers speak of this unfortunate season.* 
 
 A.D. 1087. The misfortunes of Ensiland were continued in 
 the form of famine and disease." Rain fell incessantly, the crops 
 were destroyed, and great multitudes of people and animals 
 perished. ' About this season, the people in all places were 
 
 ' Annals of Innisfallen. -Ibid. 
 
 •■ A'dnigsho/oi. Elsassiche und .Strasburgisclie Chronic. 
 
 * Chronic. Saxon. Stoiu. Annals. 
 
 * Annals of the Four Masters. * Chronic. Saxon. 
 '' IValt. Hemingsford. Chronic. Gale, ii. p. 461. 
 
 ^ If. de Kiiyi^hton. De Event. Angl. Trf^jf/iV/, p. 2353. Anii.TJ. Waverleicns. 
 Gale, ii. p. 133. Will. Malmesbury. De Gest. Reg. Angl. p. 62. Grafton. 
 Chronic, p. 16. 
 
 '•" Annal. Waverlcicns.
 
 64 History of A nimal Plagues. 
 
 pitif'ullv plagued with burning fevers, which brought many 
 to their end; a murrain also came to their cattle, whereof a won- 
 derful number died. At the same time (which is more marvel- 
 lous) tame fowls, such as hens, geese, and peacocks, forsaking 
 their owners' houses, fled to the woods, and became wild. Great 
 hurt was done in many places of the realm by fire.'^ In Ireland, 
 'areat abundance of nuts and fruit. Murrain of cows and 
 dearth in this year, and a great wind which destroyed houses 
 and churches.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1088. In Ireland, ^ great snow in this year, and great 
 mortality of oxen, and sheep, and pigs in the same year.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1089-9T. On the Continent, 'in these years many men 
 were killed by the ignis sacer (ergotism or gangrenous erysipelas), 
 which destroyed their vitals, putrefied their flesh, and blackened 
 their limbs like to charcoal. Even if their lives were preserved, 
 their extremities were so affected, that they were only reserved 
 for a most pitiable existence.' * This epidemy is mentioned by 
 several ancient chroniclers. Animals suflfered as well as the 
 human species. 
 
 A.D. 1091. Great floods at Constantinople which drowned 
 thousands of people and cattle. Immense swarms of locusts ar- 
 rived, whose masses, when in flight, darkened the sun. From 
 their putrefaction next year arose a most desolating plague in 
 man and beast.^ 
 
 A.D. 1092-4. ^ In 1093 there was a great mortality in men 
 and cattle in all countries, which lasted for three, and in some 
 places for four, years.' " This disease in men and animals pre- 
 vailed in Germany, France, Italy, and England, and lasted until 
 1094 ; ^ indeed, calamities of this description appear to have pre- 
 vailed almost incessantly since 1087. 'Ex quo namque furoris 
 sui rabiem vesana multitudo in principem religiosum evomuit, 
 agri fructibus steriles, prata herbis attenuantur, silva glandibus 
 
 1 Holmshed. Chronicles of England. 
 
 2 Annals of the Four Masters. 3 Annals of Innisfallen. 
 * Chronic. St Bavon. Corp. Chronic. Flandriae. 
 
 •' Polydorus, Zonarius, and Crantzius. 
 ^ Spa ngeu berg. Op. cit., 228. 
 
 ' Hofmanni. Annal. Bamberg. Ludivig. Scrip, rer. Bamberg, p. 90. 
 Agrkola. De Peste. Briet. Annal. Mund. Fabricius. Origin. Saxon., p. 218.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 65 
 
 rara, unda plscibus infoecunda permansit, pest'is armenta consu- 
 mit, homines morbus debilitat, fames aggravat/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1098. ' On the fifth day before the calends of October, 
 in many parts of France, the heavens seemed on fire by night, 
 and this appearance was followed by a dreadful pestilence to 
 cattle, and destruction to crops through the heavy rains which 
 followed.' - In Syria, during the siege of Antioch, ' there was 
 great destruction to cattle from drought/ ^ ' Horses, asses, 
 camels, oxen, and many other animals died.' * In Saxony, ' the 
 heavens appeared on fire, then followed a great death of 
 cattle {viehsterhen), and the fruits of the fields were nearly all de- 
 stroyed.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1099. Gangrenous erysipelas (ergotism ?) in France in 
 the human species.^ From the severity of the epidemv, we may 
 infer that animals also suffered. There were great inundations 
 in England by the sea and the rivers, whereby people, cattle, 
 and whole towns were drowned.' 
 
 A.D. 1103. Very unhealthy seasons. ^This was a very de- 
 structive year in this land (England), through manifold taxes, 
 and through cattle disease {cvealm),^ and scant produce both of 
 corn and of fruit of all kinds.' ^ An epidemy in the human 
 species followed.^" 
 
 A.D. 11C9. 'Mice eat up all the corn-fields in certain terri- 
 tories in Ireland.' " ' A great cow-mortality.' ^' 
 
 A.D. mo. 'A very great mortality amongst cattle in Eng- 
 land.' ^^ 
 
 1 Ailitothi. Hist. S. Canuti Reg. Langabek. Scrip, rer. Dan., iii. p. 375- 
 See also Saxo Gravimatiais, p. 222. 
 
 - Siegebcrt Gemblac. Chronog. Pistor. Scrip, rer. Germ., i. p. S52. 
 
 ■^ VVil. Tyrcns. Lib. iv. cap. 17. Lib. viii. cap. 17. 
 
 * Alb. Aquois. Hist. Hieros., Lib. iii. cap. i, 2. 
 
 * Dresserus. Sachs. Chronic, p. 192. 
 
 * Chronic. Ursperg. Edit. Mylius, pp. 177, 180. 
 " Short. Op. cit., p. 105. 
 
 * The Saxon word cvealm, or ' quahn,' is that used in these Chronicles to sig- 
 nify plague or pest. The Saxon inicel cvealm has its analogue in the Scotch 'sair 
 trouble,' severe illness or misfortune. 
 
 ' Gibson. Saxon Chronicles, p. 21 1. 
 
 '" Papott. Chronol. de la Peste, vol. ii. p. 270. 
 
 »' The Annals of the Four Masters. '- Chronicon Scolorum. 
 
 '■' Matt /lew 0/ Paris, p. 62. 
 
 5
 
 66 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. mi. According to Holinshed, a dreadful plague visited 
 London, which not only caused a terrible mortality amongst its 
 citizens, but extended itself to cattle, fowls, and other domestic- 
 ated animals. ' About the same time many wonders were seen 
 and heard of. The river of Trent, near to Nottingham, for the 
 space of a mile, ceased to run the wonted course during the time 
 of four-and-twenty hours, so that, the channel being dried up, 
 men might pass to and fro dry-shod. Also a sow brought forth 
 a pig with a face like a man, and a chicken was hatched with 
 four feet. Moreover, a comet or blazing star appeared in a 
 strange sort, for rising in the east, when it once came aloft in 
 the firmament, it kept not the course forward, but seemed to go 
 backward, as if it had been retrograde.^ ^ Mn this year there was 
 a very severe winter; the people died in great numbers ; the loss 
 of cattle was great ; all domestic animals suffered. Birds were 
 destroyed in great numbers/ ^ In Ireland, ' extreme ill weather 
 of frost and snow, which made slaughter of tame and wild 
 beasts.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 1 12. In England, 'this yeare was a great mortalitie of 
 men, and morcin (murrain) of beasts ^ * 
 
 A.D. 1 1 13. In Ireland, '^ a great mortality of cows. O^Lon- 
 gan, Erenach of Ardpatrick, was killed by lightning on 
 Cruao;h Patrick,^ ^ 
 
 A.D. II 15. ' In this year (in England) there was so hard a 
 winter, with snow and with frost, that no man living ever 
 remembers a harder, and throup-h it there was a great cattle 
 plague.'" Cattle, birds, and people also perished in Ireland.'' 
 
 A.D. 1 1 24. 'There was on the third of August an eclipse 
 of the sun, which was followed by a great pestilence amongst 
 oxen, sheep, pigs, and bees. Even the crops failed.'* The 
 winter was so severe that fishes in ponds, and even eels, were 
 killed. After this there was a severe famine in England, and 
 destruction of men and cattle. 
 
 ' Holiiished. Chronicles. Saxon. Chronic, p. 217. 
 
 - Simeon Diinelm. De Gest. Reg. Angl. Twysden. Scrip, p. 234. 
 
 3 Annals of Ulster. * Stow. Chronicles of England. 
 
 * Chronic. Scotorum. 6 Chronic. Saxon., p. 219. 
 ' Annals of the Four Masters. Chronic. Scot. Annals of Boyle, &c. 
 
 * Cosmae. Prag. Chronic, book ill.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 67 
 
 A.D. 1125. Severe weather. Pestilence in men and cattle 
 throughout nearly the whole of Europe, with famine. In Eng- 
 land_, ' in this same year were such great floods on St Law- 
 rence's mass dav, that many towns and men were drowned, and 
 bridges broken down, and corn and meadows spoilt withal, 
 so that there was famine and plague amongst men and on 
 beasts, and in all fruits so ori'eat untimeliness as had not been for 
 many years before.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 1 27. The 'divine plague '(ergotism ?) appeared in man- 
 kind in France. Prayers to the Virgin Mary healed the afflicted, 
 it is recorded. Great pestilence amongst animals.^ 
 
 A.D, 1 1 29. Heavy snow and rain in January. Great inun- 
 dations. Plague in oxen, cows, pigs, bears, stags, and goats. 
 The ignh divin'is in man over a large portion of Europe.^ For 
 Ireland it is recorded: 'A "maelgarbh" (murrain) in this year 
 which killed the cows of Erinn, and its pigs, except a very few.' 
 And for 1130: 'The same destruction (distemper) as in the 
 previous year, on the cattle of Lethchuinn.'* 
 
 A.D. 1 131. Mortality amongst the domestic animals over 
 the whole of England, which continued for some years, so that 
 there was scarcely a farm which was free from the plague. The 
 pigsties were emptied, and the stalls of oxen were deserted.^ 
 William of Malmesburv says: ' In the 3Tst year of King Henry 
 a dreadful murrain among domestic animals extended over the 
 whole of England. Entire herds of swine suddenly perished ; 
 whole stalls of oxen were swept away in a moment ; the same 
 contagion continued in the following years, so that no village 
 throughout the kingdom was free from this calamity, or able to 
 exult at the loss of its neighbours.' Another historian says: 
 ' This year there was so great a cattle plague as never before 
 was in man's memory, over all England. It affected oxen and 
 swine as well, so that in a town where there were usually ten or 
 twelve ploughs at work, there was now not one left, and the 
 man who owned two or three hundred swine, often lost them all. 
 
 ' Saxon Chronicle, p. 229. 
 
 2 St Bavonis. Chronicle. ' Anselm Gemblac. Chronic. Pistor. 
 
 * Chronicon Scotorum. Edit. 1867. 
 
 ' Annals de Margan. Gate. Scrip., ii. p. 6.
 
 68 History of Animal Plagtces. 
 
 At this time also died the hen fowls {henne fugeles), and now 
 o-rew scant the flesh meat, the cheese, and the butter.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 133. *^A destruction of cows {hodhiohhadh) came into 
 all Ireland, the like of which was not known since the former 
 destruction of cows in the time of Flaithbheartach, son of 
 Loingsech, and there were 432 years between them.' ^ 
 
 'A maelgarhh this year, which killed the cows and swine 
 of Erinn, excepting a trifle.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 134. ' The same cow-mortality still devastates Ireland.' * 
 In France, the air was so intemperate that birds fell dead. Flan- 
 ders and the neighbouring countries were inundated by the sea 
 during this and the next year, so that great loss in human life 
 and in cattle was sustained.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 142-3. Tempestuous weather in England, which in- 
 duced a desolating famine that lasted for twelve years. At this 
 time immense swarms of what were called small flying worms, 
 which darkened the sun, appeared. These ate everything up. 
 From a had air a sore plague arose on man and beast.'' 
 
 A.D. 1 149. A snowy and severe winter, on which account 
 the grain was destroyed in the fields by snow. An epizooty in 
 Belgium. ' In our land, by some death-bringing contagion or 
 pestilence, sheep, oxen, and all kinds of cattle were hurried away 
 b\' death. Wherefore I have devoted one-fourth of my herd of 
 cattle to the blessed Gerlacus.' " In Germany, a great mortality 
 among cattle, which in the pastures and sheds suddenly fell and 
 died.^ 
 
 A.D. 1151. 'Inundations and heavy rains, followed by a 
 most grievous pestilence among men and cattle. Failure of the 
 crops, and consequent famine of a dreadful kind.' ^ From this 
 time till 1169, there were severe winters and dry summers, and 
 famine and pestilence swept the world, but especially did Scot- 
 
 1 Chronic. Saxon. Barnes. Hist. Edward III. Eulogium Historiarum. 
 
 - Annals of Kilroonan. 
 
 ^ Chronic. Scotorum. Sec also the Annals of the Four Masters. 
 
 * Annals of Kilroonan. '•> T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 117. 
 
 * T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 119. 
 
 ' Acta Sanctor. Bolland, Jan. 2, p. 318. 
 
 * Spangenberff. Op. cit., 258. 
 
 ^ Chronogr. Saxo. Leibnitz. Access. Hist., vol. i. p. 304.
 
 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 69 
 
 land, Ireland, Italy, Gaul, Sicily, Judea, Asia, and Africa 
 suffer. 
 
 A.D. 1 154. 'There was a great destruction of the cattle 
 {indilibh — cattle in general) of Ireland this year. The second 
 Henry was made king over the Saxons on the 27th of October.' ^ 
 A.D. 1 162. Great tempests. The sea inundated Friesland to 
 an extent never before known, drowning thousands of people 
 and cattle. At the same time hail made fearful havoc amono- 
 men, beasts, trees, and horses. There was a famine in Poland. 
 In Mediolana fell twelve great snows, which greatly afflicted both 
 animals and ve2;etables. In June it rained blood. Famine and 
 plague in Aquitania." 
 
 A.D. 1 166. In Saxony, Mieavy storms of thunder and light- 
 nins;, and inundations about harvest time. PIag;ue and mortality 
 in children and beasts of burthen.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1171. Inundations destroyed the crops in many places, 
 Quadragesima suffered most severely. Disease in cattle, sheep, 
 and men throughout Germany. Every place was filled with the 
 dead bodies of men and cattle.* On December 25th, terrible 
 thunder and hail in England, which killed birds, beasts, and 
 people, in England, Scotland, Ireland, and France.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 1 72. The English king, with his arniy, returning to 
 England, brought with them dysentery, caused, it was said, by 
 eating too much fresh fish and flesh. This disease spread over 
 the whole of England. It was, however, prevalent in other 
 parts of the world." The Spanish chronicles say : ' There was 
 a sreat famine over the whole earth, such as had never been 
 seen since the creation. It was greatly deplored by all men, 
 for there was constant death throughout the world both in man 
 and beast.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1173-4. To veterinary surgeons it may be interesting 
 to know that at this period history affords us the first intimation 
 of 'influenza' in the human species. 'This year the whole 
 
 1 Annals of the Four Masters. - Chronic. Magdeburg. 
 
 3 Chronogr. Saxo. Leibnitz. Access. Hist., vol. i. p. 308. 
 
 * Chronic. Magdeburg. Hoffman. Annal. Bamberg. 
 
 * T. Short. Op. cit., p. 124. " Ibid. 
 '' Chronic. Conimbric. EspaJia Sagrada, vol. xxiii. p. 334.
 
 'JO History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 world was afflicted with a cloudy corrupt air^ which occasioned 
 a most universal cough and catarrh fatal to many/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1176. There was a great inundation of the sea in Hol- 
 land, and in Lincolnshire, which drowned much cattle and 
 many people. A storm of blood-rain fell over the Isle of Wight 
 for two hours.- 
 
 A.D. 1 1 78. A blood shower in England. A comet was 
 seen ; and the next day, on the west, a few hours after, a shower 
 of great hail killed men, sheep, and goats.^ ^ To the 5th July, 
 ^78, the weather was moderate. Rains then came on until 
 January, which prevented agricultural operations. In September 
 there was an eclipse. In the following spring very hard weather. 
 Forage was excessively dear, and, as a consequence, there was 
 very great loss among sheep and cattle.'* 
 
 A.D. 1 187. Great floods and inundations in Britain.'^ There 
 was a grievous and pestilent mortality of men and cattle in 
 England.*^ An unusual conjunction of planets in Libra, and the 
 people being then addicted to astrology, got frightened, and a 
 fast was ordered by the Archbishop of Canterburv.'' 
 
 A.D. 1188. In England, 'there was a dreadful tempest of 
 wind, rain, thunder and lightning, and hail fell in masses as 
 large as pigeons' eggs. The sea overflowed its banks to a great 
 height, and killed much people and cattle.-' * 
 
 A.D. 1200. 'About this time (in Portugal, from 1185 to 
 121 1) a disease never before seen sprang up. The viscera of 
 mankind were disturbed as if by some raging heat, which caused 
 raving as if of madness. A famine arose from the destruction of 
 corn by tempests and vermin, and a plague not less destructive 
 to cattle than to man appeared, so that the stables of many were 
 left empty.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1201. In England 'the spring had glutting and con- 
 
 1 T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 125. Chronogr. Saxo. p. 310. Ymagines. Hist. 
 Twysden. P. 579. 
 
 -Speed. History of the Isle of Wight. ^ T. Short. Op. cit., p. 126. 
 
 * Ansclm. Gemblac. Chronic. Pistor. Scrip., vol. i, p. 9S6. 
 
 * Chronic. SaXon. 6 Benedict Abbas. 
 '' Forster. Atmospherical Origin of Disease, p. 147. 
 
 * T. Short. Op. cit , p. 129. 
 
 '■• De Vera Reg. Portugal. Hispania Illustrata, vol. ii. p. 1257.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 71 
 
 tinual rains and very great floods. On June the 25th and Julv 
 the loth were great tempests of thunder, lightnhig, hail as bio- 
 as eggs, and prodigious rains, destroying corn, cattle, people, 
 meadows, &c. The rains continued from Pentecost to Nativity 
 of the blessed Virgin, which not only hindered corn and fruits 
 from ripening, but rendered them mostly useless and unprofit- 
 able. A great dearth of animals followed, but chiefly of sheep. ^ ^ 
 Possibly from dropsy or ' rot.' For the previous five years, the 
 ignis sacer had been widely prevalent on the continent and in 
 England, in mankind, coincidently with rust of plants and 
 famine. 
 
 A.D. 1202. 'This winter (after the great summer rains of 
 1201) was severe beyond any in the memory of man for extreme 
 cold and long continuance. After the frosts followed the like 
 tempests of thunder, lightning, rain, and hail as big as hens' 
 eggs, destroying corn, fruit, young cattle and horses, &e.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1207. In Ireland 'a great destruction (d'tt/i) of men 
 and cattle this year.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 2 13. Gangrenous erysipelas {J'e/i sacr^) in mankind in 
 France and Spain. 'Neither was the scarcity limited to the fruits 
 of the earth, nor disease to the human species; for birds, cattle, 
 and sheep became sterile and brought forth no young, and 
 many riding and other horses perished for lack of straw and 
 barley.' * 
 
 A.D. 121 7. The drought was so great as to ruin the harvests 
 in Spain, and to burn up all the pasture. There was conse- 
 quently a famine, with pestilential disease in men and cattle.^ 
 In Italy there raged a fearful plague in the human species, which 
 left scarcely a tenth part of the inhabitants alive. 
 
 A.D. 1221. This year were continual great rains all the sum- 
 mer in Poland ; hence such great floods, that many villages were 
 swept down, the winter corn was lost, and there was no sowing 
 in the spring; a sharp horrid cold winter followed, then came 
 three years' famijie and plague, whereof died myriads of people 
 and cattle.'^ 
 
 ' T. Short. Op. cit., p. 133. '^ WnA. ' Annals of Ulster. 
 
 * VUlalba. Epidemiologia Espaiiola, vol. i. p. 54- 
 
 * Zurila. Vol. i. p. lo8. Villalba. Vol. i. ]). 57. 
 " Chronic. Magdeburg.
 
 72 Histo7'y of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1 223-2 "5. From the beginning of this century till 1241, 
 the Mongol invasions from Asia, through Russia, to Silesia, 
 took place, and it has been correctly conjectured, I think, that 
 these irruptions were the cause of many epizootics being intro- 
 duced into the western hemisphere. These maladies, especially 
 those occurring in 1222, 1233, and 1238, are supposed to have 
 been the Cattle Plague, or ' Rinderpest/ 1223. In this year there 
 was a very great epizooty of cattle, which seems to have begun 
 in the east, and to have spread, by way of Hungary and Austria, 
 into Italy, Germany, France, and England.^ 'In the year 1223, 
 there was a great mortality among cattle, but grain crops were 
 not affected. It lasted three whole years, and the greater portion 
 of the cattle died/ ^ ' A great death of sheep in England.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1224. In Ireland, anthrax appears to have been very 
 fatal. ' An awfully great and frightful shower fell in parts of 
 Connaught this year, ?'. e. the Hy-Maney, and in Sodan, and 
 in Hy-Diarmada^ and in Clannteige, from which grew a very 
 great mortal distemper [Teidhni galair) to the cows and cattle 
 of the aforesaid territories, after eating of the grass and herbage, 
 and in the people who partook of their milk or flesh it produced 
 various belly (or middle) sicknesses.' * ' Their milk and flesh 
 produced various distempers in the people that partook of them. 
 A great mortality of people in this year.' ^ A great war raged 
 in Connaught this year, 'and after the slaughter and destruction 
 of the cattle, and the people of the country, and after driving 
 them out to cold and hunger, a severe and mortal disease grew 
 up in the whole country, namely, a species of Teasca (pro- 
 bably typhus), through which towns were emptied without 
 leaving a single person in them ; some recovered, but they were 
 few.' «' 
 
 A.D. 1233. Thunder and lightning for thirteen days in Eng- 
 land, with heavy rains. All the vegetation was destroyed, and 
 as a consequence famine and disease prevailed. 
 
 ' In this year so terrible a cattle plague broke out, commenc- 
 ing in Hungary, and spreading into this and more distant lands, 
 
 1 Conrad. Ccenobit. Schyreus. Trithem. 
 
 - Kbnigshofen. Els. Chron. p. 302. ^ 7; Short. Op. cit., vol. i.- p. 139. 
 
 * Annals of Connaught. ^ Annals of Kilroonan. ^ Ibid.
 
 HistoTy of Animal Plagues. ^3 
 
 that nearly all the cattle dietl^ and one scarcely knew where to 
 obtain more.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1234. Aventinus speaks of a great epizooty [magna pes- 
 tis pecudum) among cattle in this year.^ Probably it was a con- 
 tinuation of that mentioned for last year. 
 
 A.D. 1235. 'Tristan Calcho, the historian, informs us that 
 a pest broke out among quadrupeds, and was destructive to 
 nearly every beast of burden. Amongst birds it was particularly 
 destructive to domestic fowls.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1238. ' A severe and dreadful winter. . . . Afterwards 
 a plague broke out among birds, and chiefly amongst fowls. 
 Oxen and many other useful beasts suffered greatly.' * 
 
 A.D. 1240. Disease (?) attacked the fish on the coast of Eng- 
 land, and pestilence raged in various parts of the country. Short 
 writes : — ' For about four months together, it scarcely ever 
 ceased raining, but about Easter it began to take up, turn clear 
 and fair. Then three months' drought caused great famine to 
 follow. In February appeared a comet which continued for 
 thirty days. Sore and heavy diseases on man and beast. There 
 was also a screat battle among; the fishes on the English coast, 
 by which eleven whales and multitudes of other large mon- 
 strous fishes were cast on the shore dead.'^ The battle 
 amongst the fishes was an ignorant way, no doubt, of account- 
 ing for the mortality amongst these denizens of the deep. 
 
 In this year, accordina; to the Archives of the Aoricultural 
 Society of Southern Russia, the Cattle Plague appeared in Hun- 
 gary, and spread throughout nearly the whole of Europe. 
 
 A.D. 1248. 'A plague and great famine in Britain and Ire- 
 land.'" 
 
 A.D. 1249. Inundations were so frequent in Friesland that 
 agricultural operations were greatly retarded. Famine ensued, 
 and a disease broke out amonc^st cattle which nearly destroyed 
 them all. Mankind afterwards suffered from pestilence. This 
 state of affairs continued throughout the next year, and it was 
 
 ' IValset. Appenzeller Chronik. p. 154. ^ Annal. Boj., p. 637. 
 
 ^ Misccllan. Medic. Curios. Col. Agripp. 1677, p. 41. 
 
 ^ Roland. Hist. Muratori. Govern, delle Pesle, p. 6. 
 
 5 T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 143. " Annales Camb-icc.
 
 74 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 so acrcrravated bv the excessive heat of the summer that fears were 
 entertained it would rival the Athenian plague itself.^ 
 
 In Frissino-en there was such a plague of mice, that corn, 
 hay, and all vegetation was eaten up.^ 
 
 A.D. 1 251. A most intolerably hot summer. Famine in 
 Italy and epidemic disease in England. 
 
 'Thunder and lightning came in the summer of this year, 
 which killed many men and cattle in Ireland.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1352. Great epizooty of anthrax fever in England. 
 'The summer was very hot and dry throughout England, and 
 from Easter to autumn no rain fell, neither did dew in any way 
 supply the deficiencv, so that the surface of the ground was 
 never even moist, whence it happened that grass scarcely grew 
 at all, and by reason of this a severe famine ensued, and a great 
 mortality among men and cattle.' * ' In the same year, for the 
 greatest part of March, and the whole of the months of April 
 and May, a burning sun prevailed, and northerly winds continued. 
 The dryness of the weather continued and the dews ceased, 
 so that apples and other fruits, which were now beginning to 
 ripen, withered and fell from the trees, and there was scarcely 
 any fruit, although the spring blossoms gave great promise. Of 
 what remained an unseasonable morning hoar frost, which philo- 
 sophers call uredo, blighted the young apples, and all kinds of 
 fruit and herbs, so that scarcely a tenth part remained. Never- 
 theless, through the original abundance, had all the apples ar- 
 rived at maturity, the trees could not have supported them. 
 When the sun had attained its meridian, it was so intensely hot 
 and intolerable, that the surface of the ground was thoroughly 
 parched, so that all the grass being burnt up, food was denied 
 to cattle and sheep. At night the excessive heat produced flies 
 and other hurtful parasites, by which the life of all animals was 
 rendered wearisome. This is from ocular testimony 
 
 ' In the course of the same year, after the excessive heat of 
 the summer, and at the approach of autumn, a plague-like mor- 
 tality broke out amongst the cattle in many places in England, 
 
 ' Ubbon. Emmii Rer. Fries. Hist. 15 16. 
 
 - Chronic. Magdeburg. 3 Annals of Connaught. 
 
 * Thomas Wilkes. A Chronicle of English Affairs.
 
 Hi story of Animal Plagues. 75 
 
 but especially in Norfolk, the marshes, and in the southern dis- 
 tricts, than could ever be remembered, in which pestilence this 
 remarkable fact was observed : all the dogs and crows which fed 
 on the bodies of the dead cattle immediately became infected, 
 grew intensely swollen, and died on the spot. On this account, 
 nobody dared to eat beef of any kind, for fear of being poisoned 
 by this disease. Another remarkable circumstance noticed 
 amongst the cattle : the cows and full-grown bullocks sucked 
 the teats of the milch cows like calves. There is another fact 
 worthy of mention at this time, namely, that at the period when 
 the pears and apples would be fully ripe, the trees were observed 
 to blossom, as if in the month of April. The excessive mortality 
 amongst the cattle and the unseasonable blossoming, together 
 with the unnatural desire of the young cattle, were evidently 
 caused by the heat and dryness of the weather. And this is 
 also to be wondered at, the grass in the meadows was so rotten, 
 hard and dry, during the months of May, June, and July, that 
 if it were rubbed in one's hands it immediately crumbled into 
 dust. When, therefore, the equinoctial season brought rain in 
 abundance to the dried ground, the earth, on account of the 
 sudden opening of its pores, was prodigal of its richness, where- 
 fore it produced grass in large quantity, but of an inferior and un- 
 natural quality. The famished and hungry cattle seized upon this 
 with such avidity, and became so distended with sudden fatness, 
 that they made useless flesh (or flesh useless as food), and this 
 gave rise to inordinate humours. Finally they went mad, and 
 frisked about in an unusual manner, until, becoming suddenly 
 infected with the disease, they fell dead ; and the contagion 
 from them, owing to the virulence of the disease, infected 
 others as well. A similar cause can also be assio-ned for the 
 trees blossoming out of season.' ^ At the same time a disease 
 
 ' Matthew of Paris. Op. cit., ])p. 806 — 820, This year affords us some well- 
 marked examples of that particular disease termed anthrax, anthrax fever, car- 
 buncular erysipelas, or splenic apoplexy, and which in its more malignant forms 
 is now somewhat rare in England, though on the continent and in many jiarts 
 of the world it prevails very extensively and severely, especially during the sum- 
 mer season. In this country it is commonly known as 'black (piarter,' 'quarter 
 ill,' the ' blain' (glossanthrax), &c. It is perhaps the most general disease of ani- 
 mals — attacking quadrupeds, bipeds, fowls, and fishes. It especially attacks all
 
 7 6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 appeared in horses, in England and France, of a most fatal cba- 
 racter, called the ' evil of the tongue/ or tongue ill,^ which was 
 in all probability of an antbracoid nature. 
 
 ' This year was remarkable in Ireland for a great drought, 
 by which multitudes of cattle perished/^ 
 
 This anthrax or carbonous disease has been considered by 
 some modern medical authorities quite a recent and an exotic 
 malady in England. How far this is correct the above evidence 
 will testify; indeed, we have every reason to believe, that, from 
 time immemorial, anthrax and antbracoid fever have been present 
 among the lower animals, both domestic and feral, and that it has 
 been communicated from them to the human species, and to other 
 creatures which may have partaken of the flesh of these diseased 
 beasts. The frequent mention of ' blains ^ and M^lack blains' 
 (ble^ene, blacan ble-jene) — terms Still employed to designate a par- 
 ticular form of this class of aifections in cattle — as afflicting man- 
 kind, in the early Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, and the continually- 
 
 the domestic animals, and even those of the deer tribe, appearing sporadically, 
 enzootically, or epizootically. It is believed to be highly contagious, passing from 
 one animal to another, even of a different species, but not perhaps from man to man. 
 In the early days of Britain, when the country was badly cultivated and the ground 
 undrained — when there were many extensive marshes, and much land covered with 
 swamps and vegetable matter in a decomposing state, such as now exist in Russia, 
 where malignant pustule and other forms of this malady rage — severe epizootics must 
 have been frequent. The form of anthrax described by Matthew of Paris would ap- 
 pear to be that now commonly known as black quarter or splenic apoplexy, a dis- 
 ease in cattle often arising in our time from the same causes as those enumerated 
 by the worthy historian. 
 
 That form which attacked horses is the one technically termed glossanthrax, 
 and is now, so far as I am aware, unknown in Britain. Indeed, I can find no 
 mention of its occurrence in this animal for some centuries. On the continent, and 
 especially in Russia, the equine species is particularly liable to attacks of anthrax. 
 The symptoms, when the tongue is the special seat of disease, have been noted in 
 France, where the malady is then termed chancre volant. Large bladders filled 
 with a reddish-coloured liquid form on that organ ; in a short time they burst, and 
 give rise to ulcers which rapidly become a mass of gangrene. The tongue sloughs 
 away in pieces, and death quickly takes place in the midst of convulsions. 
 
 Cattle die in from six to twenty-four hours after being attacked. It is curious 
 to find a disease, probably of the same nature, now very prevalent in America 
 amongst deer, and designated ' tongue evil.' 
 
 ' Dunstaple. Short. Op. cit., p. 149. • 
 
 "^ Smith. History of Waterford.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 77 
 
 recurring remedies prescribed in the Saxon leechdonis/ would in- 
 dicate such to be the case. And when we consider the backward 
 state of agriculture, and the unsanitary conditions in which ani- 
 mals weren)aintained at this period, we can scarcely wonder that 
 wide-spread outbreaks of this fatal and virulent disorder were 
 by no means rare, or that they should be accompanied or fol- 
 lowed bv malignant pustule or anthrax fever in man. 
 
 The laws enacted during the reign of Henry III., at the 
 commencement of this century, appear to have been judiciously 
 framed, at least in so far as the public health in regard to food 
 was concerned ; and thev also give us some idea of the principal 
 maladies affecting animals then sold for their flesh. From them 
 we are led to infer that anthrax was not at all rare, and that 
 pork was, as it now is, looked upon with suspicion. Butchers were 
 forbidden to sell contagious flesh, or that had died of the murrain 
 {carnes-suacientas vel morte morina) ; to buy flesh of Jews, and 
 then sell it to Christians; or to sell flesh 'measled' or flesh dead 
 of the ' murrain ' {porcinas sup^ennuates, ut carnes de jnorina).^ 
 
 Mr Roo-ers' researches into the state of ao;riculture at this 
 period lead him to the following conclusions with regard to 
 pigs : ' Pigs are occasionally said to be leprous, and were especi- 
 ally liable to measles, that is, to entozoa, and the accounts fre- 
 quently allude to forced sales of animals, in which the latter 
 disease was present or suspected, though it does not appear that 
 such a circumstance seriously depreciated the market value of the 
 animal.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1253. ' This year throughout was abundant in corn and 
 fruit; so much so, that the price of a measure of corn fell to 
 thirty pence. But . . . the sea overflowing its bounds, by its 
 sudden inundations, overwhelmed men and cattle, and when it 
 happened by night it drowned many the more.^ * 
 
 A.D. 1254. A very severe winter in England. ^ Also there 
 
 1 For the remedies and incantations in use to cure this disease in people durinij 
 the Middle Ages in England, see Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early 
 England. London, 1864-5-6. 
 
 ■^ Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. ^ Hist. Agric, vol. i. p. 337- 
 
 * Matthcvj pf Paris. Op. cit.
 
 ^8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 chanced the same year a great murrain, and death of sheep and 
 deer, so that of whole flocks and herds scarce the half escaped/^ 
 ' On that same day (St Gregory's), too, the severity of the frost 
 gave way, which has lasted uninterruptedly for nearly the whole 
 winter; at least, ever since the night of circumcision, when there 
 was seen the wonderful apparition of the ship in the sky, or a 
 cloud very like a ship. The apparition was believed, at the time, 
 to be a sign of coming tempestuous weather, and was, moreover, 
 followed by such a deadly disease amongst sheep and wild 
 beasts, that the sheep-folds were void of sheep, and the forests of 
 wild beasts; indeed, in large flocks scarcely one half survived.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1257. ' In July were excessive rains and floods, and a 
 great scarcity of horses and cattle in Englandc All the marshes 
 were like a flooded desert.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1258. 'In this same year, the calm temperature of 
 autumn lasted to the end of January, so that the surface of the 
 water was not frozen in any place during that time. But from 
 about this period, that is to say, from the purification of the 
 blessed Virgin until the end of March, the north wind blew 
 without intermission, a continued frost prevailed, accompanied 
 by snow and such unendurable cold, that it bound up the face of 
 the earth, sorely afflicted the poor, suspended all cultivation, and 
 killed the young of the cattle to such an extent, that it seemed 
 as if a general plague was raging amongst the sheep and lambs.'* 
 ' On the eve of St John the Baptist (June 23rd) this year, such 
 a violent tempest of rain fell on the waters of the Severn from 
 Shrewsbury towards Bristol, as had not been seen in our 
 days.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1259. ' In this year was a great hunger, that men and 
 beasts died for default of meat.'*' 
 
 A.D, 1260. A great inundation on the Rhine, fatal to multi- 
 tudes of people and cattle.'' 
 
 A.D. 1264. A comet was seen from the beginning of August 
 until the middle of October. Its appearance in Germany was 
 
 ' Holiiished. Op. cit. 
 
 - Matthew of Jaris. Op. cit. ^ f Short. Op. cit. p. 150. 
 
 * Mattht-cO of Paris. Op. cit. ^ Matthew of IVcstniiitstcr. 
 
 * Capgrave. Chronicles of England. ' T. Short. Op. cit. p. 151.
 
 I 
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 79 
 
 followed bv a great famine, effusion of blood, and death among 
 animals. The famine was so great that many families emigrated 
 into Poland. The mortality among animals was sueh that no 
 one dared to cat or buy the flesh of oxen.^ Sheep and cattle 
 were most affected." A murrain destroyed many horses and 
 cattle in Eno-land.^ 
 
 A.D. 1266. Swarms of 'Palmer' worms ate up all fruits, 
 herbs, orass, and vee'etation in Scotland, and there were such 
 great floods from the sea, the Tay, and the Forth, that innumer- 
 able villages, people, and cattle were lost.* 
 
 A.D. 1274. The Annals tell us that a deadly disease [lues 
 oviiim)^ broke out amongst sheep, which persisted for twenty-five 
 or twenty-eight years, and destroyed nearly all the flocks in 
 Ensiland. This epizooty will be more fully noticed in subse- 
 quent years. 
 
 A.D. 1275-6. ' Very heavy rains in France for these two 
 
 years; so much so, that the crops could not be gathered, nor 
 
 the corn sown. A dreadful famine, followed by a still more 
 
 dreadful pestilence, ensued, by which a great number of men 
 
 and cattle were destroyed.' ^ ' Great earthquakes in London, 
 
 and in the whole world. At the same time the rain fell a 
 
 bright red, as of blood, in Wales. In this year (1275) was first 
 
 observed the outbreak of common scab {scabies) in sheep. ^ 
 
 Stow, following Thomas of Walsingham, has the following 
 
 notice of this event for this year: 'A rich man of France 
 
 brought into Northumberland a Spanish ewe as big as a calf of 
 
 two years, which ewe being rotten, infected so the country that 
 
 it spread over all the realm. This plague of murrain continued 
 
 twenty-eight years ere it ended, and was the first roi that ever 
 
 was in England.' * If this be correct, merinos were then first in- 
 to ' 
 
 troduced into Britain. 
 
 ' Chronic. Siles. Vetust. Sommersberg, p. 17. Annal. Wratisl. Sommersberg, 
 
 P- 173- 
 
 - Menel. ab Henncfeld. Annal. Silcs. Sommersberg. 
 
 3 r. Short. Op. cit., p. 152. '' Il>i<I- P- 153- 
 
 * ThomcE Walsingham. Historia Anglicana. 
 
 " Ilofinanni. Annal. Bamberg. Ltidnvig. Scrij-). rer. Bamberg, p. 176. 
 
 " Ihnry Jc Knyghton. 'i'lie Events of England. 
 
 " Sl(no. The Annalcs or Generall Chronicle of England. London, 1614, p. 200.
 
 8o Histojy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1277. ' In this year scab in sheep reigned throughout the 
 whole of Eno-land. It was commonly termed " clausick/' ^ 
 and by it all the sheep in the country were infected. A certain 
 ointment composed of quicksilver and pork fat was found to be 
 a good remedy/ ^ 
 
 This epizooty among sheep deserves most particular notice 
 for the following reasons. Stow plainly mentions it as an im- 
 ported disease, and terms it rot. Other authors term it scabies, 
 and one mentions what would no doubt have been a very effect- 
 ive remedy for that affection — lard and mercury. Now, the rot 
 of the present day is not contagious or infectious ; therefore the 
 Spanish sheep could not have contaminated others. The ' scab ' 
 certainly is contagious, but.Stow^ one would think, would not 
 have designated the malady as rot when the other term was com- 
 monly used. Therefore I think it is most probable that two con- 
 tagious diseases were introduced into England in these years : — 
 the one scabies, and the other ovine small-pox. The most dili- 
 gent search through the most likely Annals of these and the 
 
 1 This is the first time I find the term clausick employed to designate a dis- 
 ease. It is evidently derived from the Celtic word clawr, clefre, or claiiri, to 
 claw or scratch, as in the itch ; and the Anglo-Saxon word sioc, siec, to be sick or 
 unwell. The name is a new one, and was evidently looked upon as such by the 
 historian. A portion of this history of the supposed first invasion of 'variola ovina ' 
 in Britain was published in the VeterinaHan for May, 1867, and appeared soon 
 alter in the Aimales Veteritiaires of Brussels, having been translated by Veterinary 
 Surgeon Dele, of Antwerp. This gentleman, in a note, offers the following opinion 
 as to 'clausick.' 'The word clausick has a striking resemblance to the German 
 word klauaiseuche, and the Dutch word klaainuziekte, which signifies disease of the 
 claw or hoof. The affection mentioned by Mr Fleming may, then, be a conta- 
 gious disease of the hoof, rather than the scab. There can be no doubt as to 
 the meaning of the English term sick, derived from the Anglo-Saxon sioc, siec, 
 which corresponds to the German word scuche, and the Dutch zickte, that is to say, 
 diseased. With regard to the word cla"v, which Mr Fleming says comes from the 
 Celtic clawr, clefre, clauri, and which he translates as to scratch, its analogy with the 
 German word klau, and the Dutch word klaauw (nail, hoof, claw, talon) is perfect. 
 There is as much reason to suppose that the word clausick was applied to a 
 disease of the hoof as to one in which the foot was used to scratch the itching skin.' 
 I think M. Dele is not quite correct in supposing that this can be a hoof disease 
 instead of scab. The meaning of the word, as applied in this instance, is undoubt- 
 edly to tear with the nails or claws : to tear or scratch in general. I am not aware 
 that any contagious foot disease was known in sheep at this early period. Besides, 
 here we have distinct evidence of the nature of the malady in the success of the 
 remedv — mercury and lard. 
 
 ^ Wavcrly Annals, vol. ii. p. 233.
 
 History of A nimal Plagues. 8 1 
 
 preceding" years lead me to the conclusion that this is correct, 
 and that the first trace we obtain in history of this serious malady 
 — sheep small-pox — appearing as an epizooty, is in Britain. 
 This is rather singular, considering that the malady is believed 
 to be exotic, and that in those countries from whence we usually 
 derive it, there were at that time numerous chroniclers, who 
 would, we might suppose, have mentioned the outbreaks of this 
 formidable contagion. Such is not the case, however; and to 
 Encrlish historians we are indebted for sufficient evidence to 
 establish a reasonable supposition that ovine variola was, in a 
 masked form, imported into Britain by a Spanish ewe. In 1847 
 the disease was imported by Spanish or merino sheep, and caused 
 severe loss. 
 
 But that this disease of sheep existed and was well-known 
 in Britain more than two hundred years before 1275, cannot be 
 a matter for doubt; and that its cure had engaged the attention 
 of the leeches of these days is also a certain fact. In a curious 
 Saxon manuscript of the Harleian collection (No. 585), sup- 
 posed to be written in the tenth or eleventh century, and in- 
 scribed 'Lacnunga' is the following recipe: 'For pocks and 
 skin eruptions (pi* poccum y pceapa h/reoplan) : lupin and ever- 
 fern, the nether part of it, the upper part of spearwort, ground, 
 great or liorse beans, pound all together very small in honey, 
 and in holy water, and mingle all well together, put one dose 
 into the animal's mouth with a spoon, three doses a-day 
 always; for nine times if mickle need be.^ ^ This is certainly 
 the earliest notice I can find of this malady; but whether it was 
 very prevalent, or whether its contagious nature was understood 
 by the Saxon doctors, is quite a mystery. Beyond the recipe and 
 the mention of the disease, all is darkness. At this somewhat 
 early period, however, the symptoms of disease arc but rarely 
 entered in the Leech-books ; and for many centuries after this 
 time, the medical philosophers in Britain were content to limit 
 their skill to the principles of cure i)y means of uncouth and 
 fantastic recipes. 
 
 The claur'i or scabies of the Welsh sheep has been already 
 
 ' Rei: Onuahi Cockayne. Leechdoms, Worlcunniiig, and Staicrafl of Early 
 Kngland. London, 1865. Vol. iii. p. 57. 
 
 6
 
 82 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 mentioned in our notice of the Laws of Howel, revised more 
 than two hundred years before this period ; and the scab and 
 tetter (rceb, rerefi) were well-known diseases among the Saxon 
 shepherds.^ 
 
 The term rot appears subsequently to have been applied to 
 small-pox, or some other malady which was contagious, and to 
 have continued in use for some time.^ For instance, Dryden, four 
 centuries after this invasion, says : — 
 
 ' Your teeming ewes shall no strange meadows try, 
 Nor fear a rot from tainted company.' 
 
 In the fourteenth century, the century following these de- 
 scriptions, we have direct testimony that the small-pox of sheep 
 was known to poets, and that in England. Delightful old 
 Chaucer is the very first non-scientific writer who, in this way, 
 gives us the plainest proof of its existence when he wrote his 
 famous Canterbury Tales, about the middle of that century. In 
 the Pardoner^s Story, when that knavish ecclesiastic is describ- 
 ing his mummeries and conceits, he is made to say : — 
 
 ' Then show I forth my longe crystal stones, 
 Ycrammed full of cloutes and of bones, 
 Relics they be, as weenen they each one,^ 
 Then have I in laton'* a shoulder-bone. 
 Which that was of a holy Jew^s sheep. 
 Good men, say I, take of my wordes keep, 
 If that this bone be wash'd in any well, 
 If cow, or calf, or sheep, or oxe swell, 
 That any worm hath eat, or worm ystung,^ 
 Take water of that well, and wash his tongue. 
 And it is whole anon ; and, furthermore, 
 Of pockes^ and of scab^ a7id every sore, 
 
 ^ /vVr'. Onvald Cockayne. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early 
 England. London, 1865. Vol. i. p. 24. 
 
 '■^ ln'Lo\\Aon\ Encyclopcedia of Agriculture, published so late as 1839, it is noted 
 that the rot is a popular term among shepherds, and includes within its range dis- 
 eases widely different. This writer speaks of blood rot, glanderous rot, the great 
 rot, hydropic rot, pelt ivt, and hunger rot. 
 
 ^ As each one weens or believes. ' 
 
 ^ A cross made of a mixture of metals resembling brass. * Stung. 
 
 " The Saxon /or/fv, okl Anglo-Saxon ' pocca.' The Germans still usually term 
 this disease ' Schafpocke,' and pock is not an unfrequent word among ourselves 
 to designate the variolous eruption.
 
 History of Anwial Plagues. 83 
 
 Shall every sheep be whole, that of this mcU 
 Drinketh a draught : take keep of that I tell.' 
 
 It is not until nearly four centuries after the Saxon leech- 
 book had been written, and a century after Chaucer, in undeni- 
 able English, explicitlv designates the malady by the name now 
 familiar to us (though in mentioning ^ca^ the poet says nothing of 
 rot, an indigenous malady), that the earliest notice of it is to be 
 found on the continent. 
 
 Tn the Avocal PatheJin (the Craftv Lawyer), a farce which ap- 
 pears to have been published in France in 1460, though it may 
 have been played before that time, we learn that the disease 
 was sometimes prevalent amongst the flocks, and was known as 
 claveUe (from claims, a nail; probably owing to the way in 
 which the scabs or pustules studded the skin like nail-heads), 
 the popular name for it in France at the present day. One of the 
 actors, Agnelet (lambkin), blames it for causing a considerable 
 mortality.^ The first notice we have of it by a medical writer 
 is in 157H. 
 
 Some writers have believed the disease known as pusula 
 (another form of expression for pustula, a blister, pimple, or pus- 
 tule) by the Romans, and mentioned by Marcus Columella to be 
 ovine small-pox; but there is little proof that such was the case. 
 On the contrary, we have it distinctly stated that it was the ignis 
 sacer. ' Est etiom itisanahiUs ignis sacer, (juem piisulam vacant 
 pastores.' ^ We will examine this part of the subject hereafter. 
 At present our researches into the history of small-pox in sheep 
 effectually demolishes the absurd notion of a great French na- 
 
 "^ Laharpe. Cours de Litterat., part ii. chap. vii. Luard. Melange de Litterat. 
 Hist, du Theatre Fran9aise, vol. iv. p. 36. 
 
 - There is some difficulty here in the stereotyped phrase ignis sacer. The 
 ancients applied the words to many skin affections, we have reason to believe ; and 
 with the exception of the extreme contagiousness of that malady, its chiefly affect- 
 ing the surface of the body, and its being designated a pustular disease by the 
 Roman shepherds, we have no proof as to its identity with small-pox. Tiie ignis 
 sacer has usually been supposed to be gangrenous erysipelas, wliich is sometimes 
 epizootic amongst the flocks of southern countries {Gelle. Pathologic Bovine), 
 and is thougiit by some to he only a form of anthrax. (See Gaspariu. Maladies 
 des Betes k Lainc. Rcynal. Dictionnaire de Mud. &c., Veterinaircs, vol. vi. 
 Art. ' Erysipele.') Al a certain stage of the malady vesicles or bulla" are formed, 
 which may have misled the shepherds, who would think them pustules.
 
 84 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 turalist/ that the variolous disease owed its origin to the turkey 
 [Meleagris gallopavo). a bird only imported into Europe by the 
 Spaniards in 1530^ nearly five-hundred years after it is mention- 
 ed as a known disease, and two hundred after Chaucer distinctly 
 alludes to it; as well as three hundred after a probable outbreak 
 in Ensjland, due to the importation of a diseased Spanish sheep, 
 and which lasted for twenty-eight years. Besides, the disease 
 (like cow-pox ? -) has never, to my knowledge, been seen in 
 Mexico, the native country of the turkey. 
 
 Much mystery attends the early history of human variola in 
 Europe. We have already seen that in a.d. 569 the word 
 variola was employed to designate an epidemic in Italy and 
 France; the malady certainly appears to have been sufficiently 
 specified towards the end of the sixth century under the de- 
 signations of lues cum vesicis pusulce or pustulce, and morbus dy- 
 sentericus cum pustulis, as well as coralis. Gregory of Tours 
 says : Rusticiores vero corales has pustulas nominahant ; and in 
 A.D. 772 the pox (small-pox) is reported to have raged over 
 the whole of Ireland. Rhazes, or Razi, an Arab physician, 
 accurately described the disease in a special monograph, about 
 the year 900; and Dr Short, an excellent medical historian, ap- 
 pears to believe that the malady was one of ancient date in 
 Europe, but had not attracted much attention because of the 
 mild form it exhibited. 'The small-pox seem not to have been 
 so severe and fatal formerly as in late acres, since the ancients do 
 not treat of them particularly ; but are thought to intend them 
 under such general names as some think sufficient to express 
 their nature, as papulas, Jilius ignis, carhones adustos, pustulas 
 latas sublimes nigras, iilcerosas caput cutemque puerorum occu- 
 pare ; exanthemata eithymata multa et varia exercere, &c. The 
 Arabians first treated of them professedly, and they always joined 
 them to the plague and pestilential fevers ; but neither Greeks, 
 Latins, nor Arabians tell us when they first begiui : probably be- 
 cause they were long before their days, but not being so fatal as 
 
 1 Bnffon. Hist. Nat. du Diiidon. 
 
 * For evidence with rej,'ard to the probable existence of cow-pox among tlie 
 cattle of South America from tlie earliest times, see Humboldt, Essai Politique sur 
 la Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne, vol. i. p. 67.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 85 
 
 now, thev challenged no such particular regard I do not 
 
 take the small-pox in general to depend on either season or tem- 
 perature of the air; for in different places, in the same climate 
 and constitution, I find them a perpetual epidemic, scarce ever 
 out in all places of Britain at once; and besides (as Dr Lister and 
 Dr Hillary well observe), they are originally an exotic disease, un- 
 known to Europe, Asia Minor, or Africa, before the spice trade 
 was opened to the remotest part of the East Indies, when they 
 were first brought into Africa, thence into Europe. The first 
 time we meet with them in English history is in 907.'^ 
 
 In a Saxon ' Laece Boc,' or Leech Book, of the first half of 
 the tenth century, we find several recipes for the cure of the 
 small-pox, which is there termed ' poc addle' (pocabie), or pock 
 ailment. The recipes consist of internal remedies, chiefly de- 
 coctions of herbs, and salves (Sealp). One of the recipes says: 
 'Against pocks (pi f^poccum), a man shall freely employ blood- 
 letting and drink melted butter, a bowl full of it : if they break 
 out one must delve or dig away each one of them with a thorn ; 
 and then let him drip wine or alder drink within them, then 
 they will not be seen, or no traces will remain.' And to show 
 that the disease was greatly dreaded, we have a prayer against 
 it. In a Cottonian MS. there is a charm against small- 
 pox. The MSS. containing these recipes, prayers, and charms, 
 were, in all probability, written at periods but little removed from 
 the date when Rhazes composed his monograph on this serious 
 malady. 
 
 Burton^ says that the ' Judari,' or small-pox, appears to be 
 indigenous to the countries bordering upon the Red Sea. He 
 observes that we read of it there in the earliest works of the 
 Arabs; and even to the present day it sometimes sweeps through 
 Arabia and the Somali country with desolating violence. Con- 
 jecture, however, goes a long way beyond reason when it dis- 
 covers small-pox in the Tayr Ababil, the 'swallow-birds,' which, 
 according to the Koran, destroyed the Abyssinian host of Abra- 
 hat el Ashrand in 569 or 572.^ There is some difliculty about 
 
 1 T. Short. Op. cit., vol. ii. pp. 361,415. 
 
 ^ Burton. Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Mcccali, vol. i. p. 367. 
 
 ^ Ilccker, GebchiclUe der Mcdicin, vol. ii. p. 152.
 
 86 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the word ahahil, Major Price having translated it as the plural of 
 al'llak, a vesicle; but Burton thinks the former is an Arabic and 
 the latter a Persian word, and that they have no connection what- 
 ever. M. C. de Perceval, quoting the ' Sirat el Rasul/ which 
 savs that at that time small-pox first appeared in Arabia, ascribes 
 the destruction of the host of Yemen to an epidemic and a 
 violent tempest. The strangest part of the story is, that al- 
 thou(!;h it occurred at Meccah, about two months before Maho- 
 met's birth, and therefore within the memory of many living at 
 the time, the prophet alludes to it in the Koran as a miracle. 
 The same intrepid traveller. Burton, in another work on Africa, 
 remarks: ' The most dangerous disease is small-pox, which history 
 traces to Eastern Abyssinia, where it still becomes at times a vio- 
 lent epidemic, sweeping off its thousands.''^ And elsewhere, in 
 speaking of the diseases of East Africa, he seems to think the 
 small-pox a native of that country. 'The most dangerous epi- 
 demic is its abor'igen, the small-pox, which propagated without 
 contact or fomites, sweeps at times like a storm of death over the 
 land.^ 2 
 
 Niebuhr^ informs us that a rude form of inoculation — the 
 mother pricking the child's arm with a thorn — has been known 
 in Yemen from time immemorial. Forbes thought small-pox in 
 man had been known in Ceylon since the 3rd century. When 
 mentioning vaccination in that island, he expresses a hope that 
 it will ' prevent any very extensive ravages from a cause which 
 has formerly contributed materially to the depopulation of the 
 island, and is probably the Red-eyed Demon of pestilence who 
 is recorded to have swept the country of half its numbers in the 
 3rd century, and in the reign of Sirisangabo.' * It may at this 
 primitive period have been introduced from Africa. 
 
 With re2;ard to variola ovina, it is curious to find that its 
 supposed earliest invasion of this country as an epizooty, and 
 its presence here and elsewhere since the 13th century, should 
 be in connection with the importation or introduction of Merino 
 
 ' First Footsteps in East Africa, p. 180. 
 
 ^ The Lake Regions of Central Africa, vol. ii. p. 318. 
 
 ^ Beschriebung von Arabien, 1772. 
 
 ^ Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. p. 357.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 87 
 
 sheep. It is asserted that the sheep of the South Atlas,, Africa, 
 are the progenitors of the Spanish Merino;^ and, according to 
 Erman/ the original Spanish sheep were black, with a coarse 
 and very inferior wool, till the Roman colonists settled there and 
 introduced a taste for rural pursuits. Marcus Columella (A.D.40) 
 was the first to notice the wild mouflons at Cadiz, which were 
 on their wav from Africa to the Arena at Rome, and which race 
 he afterwards used for the improvement of the Spanish breed. Did 
 these African sheep introduce the disease into Europe at this 
 period, when they were exported from a region where the small- 
 pox of man appears to have had its earliest home ? It will be 
 seen hereafter that this breed introduced into France and Ger- 
 many a malady unknown amongst them in Spain, and never 
 seen or heard of until they were imported into those countries 
 — the contagious foot disease. Columella was the first to breed 
 the wild moufion with the Spanish sheep; he was also the first 
 to describe an extremely contagious and fatal disease amongst 
 sheep, which he designated ignis sacer, but which the shepherds 
 called pusula. Was this the variolous disease of the ovine 
 species? It would scarcely be safe to pronounce in a positive 
 manner; and unfortunately the paucity of writers between the 
 1st and 9th or loth centuries, when the malady is for the first 
 time properly named, is a great bar to further investigation 
 in this direction. 
 
 For the year 1280, there is mention made of perhaps this 
 same sheep mortality, which may have extended to Wales. ' There 
 was a great murrain among sheep [magnum morina ovium), 
 which began in the preceding year.^ ^ 
 
 A distinguished professor,* in discussing the agricultural 
 history for this epoch, writes: 'Among the diseases peculiar to 
 sheep, the scab is very frequently mentioned. This disease 
 made its appearance at or about the year 1288 (?), and became 
 endemic. It was at first treated with copperas and verdigris; 
 but in time, that is, at about the close of the 13th century, it wag 
 
 > Tristram. The Great Sahara, p. 56. 
 
 2 Travels in Siberia, vol. ii. p. 161. ' Annales Camhrire. 
 
 *• y. Rogers. Mist, of Agriculture in the 13th and 14th centuries, vol. i.
 
 88 History of Aniimil Plagues. 
 
 discovered that tar (generally called bitumen in the accounts of 
 the farm bailiffs, but occasionally by its English name) was a 
 '; specific for the complaint. Shortly after this time the purchase 
 / j of tar is a regular entry. It is clear that the remedy was mixed 
 y 1 with butter or lard, and then rubbed in. Note is occasionally 
 > taken of any exceptional prevalence of this disease, which seems 
 never to have been eradicated, but only to have varied in in- 
 tensity and frequency. 'And for this year (1288), in the farm 
 accounts of Stanham, he finds the following entry : Nimia in- 
 firmitas et Scabies bidentium : fleeces small/ 
 
 ' Sheep, again,' observes Mr Rogers,^ in referring to this period, 
 'were liable to several diseases, and among these the rot and the 
 scab. The former affecting the general health of the animal, the 
 latter its most valuable produce, were the cause of continual 
 anxiety to the medieval farmer as they are to his descendant.' 
 
 ' There are,' says Walter de Henley, ' several means by which 
 shepherds profess to discover the existence of rot. i. They look 
 at the veins under the eyelid. If these are red, the sheep is sound ; 
 if white, unsound. 2. They try the wool on the ribs. If it holds 
 firmly to the skin, it is a good sign ; if it pulls off easily, it is a 
 bad one. 3. If the skin, on rubbing, reddens, the sheep is sound ; 
 if it remains pale, the animal is rotten. 4. About All Saints' 
 day, November i, if the hoar-frost in the morning is found to 
 cling to the wool, it is a good sign; but if it be melted, it is a 
 sign that the animal is suffering from an unnatural heat, and 
 that it is probably unsound. If one of your sheep die's, put the 
 flesh at once into water, and keep it there from daybreak to 
 three o'clock (nones), then hang it up to drain thoroughly, salt 
 it and dry it. It will do for your labourers.'^ 
 
 The venerable and learned Fleta,^ who also writes at this 
 period, gives us an excellent description of the duties of the shep- 
 herd, the care to be taken of the sheep, and the maladies to 
 which they were then liable. The great rarity of this work, and 
 the value of its author's remarks in the chapter entitled 'De 
 toribus,' almost induce me to ofler a translation, but space 
 forbids. 
 
 1 Jio^ers. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 334. 2 j^jd. 
 
 2 F/e^a. Commentarius Juris Anglican!, lib. ii. cap. 79.
 
 History of Am'vzal Plagues. 89 
 
 A.D. 1279. '^^^ ^^^^^ year, in every young horse that was 
 foaled, there appeared four permanent teeth/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1283. Mr Rogers uiforms us that in the accounts for 
 farm stock for Ditchinghani, under this date, there is the entry, 
 ^Morbus generahs/ - When King Philip of France was invading 
 Spain with 200,000 infantry and 86,000 cavalry, and while at 
 Gerona, the whole force suflered severely from disease, losing 4000 
 men, and nearly as many horses. Tremendous swarms of flies 
 {moscas) as large as acorns, and of a different shape from the or- 
 dinary' flies, appeared, and attacked both men and horses. No 
 sooner were these stung by them than they died. So great was 
 the sickness that this monarch was unable to show himself before 
 Cataluha. This dreadful plague, says the chronicler, was attri- 
 buted to a miracle wrought by St Narcissus.^ 
 
 A.D. 1286. A stranoe kind of worm infested Prussia. It 
 had a tail like a crab, and whatever animal was stung by it was 
 dead within three davs.^ ' Throu2;hout Austria and some other 
 countries the following unheard-of occurrence took place : the 
 fowls and small birds that were previously perfectly healthy 
 suddenly dropped down dead, and the heavens were so robbed 
 of their small birds that scarcely a magpie, or a crow, or any 
 other bird, was to be seen.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1291. An epizooty in Iceland among horses. 'The 
 great icebergs melted, and winter went away; then came a 
 disease among cattle [felU vetr)."^ 
 
 A.D. 1299. An epizooty among horses at Seville. Accord- 
 ins to the veterinarians Martin Arrendondoand Fernando Calvo, 
 who derived their information from Laurentius Rusius, it 
 manifested itself with o-reat severity, and killed move than one 
 thousand horses. Rusius says of it: 'There was a certain 
 fever broke out amono- horses which seemed to be incurable. 
 
 o 
 
 » Chronic. Clauslro-Neoburgens. ^ Rogers. Op. cit., vol. ii. 
 
 3 Villalba. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 63. These flies may have been the Sitmdunl 
 reptans, a native of eastern countries and of llunjiary ; or even the African fly, 
 Clirysops cocciitiens, which is said to attack horses and to blind them. They might 
 have been carried over by high winds to Spain. 
 
 * Chronic. Magdeburg. '■> Chronic. Claustro-Neoburgens. 
 
 * Annals Isl. Langebek, vol. iii. p. 1 19.
 
 90 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 The horse carried its head drooping, would eat nothing, tears 
 ran from the eyes, and there was hurried beating of the flanks. 
 The malady was epidemical, and in that year more than one 
 thousand horses died/^ For Germany there is noted the follow- 
 ing; : '\x\ this year a deadly disease broke out among cattle, 
 which dc;5troyed many throughout the world.' ^ 
 
 ^At Genelow Castle, in Burgundy, was a great fight or 
 battle of dogs, wherein of 3000 all were killed but one.-' ^ 
 
 What may have been merely the result of epizootic diseases 
 amongst some of the lower animals, old authors, in all probabi- 
 lity, ascribed to battles between them. It must not be forgotten, 
 however, that sometimes affrays of this kind do happen, though 
 very rarely, and that damage is not unfrequent. Amongst dogs, 
 for example, rival factions now and again meet and decide their 
 differences by combat, like Christians, as Burton and Hooker 
 testify.* 
 
 A.D. 1302. ^ A great loss of cows {ho-dhith), and a slaughter 
 [ar) upon all the beasts of Ireland this year.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1308. In Ireland, 'in the Easter, in the month of 
 March in this year, there was a destruction of men and cattle in 
 it, and great inclemency of weather too.' ® ' There was a great 
 murrain of cattle.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1310. In Germany, destruction of plants and inun- 
 dations. ' This year was a very unfortunate year in consequence 
 of the large quantity of vermin and caterpillars and mice, which 
 ate up everything before them. Then, because of the great in- 
 undations, which began on the 13th of July, were greater ist 
 of August, and greatest on the 2nd of August, much damage 
 was done.' ^ 
 
 'There was so great a famine and scarcity of victuals in 
 the kingdom of Scotland, Anno Domini 13 10, that in many 
 
 ^ Lauraitius liusius. Hippatria or Marescalia, vol. i. chap. clvi. p. 135. 
 Heusinger says the epizodty occurred at Rome. It may have been, and probably 
 was, what is now popularly termed ' influenza.' 
 
 2 Chronic. Ensdorf. OLfcle, vol. i. p. 585. ^ T. Short. Op. cit., p. 159. 
 
 * Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, vol. i. p. 289. Tour in Iceland. 
 
 = Annals of Connaught. s Jbij. 
 
 ' Annals of Clonmacnoise. 
 
 ^ HeiLHcbci'gsche. Chronik., i. p. 329.
 
 History of Anivial Plagues. 91 
 
 districts multitudes were compelled through hunger to eat the 
 flesh of horses and of other unclean animals.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1313. An epizooty among the horses at Rome. Rusius 
 says of it: 'An epizooty of horses at Rome. Some called the 
 disease a fever, and some esquinancy {angina). I myself lost 
 more than fiftv horses in mv time.' ^ There was also an epizoo- 
 tic disease amongst horses [hrosfcUls vetr) in Iceland.^ 
 
 A.D. 13 14. Famine in England. ' The morrow after Candle- 
 mas day there assembled a parliament at London to treat of the 
 state of the kingdom, and how to bring down the prices of vic- 
 tuals, that were now grown to be so dear that the common 
 people were not able to live. . . . Notwithstanding the statutes 
 of the last parliament, the King's writs, &c., all things were sold 
 dearer than before. No flesh could be had, capons and geese 
 would not be found, eggs were hard to come by, sheep died of 
 the rot, swine were out of the way ; a quartern of wheat, beans, 
 pease were sold for twenty shillings, a quartern of malt for a 
 mark, a quarter of salt for thirty-five shillings, &c. . . . The 
 king in a parliament at London revoked the provisions before 
 made for selling of victuals, and permitted all men to make the 
 best of what they had. Nevertheless, the dearth increased 
 throucrh the abundance of rain that fell in the harvest, so that a 
 quarter of wheat or malt was sold before midsummer for thirty 
 shillings, and after for forty shillings. There followed this 
 famine a grievous mortality of people, so that the quick had 
 
 enouQ-h to do to bury the dead The beasts and cattle 
 
 also, by the corrupt grass whereof they fed, died, whereby 
 it came to pass that the eating of flesh was suspected of all 
 men, for flesh of beasts not corrupted was hard to find. 
 Horse-flesh was counted great delicates, the poor stole fat dogs 
 to eat, some (it was said) compelled through famine, in hidden 
 places, did eat the flesh of their own children, and some stole 
 others which they devoured. Those who were in prisons did 
 pluck in pieces those that were newly brought amongst them, 
 and greedily devoured them half alive.'* 
 
 * Jolian7iis de Fordun. Scotichronicon, p. 1005. 
 
 * Laurent. Rushes. Op. cit. 
 
 3 Annals Island. Laiigcbek, vol. iii. p. 129. •» Stow. Annals, p. 217, 218.
 
 gi History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1315. ' Also in the ninth year of King Edward's reign, 
 before Christmas, a blazing star or comet appeared in the north 
 part of the element by the space of a month together, and after 
 
 followed dearth and death The dearth, by reason of the 
 
 unseasonable weather in the summer and harvest last past, still 
 increased, so that which with much ado was issued (carried), 
 after, when it came to the proofs, yielded nothing to the value of 
 that which in sheaf it seemed to contain, so that wheat and 
 other grain which was at a sore price before, now was enhanced 
 to a far higher rate, the scarcity thereof being so great, that a 
 quarter of wheat was sold for forty shillings, which was a great 
 price, if we consider the value of money then current. Also by 
 reason of the murrain that fell among cattle, beeves and muttons 
 were unreasonably priced/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1316. For this year Duchesne makes mention of a 
 general epizooty and epidemy which prevailed in England. It 
 was supposed to be due to extreme humidity of the air occasioned 
 by long-continued rains after a severe winter, and inundations. 
 The grain was rotted, and fruit and all kinds of forage and grain 
 were destroyed. The consequence was a most intractable and 
 deadly form of dysentery, which carried off large numbers of 
 men and animals.^ ' Wheat, though poor stuff, was sold at 
 forty and forty-four shillings per quarter; and by reason of the 
 murrain among cattle, beef and mutton were exceeding dear; 
 after this, both famine and mortality increased much, together 
 with a general failure of all fruits of the earth, by excessive rains 
 and unseasonable weather.' ^ Rogers discovers in the records of 
 Ponteland, that the bailiff is allowed for six oxen which had died 
 of the disease ' current ' in the country. A similar state of 
 affairs was noted in Saxony.* 
 
 In many countries the extraordinary state of the weather 
 gave rise to famuie and disease.^ 
 
 A.D, 1317. ' In this season victuals were so scant and dear, 
 and wheat and other grain brought so high a price, that the 
 
 ^ Holinshed. Op. cit. 
 
 2 A. Duchesne. Histoire Gen. d'Angleterre, p. 728. 
 
 3 T. Short. Op. cit., p. 161. * Hist. Agric, vol. ii. 
 * See Frai'i, and also Schmirrer.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 03 
 
 people were constrained throngh famine to eat the flesh of horses, 
 dogs, and other vile beasts, which is wonderful to believe, and 
 yet for default there died a great multitude of people in divers 
 places of the land. Fourpence in bread of the coarsest sort 
 would not suffice a man a day. Wheat was sold in London for 
 four marks the quarter, and even more. Then after this dearth 
 and scarcity of victuals ensued a great death and mortality of 
 people.' ^ ' In that same year was great murrain of beasts, 
 which began in Essex, and after it spread through the land. It 
 reio;ned most in oxen, and when the beasts were dead doffs 
 would not eat of the flesh.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1318". 'A great murrain of kine happened, which were 
 so mortallv infected, that dogs and ravens eatinsi; of the carrion 
 of the kine, were poisoned, and did swell to death, so that no 
 man durst eat any beef.' ^ Mr Rogers reports that in this year, 
 at Southampton, there was "^ murrain among oxen. Hav 
 scarce.' * 
 
 A.D. 1319. Mn this season, to wit, 1319, a great murrain 
 and death of cattle chanced through the whole of the realm, 
 spreading from place to place, but especially this year it raged 
 most in the north, whereas in the years before it began in the 
 south j)arts.' ^ The carrion still poisonous." ' In the same 
 year there was an unheard-of pestilence among animals in 
 Ensrland, but from what cause is doubtful. It besran in Essex 
 about Easter, and spread itself in a short time through the 
 whole island, lasting throughout the whole year, and con- 
 taminatin<j; almost all the cattle of the realm. It is rumoured, 
 what is most unusual, and what will be perhaps incredible to 
 future ages, that dogs died from eating the dead bodies of the 
 cattle, and crows were swollen immediatelv after fecdintr on 
 them, and were as though intoxicated with poison, and fell 
 d(jwn dead, on account of which circumstance, no man dared 
 to eat the flesh of oxen, because this pest prevailed chiefly in 
 oxen. It was said that the whole of Gaul was infected with 
 
 ' Holinshcd. Op. cit. 
 
 - Capgravc. Chnjnicles of Englaiui. 
 
 ^ Stow. Op. cit., ]). 219. ■* Rogers. Op. cit , vol. ii. 
 
 * Ilolins/icd. Op. cit. " T. Short. Op. cit.. p. 163.
 
 94 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 this disease about the same time.' ^ This was, without doubt, 
 another severe and wide-spread outbreak of anthrax. 
 
 A.D. 1320. At Southampton, according to Mr Rogers' re- 
 searches, ' Ffarsine (farcy) was prevalent among horses in the 
 summer.' ' 
 
 A.D. 1321. An exceeding hot and dry summer in England ', 
 springs and rivers failed, beasts and cattle suffered extremely ; 
 many died for want of drink. ^ 
 
 A.D. 1331, 1323. 'A great destruction of cows throughout 
 all Ireland, the like of which was never known.' * 
 
 A.D. 1324. ' The murrain of cows continued still in Ireland, 
 and was called the " moyle dawine." ' ^ ' The same destruction 
 of cows throughout all Ireland this year, and it was it that was 
 called the "maeldamhnaigh." "^ 'There was a general plague of 
 cows and also other animals, which was called in Ireland '' mal- 
 dow."'^ This was probably the same epizooty that prevailed 
 in England in 13 19. 
 
 A.D. 1325. A great drought in England. ' Here, in the sum- 
 mer of this and the following year, there was so great a drought 
 that it may truly be said concerning this land what Theodolus 
 has applied to it : — 
 
 Anglorum terras jam fervida torruit EEStas, 
 In cancro solis dum volvitur aureus axis. 
 
 ' In consequence of the drought, the great rivers were dried 
 up, the springs failed, and in many places water had entirely 
 disappeared. In consequence of this misfortune, great multi- 
 tudes of animals, wild as well as domestic, perished of thirst.' ^ 
 
 Influenza, for the first time in the annals of that country, 
 is mentioned as occurring in Ireland. 'An epidemical disease 
 {teidhm galair) common throughout all Erinn, and which was 
 called " slaedan" (prostration-influenza), which afllected, during 
 three or four days, every person, so that it was second only to 
 death.' "> 
 
 1 Thomas Walsmgham. Historia Anglicana. 
 
 - Hist. Agricult. 
 
 " T. Short. Op. cit., p. 163. * Annals of Connaught. 
 
 •^ Ih'tl. Mbid. ' Annals of Ross. 
 
 * Thomas Walsingham. Op. cit. » Annals of Ulster.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 95 
 
 A.D. 1328. In an Arab treatise on veterinary science, written 
 bv a wealthy chief of Yemen in 909 of the Hegira, and entitled 
 * Kitab el-akoual/ there is an account of a disastrous epizootv 
 amons: the famed horses of Yemen in this vear. The transla- 
 tion of M. Perron ^ runs as follows : — 
 
 ' The epizooty that attacked the horses of Yemen in the 
 year of the Hegira 728^ was of the worst character and was 
 rapidly mortal. No one knew how to recognize or characterize 
 it, and in no book or hippiatric treatise of past ages could any 
 distinctive traces of it be found mentioned. No efficacious 
 remedy could be derived to cure it. The animal attacked was not 
 allowed time to benefit by medical or any other kind of treat- 
 ment. This malady had not, like other diseases, any premonitory 
 symptoms. It suddenly struck the animal, which perhaps would 
 be eatiiig, and all at once something escaped from the nostrils like 
 mucus; for a moment the horse's head was drooping on the 
 ground, from which he had no longer strength to raise it, and 
 then he fell dead. Sometimes he struggled for a few seconds 
 before he expired. The malady first began in the kingdom of 
 HadramaAt, then it was propagated into Yemen, and as far as 
 Mecca. An incalculable number of horses perished. 
 
 'Mules also died in crreat numbers, but not so extensivelv as 
 the horses. The best and purest bred horses furnished the 
 largest number of victims to the scourge. At the great fair of 
 Aden they died in crowds. So quickly did the animals succumb, 
 that while two individuals were discussing the price of a horse, the 
 disease attacked it, and it died before they had time to conclude 
 the barojain. Horse-dealers from India also bought horses 
 there at very high prices, but these carried the malady with them 
 and suddenly perished. It was observed, as a consequence of these 
 frequent repetitions, that the Indian dealers carefully everted the 
 upper eyelid of any horse they were about to buy ; and any animal 
 that showed a yellow tint in this part they abstained from pur- 
 chasing. Indeed, when this tinge was present, it was not long 
 before the horse succumbed to the malady.' This may have 
 been an epizotity of the protean malady 'influenza' or typhus 
 
 1 Le Naceri. Paris, i860. Vol. iii. p- 275.
 
 g6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1333. 'The losses of stock sustained by the medieval 
 farmer/ savs Mr Rotrers/ 'were enormous. As has been said, all 
 deaths were grouped under the general name "murrain." But 
 at Mai don, the farmer, in 1333, reports the loss of more than 
 half his sheep and lambs ; at Letherhead the loss is little short of 
 the same rate ; at Farley it is more than twenty-five per cent ; 
 at Woolford and Basingstoke it is about thirty-four per cent ; at 
 Wolford a little less than fourteen ; and at Cuxham about 
 eleven.^ 
 
 A.D. 1334. Inundations in England. 'This year were so 
 great waters, that they broke down walls in Temse (Thames?), 
 and other places overcovered the lands, and killed many beasts.^'' 
 
 A.D. 1335. In England, 'after abundance of rain of this 
 year, came a murrain of cattle and dearth of corn. Wheat at 
 forty shillings a quarter.^ ^ ' So great a death in England that 
 scarce could the living bury the dead.' * 
 
 In Ireland, ' there was such a great snow in the spring of 
 this year, that the most part of the small fowle of Erinn died.^ * 
 ' A great snow in the spring of this year, by which was destroyed 
 almost all the small birds of Ireland.'" Great swarms of locusts 
 in Italy. ^ 
 
 A.D. 1336. A mortality among animals in Iceland. 'Then 
 in spring came a storm of water so great, that all kinds of cattle 
 were destroyed.' * 
 
 In Ireland, ' a great plague of snow and of frost in this year, 
 from the first fortnight of winter until a part of the spring had 
 commenced. A great portion of the cattle of Erinn were lost in 
 it; and the grass and corn-fields of Ireland were destroyed the 
 same year.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1338. Heavy rain in Germany. In the previous year 
 locusts appeared in crowds in every part of Europe. In this 
 year in Germany there appears to have been a scarcity of salt. 
 ' Worms were bred in human bodies, so that many people died. 
 Out of the mouths of these the worms crept — a sight dreadful to 
 
 ^ Hist. Agricult., vol. i. p. 53. 
 
 - Capgrave. Op. cit. 
 
 3 Hmry de Ktiyghton. Op. cit. * How. ^ Annals of Clonmacnoise. 
 
 " Annals of Connaught. ' Corio. Storia di Milano. 
 
 '* Annal. Island. Langehck. Scrip, rer. Dan., iii. 134. ^ Annals of Ulster.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 97 
 
 look at. The frequent rains in the marsliv places caused im- 
 mense mortality to man and beast, throuoh the dvkes havinii- 
 been broken down.' ^ 
 
 In Ireland^ ' intense frost, with very deep snow, from the 
 2nd of December to the loth of February.'- 'This year was 
 very tempestuous, and noxious to man and beast .... and in 
 this year oxen and cowes died, and sheep, particularly, were 
 almost destroyed, so that, according to the common complaint, 
 scarcely the seventh part escaped from the pestilence ; but the 
 loss of lambs was greater.' ^ This is the first recorded ovine 
 epizootv in Ireland. 
 
 A.D. 1339. ' A great plague [plaigh) from frost and from 
 snow upon the cattle and the grass and corn-fields of Ireland, 
 from a fortnight of winter to a part of the spring.'^ In this and 
 the following year locusts were in Europe. 
 
 A.D. 1345. In the bailiff's accounts for Walford, there is the 
 following entry : ' Tantum (of tar and grease) ; propter caristiam 
 et nimiam scabiem.' ^ Plague in mankind in Illvria and Italy 
 during this and successive years." 
 
 A.D. 1347-9. Before this period, there had been terrible cos- 
 mical perturbations, which caused great physical changes in 
 China and other countries, and destroyed immense multitudes of 
 human beings. ' From China to tiie Atlantic, the foundations 
 of the earth were shaken. Throughout Asia and Europe the 
 atmosphere was in commotion, and endangered, by its baneful 
 influence, both vegetable and animal life. The series of these 
 great events began in the year 1333, fifteen years before the 
 plague (the "Black Death," Sorte Died, or Schwarze Tod) broke 
 out in Europe; they first appeared in China. Here a parching 
 drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of 
 country watered by the rivers Kiang and Iloangho. This was fol- 
 lowed by such violent torrents of rain, in and about Kiangsi, at 
 that time the capital of the Empire, that, according to tradition, 
 more than 400,000 people perished in the floods. Finally the 
 
 ' Hanisfortii. Chronologia. Langcbek. Vol. i. p. 303. 
 2 Grace. Annals. ^ Clyn. Ann.ils. 
 
 < Annals of Connaught. '•' Hist. Agricuil., vol. ii. 
 
 " Fniri. Op. cit. p. 295. 
 
 7
 
 9 8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 mountain Tsinchovv fell in^ and vast clefts were formed in the 
 earth. On the succeeding year (1334), passing over fabulous 
 traditions, the neighbourhood of Canton was visited by inunda- 
 tions; whilst in Tche, after an unexampled drought, a plague 
 arose, which is said to have carried off 5,000,000 people. A few 
 months afterwards an earthquake followed, at and near Kiangsi ; 
 and subsequent to the falling in of the mountains of Ki-ming- 
 shan, a lake was formed of more than a hundred leagues in cir- 
 cumference, where, again, thousands found their grave. In 
 How-kwang and Honan a drought prevailed for five months, 
 and iimumerable swarms of locusts destroyed the vegetation; 
 while famine and pestilence, as usual, followed in their train. 
 Connected accounts of the condition of Europe are not to be ex- 
 pected from the writers of the fourteenth century. It is remark- 
 able, however, that simultaneously with a drought and renewed 
 floods in China, in 1336, many uncommon atmospheric pheno- 
 mena, and in the winter frequent thunder-storms, were observed 
 in the north of t'rance ; and so early as the eventful year of 
 1333 an eruption of Etna took place. According to the Chinese 
 Annals, about 4,000,000 people perished by famine in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Kiang in 1337; and deluges, swarms of locusts^ 
 and an earthquake which lasted six days, caused incredible de- 
 vastation. In the same year the first swarms of locusts ap- 
 peared in Franconia, which were succeeded in the following vear 
 by myriads of these insects. In 1338, Kiangsi was visited by an 
 earthquake of ten days^ duration ; at the same time France 
 suffered from a failure in the harvest ; and thenceforth, till the 
 year 1342, there was in China a constant succession of inunda- 
 tions, earthquakes, and famines. In the same year great floods 
 occurred in the vicinity of the Rhine and in France, which could 
 not be attributed to rain alone ; for everywhere, even on the 
 tops of mountains, springs were seen to burst forth, and dry 
 tracts were laid under water in an inexplicable manner. In the 
 following year the mountain Hong-tchang, in China, fell in, 
 and caused a destructive deluge; and in Pien-chow and Leang- 
 chow, after three months' rain, there followed unheard-of in- 
 undations, which destroyed seven cities. In Egypt and Syria 
 violent earthquakes took^place ; and in China they became, from
 
 History of Anivial Plagues. 
 
 99 
 
 this time, more and more frequent; for thcv recurred in 1344, 
 in Ven-chow^ where the sea overflowed in consequence; in 1345, 
 in Ki-chow^ and in both the following years in Canton, with 
 subterraneous thunder. Meanwhile floods and famines devast- 
 ated various districts, until 1347, when the fury of the elements 
 subsided in China. ^ 
 
 The signs of terrestrial commotions commenced in Europe 
 in the year 1348, after the intervening districts of country in 
 Asia had probably been visited in the same maimer. 
 
 On the island of Cyprus, the plague from the East had 
 already broken out ; when an earthquake shook the foundations 
 of the island, and was accompanied by so frightful a hurricane, 
 that the inhabitants who had slain their Mahometan slaves, 
 in order that they might not themselves be subjugated by them, 
 fled in dismay, in all directions. The sea overflowed, the ships 
 were dashed to pieces on the rocks, and few outlived the terrific 
 event, wherebv this fertile and blooming island was converted 
 into a desert. Before the earthquake, a pestiferous wind spread 
 so poisonous an odour, that many, being overpowered by it, fell 
 down suddenly and expired in dreadful agonies,^ Villanius, the 
 historian of Florence, gives an account of a pestilence, which, 
 beginning in Upper Asia, in 1346, spread from Cathay, the 
 ancient name for China, in all directions, nearly depopulating 
 the whole of Asia, and penetrating Egypt, Greece, and Italy, to 
 France, Spain, England, and Germany. It arose, he tells us, 
 from a foul-smelling vapour, which was imagined to have eman- 
 ated from some fiery body of aerial or terrestrial origin. This 
 gas destroyed all that stood in its way, and horses and cattle 
 suffered severely, but not more so than the human species. Trees, 
 and everything else, for the space of fifteen days^ journey around 
 its track, were blighted, and curious creatures, furnished with 
 feet and tails, worms, and swarms of snakes, fell upon the earth. 
 In a short time these putrefied, and the stench from them so in- 
 fected the atmosphere, that pestilence prevailed everywhere.^ 
 
 This phenomena is one of the rarest that has ever been ob- 
 served, for nothing is more constant than the composition ot the 
 
 * Deguignes. History of China, p. 226. • Ibid. p. 225. 
 
 ' Gio. Villani. Istoric Florentine, book xii. chap. 121, 122.
 
 lOO History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 air; and in no respect has nature been more careful in the pre- 
 servation of organic life. Never have naturalists discovered in 
 the atmosphere foreign elements, which, evident to the senses, 
 and borne by the winds, spread from land to land, carrying 
 disease over whole portions of the earth, as is recounted to have 
 taken place in the year 1348. It is, therefore, the more to be 
 regretted, that in this extraordinary period, which, owing to the 
 low condition of science, was very deficient in accurate observers, 
 so little can be depended on respecting those uncommon occur- 
 rences in the air, should have been recorded. Yet, German 
 accounts say expressly, that a thick, stinking mist advanced from 
 the east, and spread itself over Italy; and there could be no 
 deception in so palpable a phenomenon. Schnurrer and Chalin 
 mention this, and Spangenberg says, '■ There were also many 
 locusts, which had been blown into the sea by a hurricane, and 
 afterwards cast dead upon the shore, and produced a noxious 
 exhalation ; and a dense and awful fog was seen in the heavens, 
 rising in the east, and descending vpon Italy.' ^ The credibility 
 of unadorned traditions, however little they may satisfy physical 
 research, can scarcely be called in question when we consider 
 the connection of events; for just at this time earthquakes were 
 more general than they had been within the range of history. 
 In thousands of places chasms were formed, from whence arose 
 noxious vapours; and as at that time natural occurrences were 
 transformed into miracles, it was reported that a fiery meteor, 
 which descended on the earth far in the east, had destroyed 
 everything within a circumference of more than a hundred 
 leagues, infecting the air far and wide.'^ The consequences of 
 innumerable floods contributed to the same efl^ect ; vast river 
 districts had been converted into swamps; foul vapours arose 
 everywhere, increased by the odour of putrefied locusts, which 
 had never perhaps darkened the sun in thicker swarms spreading 
 from the east to the west, and of countless corpses, which even 
 in the well-regulated countries of Europe, they knew not how to 
 remove quickly enough out of the sight of the living. It is pro- 
 bable, therefore, that the atmosphere contained foreign, and 
 
 1 Cyriac Spa7igcnl>crg. Mansfeld Chronicle, chap. 287, fol. 336. 
 2 Mczcray. Histoire de France, vol. ii. p. 418. Paris, 1685.
 
 History of Animal Plagttes. loi 
 
 sensibly perceptible, admixtures to a great extent, which, at 
 least in the lower regions, could not be decomposed, or rendered 
 ineffective by separation. Now, if we go back to the symptoms 
 of the disease, the ardent inflammation of the lungs points out 
 that the organs of respiration yielded to the attack of an atmo- 
 spheric poison — a poison which, if we admit the independent 
 origin of the Black Plague at any one place on the globe, which 
 under such extraordinary circumstances it would be difficult to 
 doubt, attacked the course of the circulation in as hostile a 
 manner as that which produced inflammation of the spleen, and i 
 
 other animal contagions that cause swelling and inflammation of 
 the lymphatic glands. , 
 
 Pursuino; the course of these ffrand revolutions further, we ' 
 
 find notice of an unexampled earthquake, which, on the 25th of 
 January, 1348, shook Greece, Italy, and the neighbouring 
 countries. Naples, Rome, Pisa, Bologna, Padua, Venice, and ' 
 
 many other cities sufllered considerably. Whole villages were ' A 
 
 swallowed up. Castles, houses, and churches were overthrown, \ 
 
 and hundreds of people were buried beneath their ruins. In 
 Carinthia thirty villages, together with all the churches, were 
 demolished; more than a thousand corpses were drawn out of j 
 
 the rubbish; the city of Viilach was so completely destroyed, 
 that very few of its inhabitants were saved ; and when the earth 
 ceased to tremble, it was found that mountains had been moved 
 from their positions, and that many hamlets were left in ruins. j 
 
 It is recorded that, during this earthquake, the wine in the casks 
 became turbid, a statement which may be considered as furnish- 
 ing a proof, that changes causing a decomposition of the atmo- 
 sphere had taken place; but if we had no other information from 
 which the excitement of conflicting powers of nature during 
 these commotions might be inferred, yet scientific observations 
 in n)odern times have shown that the relation of the atmosphere , 
 
 to the earth is chanoed by volcanic influences. . . . Independ- 
 ently of this, however, we know that during this earthquake, the 
 duration of which is stated by sonic to have been a week, and ! 
 
 by others a fortnight, people experienced an unusual stupor and j 
 
 headache, and that many fainted away.' These destructive j 
 
 ' Albert Argentitiiens. Chronic, in i/rj/Zj. Scrip, rcr. Germanic. Francof. 15S5. ]
 
 102 Histo7'y of Anifnal Plagues. 
 
 earthquakes extended as far as the neighbourhood of Basle, and 
 recurred until the year 1360, throughout Germany, France, 
 Silesia, Poland, England, and Denmark, and much further 
 north. Towering icebergs formed at the same time on the 
 coast of East Greenland, in consequence of the general concus- 
 sion of the earth^s organism ; and no mortal, from that time 
 forward, has ever seen that shore or its inhabitants. Mezeray 
 savs, ' A universal earthquake, even in France and the northern 
 countries, threvv^ down entire cities, tore up trees and mountains, 
 covered the regions of the world with abysses so profound that 
 it appeared as if the infernal regions had opened to swallow up 
 the human species.^ ^ 
 
 Great and extraordinary meteors appeared in many places, 
 and were regarded with superstitious horror. A pillar of fire, 
 which on the 20th of December, 1348, remained for an hour at 
 sunrise over the Pope^s palace in Avignon;^ a fireball, which in 
 August of the same year was seen at sunset over Paris, and was 
 distinguished from similar phenomena by its longer duration, 
 not to mention other instances mixed up with wonderful prophe- 
 cies and omens, are recorded in the chronicles of that age. The 
 order of the seasons seemed to be inverted — rains (in Germany 
 these were blood-coloured), floods, and failures in crops were 
 so general, that few places were exempt from them. The con- 
 sequences of these failures were soon felt, especially in Italy and 
 the surrounding countries, where, in this year, a rain which had 
 continued for four months, destroyed the seed. ... To attempt, 
 five centuries after that age of desolation, to point out the causes 
 of a cosmical commotion, which has never recurred to an equal 
 extent, to indicate scientifically the influences which called forth 
 so terrific a poison in the bodies of men and animals, exceeds 
 the limits of human understanding. ... In the progress of con- 
 nected natural phenomena, from east to west, that great law of 
 nature is plainly revealed which has so often and evidently mani- 
 fested itself in the earth's organism, as well as in the state of 
 nations dependent upon it. In the inmost depths of the globe 
 that impulse was given in the year 1333, which in uninterrupted 
 
 1 Mezeray. Op. cit. p. 418. 2 Villatii. Op. cit.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 103 
 
 succession for six-and-twenty years shook the surface of the 
 earth, even to the western shores of Europe, f'rom the very 
 beginning the air partook of the terrestrial concussion, atmo- 
 spherical waters overflowed the land, or its plants and animals 
 perished under the scorching heat. The insect tribe was wonder- 
 fully called into life, as if animated beings were destined to com- 
 plete the destruction which astral and telluric powers had begun. 
 Thus did this dreadful work of nature advance from year to 
 year; it was a progressive infection of the zones, which exerted 
 a powerful influence both above and beneath the surface of the 
 earth ; and after having been perceptible in slighter indications, 
 at the commencement of the terrestrial commotions in China, 
 convulsed the whole earth. ^ 
 
 Observers have remarked that in many instances the lower 
 animals were strangely affected, and that fatal disease among 
 them either preceded, accompanied, or followed the Black Death. 
 Cutteis, for example, says, ' Rapacious wolves howled around the 
 walls of the cities by night and sated themselves with human 
 blood, though not by hiding in secret places, but by openly 
 bursting into the houses and tearino; the children from the 
 breasts of their mothers. And not only did the children suffer 
 from their cruel teeth, but even well-armed men, and they also 
 devoured many bodies by digging up the graves of the dead. 
 rhey seemed not to be wolves, but demons. Cuckoos and owls, 
 sitting on the housetops by night, used to utter dismal sounds; 
 bats in swarms on the houses, and while buildmg their nests in 
 the roofs, made a strange noise; crows without number, flying 
 about by day over the country, croaked ominously ; kites and 
 vultures in great crowds, while soarint!" in the air, oavc vent 
 to doleful cries; and many other birds in the woods, and diflcr- 
 ent brute beasts, coming from their lairs, wandered about the 
 country in great multitudes, giving many extraordinary signs of 
 evil import. ... In the first place^ a virulent plague broke 
 among the brute animals. Scab and leprosy attacked horses, 
 oxen, sheep, and goats, so that the hair fell from ofl" their bodies, 
 
 1 A portion of this description is taken from Hecker's admirable History of llic 
 Epidemics of the Middle Ages, translated by Dr Habington, and publislud by ihc 
 Sydenham Society. j
 
 104 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and they became emaciated and weak, and after a few days died. 
 Then this fearful pest rushed onwards in its terrific course 
 through the whole world, and raged against miserable man in 
 a most deadly manner/ ^ 
 
 At Rome, at the same time as mankind, cats and dogs, 
 fowls, and all other animals, became sick and died.^ At Gaza, 
 23,coo people and most of the animals were carried off in less 
 than six weeks.^ 'As it (the Sorte Diod) advanced, not only 
 men but animals fell sick and shortly expired, if they had touched 
 things belonging to the diseased or dead. Thus Boccaccio him- 
 self saw, at Florence, two hogs on the rags of a person who had 
 died of plague, and which, after staggering about for a short time, 
 fell down dead, as if they had taken poison. ' What gave the 
 more virulence to this plague was that, by being communicated 
 from the sick to the hale, it spread daily, like fire when it comes in 
 contact with large masses of combustibles. Nor was it caught only 
 by conversing with or coming near the sick, but even by touching 
 their clothes, or anything that they had before touched. It is 
 wonderful what I am going to mention, and had I not seen it 
 with my own eyes, and were there not many witnesses to attest 
 it beside myself, I should never venture to relate it, however 
 w^orthy it were of belief. Such, I say, was the quality of the 
 pestilential matter, as to pass not only from man to man, but, 
 what is more strange, it has been often known that anything 
 belonging to the infected, if touched by other creatures, would 
 certainly infect, and even kill, that creature in a short space of 
 time. One instance of this kind I took particular notice of. 
 The rags of a poor man just dead had been thrown into the 
 street; two hogs came up, and after rooting about amongst 
 these rags, and shaking them about in their mouths, in less than 
 an hour they both turned round and died on the spot.^* 
 
 In other places, multitudes of dogs, cats, fowls, and other 
 animals fell victims to the contagion;^ and it is to be presumed. 
 
 ^ Cutteis. In Farlato Illyricum Sacrum, vol. iii. Frari. Op. cit. p. 314. 
 ■^ Mdaxa. Op. cit. Vol. ii. p. 141. 3 j/ecker. Op. cit. 
 
 * Boccaccio. Decameron, Giomo i . introd. 
 
 * Auger, de Bitteris. Vit^ Romanor. Pontificum Muratori. Scrip, vol. iii. 
 
 556.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 103 
 
 remarks Hecker^that other epizootics among animals likewise took 
 place, although the ignorant writers of the 14th century are silent 
 on this point.^ 'Thus did the plague spread over England with un- 
 exampled rapidity after it had first broken out in the county of 
 Dorset, whence it advanced through the counties of Devon 
 and Somerset to Bristol, and thence reached Gloucester, Oxford, 
 and London. Probably few places escaped, perhaps not any, 
 for the annals of contemporaries report that throughout the 
 
 land only a tenth part of the inhabitants remained alive 
 
 Ireland was much less heavily visited than England. The dis- 
 ease seems to have scarcely reached the mountainous districts 
 of that kingdom. And Scotland, too, would perhaps have re- 
 mained free, had not the Scots av^ailed themselves of the dis- 
 comfiture of the English to make an irruption into their terri- 
 tory, which terminated in the destruction of their army by the 
 plague and by the sword, and the extension of the pestilence, 
 through those who had escaped, over the whole country. At 
 the commencement, there was in England a superabundance of all 
 the necessaries of life ; but the plague, which seemed then to be 
 the sole disease, was accompanied by a fatal murrain among the 
 cattle. Wandering about without their herdsmen, they fell by 
 thousands; and, as has likewise been observed in Africa, the 
 birds and beasts of prey arc said not to have touched them. Of 
 what nature this murrain may have been, can no more be deter- 
 mined than whether it originated from communication with 
 plague patients or from other causes; but thus much is certain, 
 that it did not break out until after the commencement of the 
 Black Death.^ 
 
 In consequence of this murrain, and the impossibility of 
 
 1 Hecker. The knowledge of contagion, especially as applied to an under- 
 standing of the diffusion of pestilential maladies, seems in the Middle Ages to have 
 been very exact and comprehensive. Hecker, in treating of this Black Plague of the 
 14th century, incidentally speaks of Gcntilis of Foligno, a celebrated physician, who 
 fell a victim to that disease while attending to the sick. He says of him : ' He 
 believed in a progressive infection from country to country, according to the notions 
 of the present day ; and the contagious power of the disease, even in the vicinity 
 of those affected by the plague, was, in his opinion, beyond all doubt {vciiaiosa 
 piUredo circa partes cordis et pulmonis dc qiiibtis excmite vencnoso vaporc, pcnctilum 
 est in vicinitatibus). On this point intelligent contemporaries were all agreed.' — 
 The Epidemics of the Middle Ages.
 
 io6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 removino- the corn from the fields^ there was everywhere a great 
 rise in the price of food, which to many was inexphcable, be- 
 cause the harvest had been plentiful. By others it was attributed 
 to the wicked designs of the labourers and dealers ; but it really 
 had its foundation in the actual deficiency arising from circum- 
 stances by which individual classes at all times endeavour to 
 profit. For a whole year, until it terminated in August, 1349, 
 the Black Plague prevailed in this beautiful island, and every- 
 where poisoned the springs of comfort and prosperity.^ The 
 diseased cattle were slaughtered, and infected herds were as 
 much as possible separated from those which were sound, while 
 the herdsmen who attended the former were not allowed to 
 come near the latter. ' In the same year there was a great plague 
 among sheep {lues ovium) in every part of the kingdom (England), 
 so that in one pasture-land alone more than 5000 died, and their 
 carcases were so putrid that neither beast nor bird would touch 
 them.^ ^ Barnes says of the epizooty : "^And first, by occasion 
 of the plague, the cattle, for want of men to look to them, 
 wandered about in fields at random, from whence nobody 
 drove or gathered them, so that they began to perish among 
 hedges and ditches in such numbers, that it was no less loss than 
 wonder to behold ; for there died, in and about one pasture, 
 more than 5000 sheep. Wherefore it might be supposed that 
 they also died in this manner, through some kind of plague 
 that was as strange and unaccountable among them as the 
 former had been to mankind; for it is said that neither beast 
 nor bird of prey would touch the carcases. And this is another 
 instance that the late pestilence doth yet differ from those of other 
 times, since usually beasts, by reason of their prone looks down- 
 wards on the earth, and their quicker scent therewithal, are first 
 infected, but here it happened quite contrary. However, there 
 shortly ensued hereby such a scarcity of cattle, that all provisions 
 
 ^ Heckcr, who quotes from Barnes and Wood. This learned author informs us, 
 on good authority, that 'after the cessation of the Black Plague, a greater fecundity 
 in women was everywhere remarkable— a grand phenomenon, which, from its 
 occurrence after a very destructive pestilence, proves to conviction, if any occurrence 
 can do so, the prevalence of a higher power in the direction of general organic 
 life.' 
 
 "^ Henry de Knyghton. Op. cit. Twysden. P. 2598.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 107 
 
 of flesh became excessively dear, as well as other beasts for use 
 and labour. Whereas, in the plague time, partly through their 
 great abundance, and partly, also, because, through the present 
 apprehension of death, men were then less intent upon gain, a 
 a:ood horse, worth forty shillings before, might be bought for a 
 mark; a large fat ox for four shillings, a cow for one shilling, 
 a heifer for sixpence, a fat mutton for fourpence, a sheep for 
 twopence, a lamb for twopence, one stone of wool for ninepence, 
 and other things went at the same rate in England. But now 
 the state of atfairs was altered ; and, besides the prodigious 
 decay of cattle aforesaid, there succeeded also a great dearth of 
 corn in manv parts of the world, not so much through any defect 
 or parsimony of Nature (for the fields were suflicicntly clothed 
 with grain in many parts, especially here in England), as partly 
 through an inordinate desire of gain in some, and also partly 
 from the want of men in most places to gather it.^ ^ 
 
 Adam Murimuth, for the year 1348 (but in reality for 1349), 
 after noticino; the unusual fall of rain that occurred in that year, 
 and which continued night and day for a long time, adds: 'At 
 which time a great mortality took place among men throughout 
 the land, beginning in the south and extending northwards, and 
 with such slaughter that scarcely one-half of the inhabitants 
 remained. In certain religious houses two alone survived out 
 of twenty; and, according to some, it destroyed a tenth part of 
 all the inhabitants. It was followed by a plague among animals 
 (£ vestigia lues animalinvi est secuta); then the remaining people 
 perished ; and the land, robbed of the people who cultivated it, 
 remained sterile, and such great misery followed that the land 
 could never after recover its former state.' ^ 
 
 Speed only says with regard to the mortality of cattle suc- 
 ceeding the epidemy : ' It rained from midsummer till Christ- 
 mas ; and so terrible a plague ran through the world, that the 
 earth was filled with graves and the air with cries, which was 
 seconded with murren of cattle and dearth of all things.' ^ 
 
 ^Barnes. The History of King Edward III. Cambridge, 1688, p. 440. For 
 the revolution in the system of agriculture which this grave pestilence occasioned, 
 see y. E. T. Rogers. A History of Agriculture and Prices in England. O.xford, 
 l866. '^ Adanii Murimuth. Chronica. 
 
 3 Speed. The Historic of Great Britaine. London, 1632, p. 694.
 
 io8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 In the bailiffs of Standon's accounts there is the entry for this 
 year : 'Defectus propter pestileiitiam hoc anno ; ' and forWellovv^ 
 * High price of tar and fat, due to pestilence, defecius servieniium 
 et magna mortalitas garcionum in patria.' ^ 
 
 Through the courtesy of Henry Harrod, Esq., F.S.A., I am 
 enabled to refer to a paper read by him before the Society of 
 Antiquaries, and entitled 'Details of a Murrain of the Fourteenth 
 Century, from the Court Rolls of a Norfolk Manor,' ^ which 
 will give the student of English epizootics some idea of the losses 
 incidental to an estate at this period, from what were, in those 
 days, when the nature of animal diseases was scarcely known, 
 termed 'murrains/ The details extend over a period of 6^ 
 years; and it is evident that many and various maladies must 
 have been grouped under the vague but terrible denomination. 
 It is but right to mention here that there is no proof whatever 
 that the disease affecting the cattle was ^Ae Cattle Plague. On the 
 contrary, there is every probability that it was not that malady, 
 from the fact that during this long period almost every kind of 
 domestic animal was affected, and the loss in cattle was never suffi- 
 ciently great in'any one year; while sheep appear to have been the 
 principal sufferers. And there was not one murrain during this 
 long period, but very many ; and no doubt the majority of the 
 deaths were due to enzootic, and, in part, to sporadic affections. 
 However, the account is sufficiently interesting to find a place here, 
 as it may in some degree furnish us with assistance in obtaining 
 a key to the ravages of murrains and their nature in the early 
 centuries of British agriculture, when oxen were so poor and 
 badly fed that six of them were required to draw the rude iron 
 plough-share, and scarcely half an acre could be turned up in a 
 long day's work. 
 
 Mr Harrod relates as follows : ' In looking over some Court 
 Rolls of the Manor of Heacham, in the county of Norfolk, I 
 met with some particulars of the murrain during the reigns of 
 Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV., which I have ex- 
 
 ^ Rogers. Op. cit. 
 
 - The Archseologia, vol. xli. 1866. A large portion of this interesting commu- 
 nication I am reluctantly compelled to omit ; but the comparative pathologist will 
 find himself well rewarded by a perusal of the Appendix A and E.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. loo 
 
 tracted, and by the courtesy of the solicitors of Mr Le Stramre 
 the present lord, I am permitted to bring them before the 
 society. 
 
 'The accounts taken were extremely minute and careful, 
 and the particulars of the live stock showed all the additions, 
 sales, and losses of ev^ery description during the year ending at 
 Michaelmas. To assist the auditors in testing the accounts of 
 the bailiff, the presentments of the losses by murrain appear 
 to have been made on oath at the Manor Courts; another 
 reason, probably, was to absolve the shepherds, who were bond 
 tenants of the manor, from liability on account of the losses 
 when not happening from want of proper care on their part. 
 
 'The presentments on the Court Roll commence in the 2Tst 
 year of Edward III., 1347, and whatever may have been the 
 case in other parts, in this corner of the kingdom the murrain 
 seems to have continued more or less severely during the rest 
 of the reisrn of Edward III., durinir the entire rei^n of Richard 
 II., and until the 13th year of Henry IV., a period of 63 years. 
 
 'The bailiffs' accounts for the whole of this period have not 
 been preserved ; a portion of them only remains ; and from this 
 I have gleaned a few particulars to assist in explaining the 
 entries on the rolls. 
 
 ' The stock account for the 33rd year of Edward III. shows 
 that at that time there were upon the farm 12 horses and stots (I 
 have treated the animals described ' stots ' as horses — not because 
 I believe them to be so in every case where the word is used, but 
 because the Stock Accounts of this Manor clearly desionate the 
 horses so),^ 53 head of cattle, and 7 calves, 733 sheep, and 140 
 lambs. 
 
 ^ The word ' slot ' is used in the Scotch lowlands to designate a bullock. I 
 never heard of the term being employed for horses in recent times. In Sir David 
 Lyndsay, however, as well as in Cliaucer, horses are so named ; and the designa- 
 tion is evidently derived from beyond the border. Chaxicer, in the fourteentii 
 century, the period of our Court Roll, when describing the steward's appearance 
 in the Canterbury Pilgrimage, testifies to this : 
 
 ' This Reevci sat upon a right good slot, 
 That was all pomelecgray (dappled gr.iy) and highte (liigli-l)red) Scot.' 
 
 Stot is supposed by Richardson, in his Dictionary of tlie English Langu.age, to be 
 derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'slod-hors,' and is of course only applicaljle to
 
 1 10 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ' In that of the i8th year of Richard II. there were lo horses^ 
 46 head of cattle, and 8 calves, 374 sheep, and 70 lambs. 
 
 ' I have been unable to find any later accounts »f Richard II. 
 or any of Henry IV. 
 
 ' The great pestilence commenced in London in November, 
 1348, and the chroniclers generally state that the murrain 
 amonffst the cattle commenced at or about the same time, but 
 the first presentment I find about it in the Heacham Court Rolls 
 fixes the commencement of it in that manor in August, 1346, 
 more than two years before. 
 
 ' This presentment, which was at a Court held the Monday 
 after the feast of the Invention of the Cross, in the 21st year of 
 Edward III., is to the following effect: — "Demurina, jurati 
 presentant quod unus bos, tres boviculi, unus stottus, unus hur- 
 tardus, tres multones, tres oves matrices, et quinque hogastri 
 moriebantur inter Gulam Augusti et diem hujus curiae casualiter 
 et non ob defectum alicujus custodie. Item quod sex porculi 
 similiter moriebantur in hyeme non ob defectum, &c. Item 
 quod septem porcelli in hyeme similiter, 8cc." 
 
 ' Little more than another month had elapsed when another 
 Court was held on the Thursday after the feast of St Barnabas, 
 when the following presentment appears : — " De murina, jurati 
 presentant quod una vacca post vitulacionem circa festum Sancte 
 Trinitatis moriebatur, unus vitulus similiter moriebatur, septem 
 multones ante tonsionem, novem oves matrices ante tonsionem 
 et agnelacionem, novem hoggastri ante tonsionem, et triginti et 
 sex agni et octo porculi similiter non ob defectum, Scc.^' 
 
 'But it is not my intention to place the whole mass of these 
 presentments before you. I have appended a number of them 
 sufficient to show the character of them to this paper — (these 
 extracts include the whole of the entries of murrain for the 21st 
 
 horses. He, however, admits that it also refers to oxen, being obtained from the 
 Swedish ' stut 'land Danish ' stud,' a steer. 
 Piers Ploughman writes 
 
 ' Grace of his goodnesse, gaf 
 Peers foure stottes.' 
 
 Rogers (Hist. Agric.) affirms that stotts were the small rough horses sometinies 
 called 'affiri' in medieval husbandry. — G. F.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. m 
 
 and 39th years of Edward III., the nth and 22nd of Richard 
 II., and the 8th and 9th of Henry IV. It is as well, however, 
 that I should state that every presentment on the Rolls relating 
 to murrain was extracted, and remains in my possession, so that 
 the figures of the general statement can be tested at any time) — 
 and will now merely state that during the 21st year of Edward 
 III. there appears to have died on this farm i horse, 7 bullocks, 
 2 cows, a calf, 48 sheep and 36 lambs, 3 sows, and 43 pio-s. 
 
 * In the 22nd year, i horse, 5 bullocks, a cow, 3 calves, 60 
 sheep, and 40 lambs. 
 
 ' In the 23rd year, the year of the pestilence, there is but one 
 presentment, recording the death of 1 1 ewes and 6 pigs. 
 
 ^ In the following year but a single death, that of a ewe, and 
 in the 25th year nothing whatever, and it might fairlv be sup- 
 posed to have ended. The Rolls for this year and the 29th are 
 not complete; and, since the above was written, a small frag- 
 ment of one of this year, with the remains of a murrain entry 
 on it, has been found, but too much decayed to make out any- 
 thing but the marginal note. In the 26th year it begins again, 
 commits more havoc in the 27th year, but less again in the 28th, 
 and the 29th year is again a blank ; once more it is rife in the 
 30th ; and in the 31st, 129 sheep and 96 Iambs are on the death 
 roll ; it has again nearly spent itself in the 35th year, but deaths 
 by it continue in each successive year; and in the 39th the 
 numbers rise again to 152 sheep and 190 lambs. In the nth 
 year ofT^ichard II. 143 sheep and 113 lambs died. 
 
 'During: all this time other cattle suffered, but not at all in 
 like proportion to the sheep. 
 
 ' The effect of its ravages will be better understood by the 
 statement I have carefully prepared from the presentments, which 
 shows the total of deaths of each kind of stock in every year 
 durincr the continuance of the murrain. It will be seen from it 
 that so late as the 8th year of Henry IV., 8 bullocks, 13 cows, 
 and 66 sheep died, and the account closes in the 13th year with 
 a sow and 3 pigs. 
 
 ' It will be seen, too, from this account, that among the 
 sheep, the lambs, ewes, and hoggets were most affected by it, and 
 the calves and cows more in proportion than the other stock.
 
 1 1 2 History of A niinal Plagttes. 
 
 Occasionally, too, the swans and peacocks died from it; a few 
 geese and capons are recorded, but other poultry are scarcely 
 once mentioned. Where the loss has arisen from other causes, 
 and has been accidentally included in the murrain account, the 
 cause of the loss is inserted. In the 43nd Edward III, ''Item 
 octo hyves apum" is immediately followed by " per tempestatem 
 
 vemis." 
 
 '■ But perhaps the most curious fact appearing in these ex- 
 tracts, is that the murrain affected the bees. I began to suspect, 
 when the first few entries of hives of bees fell under my notice, 
 that losses from other causes than murrain were mixed up in 
 these presentments; but two of the 45th year of Edward III. 
 put the matter at rest, as they expressly state that so many 
 "ruscae apium sunt in morina." As many as ten hives were lost 
 in that year, and there was some loss in the apiary nearly every 
 year for twenty years. ^ 
 
 ' The first presentments I have called attention to were made 
 by the jury or homage of the court, on the Thursday after St 
 Martin, in the 31st of Edward III. The presentment is made 
 by the coroners, and so it continues down to the 36th year, when 
 the homage and coroners jointly make it ; and on the Wednes- 
 day before the feast of St Thomas the Apostle of that year the 
 entry is "Humagium et Coronatores presentant quod Dominus 
 habet in murina viginti et septem hoggastros,^' &c. 
 
 'After this for some years the entry simply states the fact 
 that the lord had in murrain such and such cattle, witfiout ex- 
 pressly stating by whom such presentment was made. In the 
 46th year of Edward III. new officers appear on the scene. At 
 the court on Monday after the Purification the presentment is 
 made by the bailiff", sub-bailiff", and cadaverators, but during the 
 rest of the reign as before. In the first of Richard II., at the 
 court on Monday before St Wynwaloc the Abbot, the present- 
 
 ^ It must be borne in mind that for long before this period, and for some time 
 after, bees formed no inconsiderable portion of the agricultm-al wealth. All food 
 that required it was sweetened with honey before sugar was had recourse to, and 
 into the composition of many of the Saxon beverages that article largely entered. 
 Therefore it was that a mortality amongst the bees was considered a somewhat 
 serious calamity, and of sufficient importance to obtain a notice in the chronicles 
 of the period. But there was evidently no relationship between the morina of the 
 bees and that of the sheep and cows.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 113 
 
 ment is made bv the whole homage with the cadaverators, aiul 
 by these latter manv of the subsequent presentments are made. 
 
 * I presume these officers had the charge of the disposal of 
 the carcases of the cattle dying of murrain, and I oceasionallv 
 met with their election by the homage of the courts, as on the 
 Tuesday after St Valentine 7th Richard II. — ''They elect John 
 Barnege and Geffrey Cay into the office of cadaverators, who 
 say, &c. ; " and again in the course of the following year — " They 
 elect John Baronne and Geffrey Cay into that office, and they 
 are sworn, 8cc.'' 
 
 'From the two bailiffs' accounts I have before referred to, 
 the 33rd Edward III. and the 18th Richard II., it will seem that 
 the stock on the farm had considerably diminished, the sheep in 
 the latter account amounting to only about half the number 
 mentioned in the former. The purchases of stock were less on 
 some occasions, the lambs much less numerous, and many ewes 
 are stated to have been sterile; and I also observe such entries 
 as, that a dozen very sickly hoggets were sold " pro timore mori- 
 nae.'' These particular ones were sold at '^\d. a head, the current 
 price at that time being \']d. If they were (as it seems likely they 
 were) affected with the disease, it was a ready way of spreading it. 
 
 ' I trust I have sufficiently shown, without troubling you 
 with a mass of extracts (of which those in Appendix B are not 
 a twentieth part), that the murrain mentioned to have occurred 
 in 1348, and those of 1363 and 1369, were really one continuous 
 visitation. 
 
 ' It is quite certain, that on this one farm in the western 
 part of the county of Norfolk it commenced in 1346, and con- 
 tinued rising and felling in intensity, until it almost suddenly 
 ceased in November, 141 1. So accustomed had people become 
 to it by the 44th Edward III., that it is spoken of as the ''com- 
 mon murrain," and although it does not appear to have swept 
 off the entire flock, as in the case mentioned by Knyghton, the 
 a^roTcirate loss is very large, and if the numbers lost on other 
 farms bore any proportion to these, the eflect in such a county 
 as Norfolk must have been very serious.' ^ 
 
 ' Mr Ilarrofl appears to have been fully impressed with tlie idea tliat llie tiiin 
 ' murrain,' employed so frequently in this roll, could refer to nothing but the Cattle 
 
 8
 
 114 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1349. ' In this year the contagion (of the plague) pene- 
 trated to the city of Zara, the capital of Austrian Dalmatia, and 
 produced extreme terror^ as well as mortality, killing more than 
 two thousand people. At the same time, a ferocious epizooty 
 broke out over the whole country, which destroyed nearly all the 
 animals/^ In England, ^ great rains from St John's day to 
 Christmas, so that a day scarcely passed in which it did not rain 
 either bv day or by night. From this intemperance a great 
 mortality of people ensued ; according to some scarcely a tenth 
 of the population were left; cattle mortality followed.'^ 'Severe 
 diseases seized the cattle throughout the counties of Somerset 
 and Devon, and a great mortality took place among them, 
 which was the origin of taking gold in payment for cattle from 
 Englishmen.^ ^ This last has reference to the intercourse between 
 England and Ireland. 
 
 A.D. 1350. ' A grievous plague (in Germany), so that death 
 oppressed both man and beast.' * ' There was a great famine in 
 Barbary and Morocco ; to supply which Christian nations trans- 
 ported such quantities of corn as made it too cheap and plentiful 
 there, but left a famine at home. This was followed by terrible 
 inundations, storms, and tempests ; by fearful meteors of flames, 
 and fire in the air. These were succeeded by excessive drought 
 and want of water; from all which followed the destruction of 
 most animals and vegetables. This year the great plague 
 reached Coventry.' ° 
 
 A.D. 1352, ' So droughty a summer, that for want of water 
 much cattle died in the pastures ; the fens and marshes were so 
 dried, that there was a way where there was none before.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1353- At Cremona, near Mantua, a mighty storm of 
 hail which destroyed cattle and people, and even damaged houses. 
 Some of the hailstones weighed eight pounds, and their general 
 weight was one pound." 
 
 A.D. 1356. 'A fearful plague in Germany, which was pre- 
 
 Plague -which was so destructive in this country when his interesting paper was 
 published. 
 
 ' Frari. Op. cit., p. 315. 2 Otterbourtte. ^ lola iJ/^". 
 
 * Chronic. Lattgebek. Vol. i. p. 58. 
 
 * T. Shoi-t. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 177. ^ Ibid. 
 '' Barnes. Op. cit.
 
 History of A nimal Plagiies. 1 1 q 
 
 ceded by an eclipse of the sun and moon, and great earthquakes, 
 by which many castles and other buildings were thrown down. 
 The pestilence that followed first attacked the flocks of sheep, 
 then passed on to the cattle, and finally destroyed a great multi- 
 tude of men.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1360. 'There was a great dearth this year, and mor- 
 tality of people, called the " second plague," because it was the 
 second in the reio;n of Edward III., and a very ffreat death of 
 cattle and horses. Six thousand horses died in the army ; many 
 houses were burnt bv thunder and lightning ; many strange 
 meteors were seen in the air.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1363. Under this date, William of Worcester mentions 
 a great epizootv among animals in England. ' In this year, the 
 twentv-eighth year of King Edward's reign, there was a severe 
 scarcity of corn in the summer, and a e^eat murrain of animals 
 [mngna morlna animalium) J ^ 
 
 A.D. 1366. A disease, or, as it is called, a battle, among spar- 
 rows. ' This year fell abundance of rain in time of hay harvest, 
 whereby much hay and corn was lost. This year also happened 
 a great quarrel among the sparrows, which came to a decisive 
 battle, wherein not numbers, but great heaps, were killed. A 
 great mortality of people followed, so as many who went well to 
 bed at nisfht, were found dead next morning.' * 
 
 A.D. 1369. In England, a great mortality in man, ' and like- 
 wise a marvellous murrain upon cattell, so that the like had not 
 been seen in many years before."' 
 
 A.D. 1370. ^This year began the next great plague, called 
 the third mortality. This was very great, both of people and 
 cattle ; the like seldom heard of. The west country, as Oxford, 
 was most afflicted by it.' " 
 
 A.D. 1375. An epizooty among deer, roebucks, hogs, hares, 
 and foxes in Germany, according to the report of Gassari. 
 Mencken says, 'There was a conta(>,ious disease which destroved 
 
 > //. Mutiiis. Chronic. Piston Scrip, rcr. German. Edit. Sfnivc. II. p. S96. 
 
 - T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 178. 
 
 ^ Wilhelmi VVyrccstcr. Annales Rerum Anglic. 
 
 < T. Shofi. Op. cit., vol. i. ji. 180. 
 
 * Graflon. Op. cit. " T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. iSo.
 
 1 1 6 History of A nhnal Plagues. 
 
 stags, wolves, fawns, bears, goats, wild boars, hares, and foxes. 
 I find in the old chronicles that the native hunters were not 
 astonished at this mortality/ * 
 
 A.D. 1383. 'This Lent, the Duke of Lancaster, and the 
 English army, lying on a marshy ground in Scotland, had a 
 great loss both of men and horse, from the extraordinary cold 
 and wet/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1385. In the accounts of Alton Barnes, Mr Rogers 
 finds the following item : ' Gr^at mortality among sheep — 15 
 per cent, of sheep, ^^ of lambs, died.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1385-7. ' The greater portion of the bovine species in 
 the State and episcopate of Placentia died ; and the same thing 
 happened, though to a greater extent, in the States of Lombardy. 
 All the fowls, too, died, from a contagious disease; so that when 
 one began to die, they all died.'* In the same years there was 
 much disease in mankind at Mallorca, Lisbon, and Gallicia, and 
 influenza was very prevalent. 
 
 A.D. 1386, A murrain of cattle in England.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1389. 'March 5th, rose a sore and terrible wind, which 
 overthrew houses, broke and rent trees, and destroyed much 
 cattle. This was followed by a great mortality and plague; 
 much youth died everywhere in cities (from anginas and dysen- 
 tery), towns, and country. After this a great dearth of corn. 
 . . . Whilst the king was at Sheen, in July, in his court were 
 seen such swarms of flies and gnats skirmishing with one 
 another, that in the end their killed were swept away with 
 brooms, and bushels were filled with them.'*^ A murrain among 
 deer in England : * Murrena damarum ferarum.' '' The farm 
 accounts of Alton Barnes, according to Mr Rogers,* exhibit the 
 following entry : ' Scab and sickness very prevalent among 
 sheep.' Those for Letherhead have the same report. 
 
 A.D. 1390. When King Edward was on his march to 
 Chartres, a terrible storm of thunder and lightning overtook his 
 army, and killed six thousand horses and one thousand men. 
 
 ' Mencken. Vol. i. p. 1516. - T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 182. 
 3 Rogers. Op. cit. * Muratori. Chronic. Placentia. 
 
 5 //. de Kityghton. Op. cit. "^ Baker. Op. cit. 
 
 ■' //. de Knyghton. Op. cit. ** Hist. Agricult.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 117 
 
 A.D. 1392. 'During the whole of the past summer, the 
 largest rivers of Franee, which carry the tribute of their waters 
 to the sea, were dried up, and could no longer serve as transport. 
 Not only did no rain fall, but the earth scarcely furnished the 
 springs with water. In certain places this famine of water 
 made great ravages among the flocks, which died of thirst on 
 the banks of fountains and streams, or succumbed to contagious 
 maladies.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1401. In England, '^ the insects of leaves did immense 
 injury throughout the country, by consuming the leaves and grass 
 to such an extent that no provender was left for cattle.' "' They 
 were destroyed by lime, which likewise fertilized the ground, 
 and is said to have ffiven orioin to lijne manuring. 
 
 A.D. 1407. ' A long and severe winter in England. Frost 
 and snow lay all December, January, February, and March. 
 Thrushes, blackbirds, and many thousands of smaller birds died 
 from hunger and cold.'^ In Ireland, 'very inclement weather, 
 and a great destruction of cattle in this year.' * ' There was 
 foul and bad weather this year, and a great murrain of cattle.'^ 
 A pestilence in Wales from a putrid fish which was cast ashore." 
 
 A.D. 1414. According to Saxo Grammaticus, a severe form 
 of dysentery ravaged Germany, affecting horses, cattle, dogs, 
 and cats, as well as man. 
 
 A.D. 1423. The priory of All Saints, which stood upon the 
 site now occupied by Trinity College, Dublin, ' was reduced to 
 such a state of misery, by the unfruitfulness of the seasons, by 
 the mortality of men and cattle,' and other circumstances, that 
 the revenue of the establishment was insufficient for its support.'' 
 
 A.D. 1425. 'Very inclement weather in Ireland this year 
 from November ist to May, which caused a great destruction 
 upon cows, and delay in ploughing throughout the island, and 
 loss of people.' * 
 
 A.D. 1430. An epidemy in Italy, and soon after i^'^i.) a great 
 
 ^ Chroniques de St Denys, ii. p. 45. Edition, 1S40. 
 
 2 lola MS. 3 T. Short. Op. cit., p. 1S5. 
 
 * Annals of Connaught. '■' Annals of Clonniacnoise. 
 « lola M.S. 
 
 ^ Registry of the Priory of All Saints. Irish Archscol. Transactions. 
 
 * Annals of Clonniacnoise.
 
 ii8 History of Animal Plagites. 
 
 mortality of people at Augsburg, in Germany, succeeded by a 
 serious epizooty among horses. ' Et sicuti superiore aestate 
 homines, ita hac equi apud nos sua quadam strage magno 
 numero periere/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1433. In Germany, a severe winter, inundations, famine, 
 and a mortality among cattle/ ^ 
 
 In Spain, ' in the month of January, 1433, there happened 
 in the kingdom of Aragon and Navarre a terrible snow-storm 
 {nevasco tan furioso), which continued for forty days, and 
 during which there perished a vast number of people and cattle; 
 though whether this loss arose from the great cold, or from some 
 epidemic and epizootic diseases occurring at that time, is not 
 known.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1434. In Ireland, ^a great frost commenced at the end 
 of this year, i.e. five weeks before Christmas, and it continued , 
 seven weeks after it; and droves of cows, and troops of horses 
 and people, used to pass upon the chief lakes of Erinn ; and 
 there was great slaughter brought upon the birds of Erinn by 
 that frost.'* 
 
 A.D. 1441. During the reign of Frederick III. an epizooty of 
 all the domestic animals broke out in Germany, consequent, it 
 would appear, on inundations, caused by long rains and the 
 overflowing of rivers. It was apparently a violent form of 
 dysentery. Saxo attributed it to the corruption of the water 
 and the general unhealthiness of the pastures and fruits.^ 
 
 A.D. 1442. In Germany, a severe epizooty among cattle 
 [mortaUtas bourn), following the appearance of a comet which 
 was visible for fourteen nishts.^ 
 
 A.D. 1443. For Ireland it is recorded : ' A rainy tempestuous 
 year after May, so that very many fishes multiplied in all the 
 rivers in Ireland, and it much hurted both bees and sheepe in 
 Ireland also,' ^ This is the third epizooty of bees and the 
 
 ^ Gassari. ]\Ieftcken. Scrip, i. p. 1581. 
 
 - Spangenbcrg. Mans. Chronic. 
 
 2 Villalba. EpidemiologiaEspanola, i. p. 95. 
 
 ^ Annals of Ulster. 
 
 '■' Alichael Saxo. Chronic. Cses. Spangciiberg. Op. cit., p. 3S0. 
 
 ^ CosrriiB. Prag. Chronic. Mencken. Scrip, rer. German., i. p. 1992. 
 
 ' Mac Firbis. Annals of Ireland.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. iin 
 
 second of sheep in Ireland. In Italy, Gaul, Germany, Spain, 
 and other countries, and also in Asia, famine and plaoues 
 reigned for nearly seven years. At this period Don Alonzo V., 
 King of Aragon, surnamed The Wise, subdued the kingdom of 
 Naples. In consequence, however, of a stubborn resistance 
 shown in the province of the Abruzo, and the toil and hardship 
 inseparable from a desperate and lingering war, the cavalry, 
 almost the only arm employed, suffered very much, the horses 
 dying by hundreds from an epizooty of a particular character. 
 The king, in view of this great mortality, ordered his major- 
 domo, Manuel Diaz, to assemble all the veterinary surgeons of 
 the cavalry to investigate the nature of the malady, and to com- 
 pose a book on veterinary medicine. This order was complied 
 with, and veterinary science thereby received a fresh impulse, as 
 is noted in the Spanish Hippatria, or veterinary manual of 
 Spain. ^ 
 
 A.D. I-I45. 'A great mortalitie of the cattle throughout 
 Ireland; both want of victuals and dearth of corn in Ireland 
 also.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1450. In Ireland, 'a hard warlike year was this, with 
 many storms and great losse of cattle.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1456. In this year a comet appeared which struck 
 terror throughout Europe, already in a sad state of consternation 
 from the inroads of the Turks. Pope Calixtus III., as supersti- 
 tious as the ignorant masses, or desirous of gratifying them, 
 ordered a prayer, in which he conjured the Turks and the comet 
 alike. The wheat was all destroyed by red blight. 
 
 A.D. 1462. 'Create frost in this yeare that slaughtered many 
 flocks of birds in Ireland.^* Fabyn speaks of the King of Eng- 
 land, Edward IV., being in this year 'vysyted with the syke- 
 nesse of pockys (smal.l-pox). ' '" 
 
 A.D. 1464. An ej)idemic colic or cholera in Ireland, which 
 
 ^ Villalba. Epid. Espaii. i. p. 98. This work was written in the I-imousin- 
 Calalane dialect, and was multiplied by many written copies. At a later periotl it 
 was translated into Castilian and printed. Perhaps the earliest edition is one that 
 had the following title : Libro de Albeyteria, por Don Manuel Diaz. V'^i"'igo9a, 
 1495. Another addition, corrected, appeared at Toledo, in 15 11. 
 
 ''■ Mac Firbis. Annals of Ireland. =* Ibid. ' H'id. 
 
 * Fabyn. Chronicle. London, 1559. Vol. ii. pt. 7.
 
 I20 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 likewise attacked the lower animals, and was believed to be 
 infectious, for we read that 'Murtagh, the son of Art O'Melag- 
 lin, and his wife, daughter of O'Coffey, and three others besides, 
 died in one dav, from having seen a horse that had perished of 
 the same spasms.' ^ In another record it is stated that these people 
 died from looking ' at a horse which died of the same lumps; ' ^ 
 and another has it, ' it was -said that the occasion of their death 
 was their coming to see a horse that perished by some swelling 
 knobs.' ^ Might this not rather be anthrax or farcy which 
 affected the horse ? From the sudden death of the people men- 
 tioned, I think there is every probability of its being the former 
 contaoious maladv. 
 
 A.D. 1473. ^" Ireland, ' a great destruction of cows [Bo-dhith] 
 this year/ * 
 
 A.D. 1479. ' ^^^ ^^^'^ y^'^'' ^^^^ great mortality and death by 
 the pestilence, not only in London, but in divers parts of the 
 realm, which began in the latter end of September in the year 
 last before passed, and continued all this year till the beginning 
 of November, which was about fourteen months, in the which 
 space died innumerable of people in the said city and elsewhere.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1480. A murrain among cattle in England.*' The pre- 
 ceding summer had been very hot, and there was a great drought. 
 This year was very wet, and there were extensive inundations of 
 the Tiber, the Po, the Danube, the Rhine, and most of the other 
 great rivers. Famine and disease followed, from the destruction 
 of the crops and the saturation of the air with moisture.'' In 
 
 ' Annals of the Four Masters. ^ Annals of Connaught. 
 
 ^ Mac Firbis. Op. cit. * Annals of Connaught. 
 
 ^ HoUnshcd. Op. cit. 
 
 " The Royal Commissioners in their First Report published in October, 1865, 
 think that this murrain, as well as that which appeared in 1348-9, was analogous 
 to, if not identical with, the Cattle Plague then devastating England. Of this I 
 cannot find the slightest proof, for the symptoms of diseases in these early times 
 are, except in rare instances, so obscurely enumerated, if at all, that we might as 
 well believe them to be eczema epizootica, epizootic dysentery, epizootic anthrax, 
 or any other likely malady. From the fact that almost every kind of animal was 
 attacked by disease during the Black Death, it seems exceedingly probable that the 
 panzootic malady was similar to that in man. I may add I am unable to find any 
 mention of this epizooty besides that in the report of the Commissioners, though I 
 have made diligent search for it. 
 
 ■^ Werlich. Chronica. Statt. Augsburg, p. 236. Spangenberg. Op. cit.
 
 History of Ajiijnal Plagues. 121 
 
 Switzerland and Southern Germany malignant epidemics ap- 
 peared in this year and the next, and putrid fever raged in man- 
 kind in Westphalia, Hesse, and Friesland.^ There had neverl 
 been in the memory of the inhabitants so many ignis fatni seen ' 
 as during this period. In France, under the oppressive reign of 
 Louis XL, famine, disease, and misery. The peasantry south 
 of the Loire had nothiniz; to eat but the roots of wild herbs. In 
 many places women and children were obliged to draw the 
 plough, y)-o?« the want oj draught cattle ; they were obliged, too, 
 to carry on the cultivation by night, that they might not be ob- 
 served by the kino's inhuman revenue officers.^ 
 
 A.D. 1481. Drought and famine in Switzerland and Germany, 
 and putrid fever in the human species in Westphalia, Hesse, and 
 Friesland. The harvests failed. Unprecedented appearance of 
 ignis fatui in these countries, which had been ravaged by innu- 
 merable swarms of locusts for some years. There was also a 
 very grave plague amongst animals, which caused the loss of 
 one-third of their number.^ 
 
 A.D. 1490. An earthquake in Sligo. ' Many horses and 
 cows were also killed by it, and much putrid flesh was thrown 
 up; and a lake in which fish is (now) caught, sprang up in the 
 place.'* 
 
 A.D. 1491. The sweating sickness in mankind in Ireland. 
 'This year there was such a famine that it was called the " Dis- 
 mal year.'" ^ In 1491 appeared a comet; the season was very 
 wet; an epidemic swept awav cattle, and a famine afflicted Ire- 
 land.' ® ' There was a comet in Poland, with a great eclipse of 
 the sun. Afterwards there was a ffreat dearth of cattle.' '' 
 
 A.D. 1492. In Ireland, ' this summer was so dr\', that abund- 
 ance of cattle perished for want of water; and the air grew so 
 pestilential that a multitude of people, and particularly the Lord 
 of Slane, died of the plague.' * 
 
 ' Franck Von Woed. Chronica. Zeytbuch und Geschychtibitel. fol. 211. 
 2 Mezeray. Loc. cit., vol. ii. p. 720. Heckcr. 
 
 .3 Annals of Langebek, vol. i. p. 195. * Annals of the Four Masters. 
 
 ^ Smith. History of Cork. 
 
 « Webster. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases. London, 
 1800. Vol. i. p. 238. 
 
 ■" Fundius. ® Hibernica Anglicana.
 
 122 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D, 1495. Locusts in Spain. In the preceding year there 
 was a severe mortahty amongst wild animals {sylvestr'mm aniina- 
 liiim mortalitas), presaging (it was remarked) the bubonic plague 
 which occurred this year in the human species.^ 
 
 A.D. 1496. In Ireland, ' Great inclemency this year, so that 
 great destruction was brought upon cows and all other beasts. A 
 great dearth [ascolt) throughout nearly the whole of Erinn this 
 year; and a great hindrance to fattening this year. Great in- 
 clemency in the autumn of this year, by which all men, and par- 
 ticularly in Fermanagh, were ruined in respect to their corn/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1499- In Germany there was a dreadful murrain in 
 cattle, and people were much afflicted by pestilence. Vegetation 
 was nearly destroyed by blights and caterpillars, and mould- 
 spots, or signacula,^ were observed in France and Germany. 
 Schenkius tells us that famine reigned in many parts of Europe, 
 accompanied by disease. The preceding winter had been so 
 severe as to kill nearly the whole of the brute creation, and the 
 summer was so intensely hot, that trees were set on fire by the 
 heat of the sun.* 
 
 1 Chron. Monast. Mellic. Pez. Scrip, rer. Austriac, vol. i. p. 273. 
 
 - Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ^ The exact nature of these signacida, or blood spots, does not seem to have been 
 investigated until 1819, when, in Padua, a farmer having experienced great alarm 
 from discovering crimson spots, like blood, on his maize porridge, a commission of 
 scientific men was appointed to investigate the alarming phenomenon. One of 
 the commission, M. Sette, imagined the vivid patches to be composed of micro- 
 scopical fungi, which he designated Zoogaladina imetrofa. The renowned Ehren- 
 berg, however, considers them to be made up not of fungi, but a kind of animal- 
 cule which he named Alonas prodigiosa, from its extreme minuteness. Like the 
 blood corpuscles, these creatures when examined individually appear as transparent 
 and without colour, but when viewed as a mass have the tint of blood. In size 
 they are from the three-thousandth to an eight-thousandth part of a line in length, 
 and a cubic inch is supposed by the great microscopist and naturalist to be capable 
 of containing from 46,656,000,000,000 to 884,836,000,000,000 of these animated 
 specks.' Passat Staub und Blut-regen.'2ta\m., 1849. Hist. Influenza. 
 
 * Schenkius. Hist. Gen. Hanover.
 
 123 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1 500 TO A.D. 1700. 
 
 We have now advanced so far in the history of epizootic 
 maladies that it would seem desirable to pause, as we find our- 
 selves leaving a most unprofitable era, and about to enter on the 
 threshold of one pregnant with great results to the sciences in 
 general, but especially to that of medicine. We have glanced, 
 furtively it may be, at the position of veterinary medicine in the 
 beginning of the Christian centuries, and found that it occupied 
 a place among the sciences of the Greeks and Romans. From 
 the Egyptians, the Greeks had no doubt borrowed very much 
 of what they knew of the diseases pertaining to the domestic 
 animals, and they had been, with their love for learning of all 
 kinds, and their great regard for the welfare of the social quad- 
 rupeds, most careful in not only treasuring up this knowledge, 
 but adding to it. 
 
 The Romans not only copied what the Greeks knew, but em- 
 ployed the most skilful Greek veterinarians in their armies, and 
 some of the writings of these men, as we have seen, are yet extant. 
 The diseases of the horse and ox were found to be particularly 
 worthy of study, as a vast amount of national wealth was invested 
 in these animals ; and also because, from the hazards of war, 
 and the little advance agriculture and the study of the laws ot 
 health had yet made, they were particularly liable to attacks o. 
 disease which destroyed vast numbers, and rendered attempts at
 
 124 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 remedial measures really of great moment. Before the Christian 
 era, and up to the fourth century, there were veterinarians, and 
 even veterinary schools, and physicians acquired much of their 
 learning from the study of animal medicine. But on the death of 
 Augustus and the fall of the Roman Empire, the progress of learn- 
 ing and the arts sustained a sad reverse. The horrors and the 
 desolation attendant upon the invasion of this ancient but ad- 
 vanced civilization by the Goths and V^andals in the sixth cen- 
 tury, buried all in gloom. This great revolution, which marked 
 the termination of an antiquated civilization in as great obscurity 
 as it had begun, was quickly succeeded by a startling event — the 
 commencement of modern history in the midst of this confusion, 
 and the appearance of a new dominant race, the Arab, ruling 
 over many of the semi-civilized and barbarous tribes dwelling in 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa. A new religion stimulated this people 
 to conquest, and Mahomet propagated his creed sword in 
 hand. Under his successors, the remaining Alexandrian library 
 — containing, it is said, 700,000 volumes — was burnt, and the 
 treatises on medicine which escaped destruction were but few. 
 Medical science made scarcely any progress in the changes and 
 contentions which ensued for supremacy. 
 
 The Goths were a nation of warriors, who forbade their 
 children the knowledge of reading and writing, or any other kind 
 of learning, save that pertaining to the use of warlike weapons ; 
 believing, as they did, that education and the arts and sciences 
 had enervated and made effeminate the strength and bravery of 
 the Romans. True it is, that in the days of the Byzantine em- 
 pire veterinary medicine was in a somewhat flourishing condition, 
 having such representatives as Apsyrtus, Hippocrates, Theom- 
 nestus, and others, and in general was in advance of human medi- 
 cine, until the fall of that empire. But neither were in very 
 promising state, and in Europe the Arabs were but slow in 
 making their learning known, though in 980 Avicenna had 
 written his celebrated svstem of medicine. When the Byzantine 
 empire was finally demolished, learning may be said to have 
 slumbered. But by degrees, though slowly, it began to awake, 
 and the arts tardily commenced to revive; yet, under the Saracens, 
 that most essential branch of medical study, anatomy, was
 
 Histo7'v of Animal Plaorucs. 
 
 12 
 
 1 :; 
 
 J 
 
 absolutely neglected, the Koran peremptorily forbidclini>- the 
 touching- of dead bodies, much less their dissection. It was not 
 till the middle of the fifteenth century that himian medicine had 
 sufficient attention bestowed on it to redeem it from almost utter 
 neglect ; though veterinary medicine was yet in advance. Jor- 
 danus Ruffus, Laurentius Rusius, and others of this period, excel- 
 led the most noted physicians in simply and faithfully describing 
 the diseases of the lower animals; and even the Arabs had far more 
 love for the horse than their own species; for their writings havino; 
 reference to its maladies are numerous and more complete than 
 those referrino; to man. One cause of this revival was, doubtless, 
 due to the influence the Crusades had in carrvino; back from the 
 Holy Land copies of such writings as those of Aristotle, and 
 the works of Arab physicians. But, perhaps, the greatest impulse 
 the arts and sciences then received, was that derived from the 
 refugees from Greece and elsewhere, particularly after the capture 
 of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. '^^^ manuscripts and 
 the monuments of skill and learning which they carried to Flor- 
 ence, the City of the Arts, were a grand nucleus for the expan- 
 sion of human wisdom and enterprise. In 1506 the writings of 
 Dioscorides, the physician and botanist of Greece, were pub- 
 lished ; in 1525 those of Galen, another and a greater student 
 of physic; and in 1526 the works of the immortal Hippocrates, 
 the father of medicine, were given forth to the world in numer- 
 ous copies of clear letter-press. Western medicine begins with 
 the school of Salerno, where physic was taught on the Greek 
 principles. The medical school of Montpellier was founded in 
 1 150, that of Paris in 1220, and Bologna at the commencement 
 of the 14th century, about which period anatomy was greatly 
 improved by Mondini. The titles of bachelors and doctors of 
 medicine were conferred, for the first time, in the University of 
 Paris in 1231. The reign of Henry VI. was remarkable for the 
 patronage afforded to practitioners in human medicine, and 
 every aid was afforded to the development of that science which 
 may be said to have the prolongation of life, and the mainten- 
 ance of health for its chief study. 
 
 This backward glance at the long period we have pas-^ed 
 over, will explain the absence of details, or of exact inforn^ition,
 
 126 History of Animal Plagues, 
 
 as to the nature of the epizooties which have been enumerated. 
 All we can glean from the deep obscurity are the facts, that in 
 those centuries, as in later, the bovine species has been most 
 liable to attacks of fatal and wide-spread disease, possibly to some 
 extent from their peculiar temperament and phlegmatic consti- 
 tution; that very many of these bovine plagues could be traced to 
 the East, just as Pliny had traced the origin of the typhus or 
 putrid fever of man which appeared in Italy to the same quarter 
 long before ; that, usually, they were of brief duration, for the 
 very cood reason that they generally exterminated the whole of 
 the herds they attacked, and that speedily ; that the equine 
 species have been least affected by these visitations; and that 
 France and Germany were more frequently the ground of their 
 selection than other countries. 
 
 Unfortunately, in the next period, we find veterinary medicine 
 nearly at a stand-still, but human medicine making rapid strides. 
 The consequence is, that while the more serious epizooties 
 have been studied bv physicians, who, we may surmise, had not 
 given comparative pathology their attention until called upon to 
 investigate these invasions of disease, much that is valuable 
 and of a practical nature has been overlooked. But there is 
 much more exactness in the symptoms described, and often we 
 have the history of the disease accurately traced from beginning 
 to end, with not unfrequently the effects of remedial measures. 
 Italy continued to be the chief, if not almost the sole, refuge for 
 veterinary science, and Naples was more particularly the great 
 school of equitation and animal medicine for the whole of Eu- 
 rope; though the writings of the Greek and Roman hippiatrists, 
 and those of RufTus and Rusius, were yet the text-books for 
 general reference. Towards the sixteenth, and during the seven- 
 teenth centuries, we have abundant evidence, from the numerous 
 treatises published on the continent and in this country, that 
 much attention was being directed to this branch of science; 
 but there was little originality or real progress; anatomy was 
 greatly neglected; and, altogether, veterinary was in a much less 
 satisfactory condition than human medicine. 
 
 A.D. 1500. This century began with much inclemency of 
 weather, which caused great destruction to cattle, and was fol-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 127 
 
 lowed bv a series of severe epizootic diseases. Accordine^ to 
 Hecker, evil was prognosticated bv a comet. ^ 
 
 In Ireland 'great inclemency [doineun) this year, which 
 killed almost all the cattle of Erinn, and prevented the earth's 
 responding to the husbandman.' ^ Spain was said to be ravaged 
 by rabies canina.^ 
 
 A.D. 1501. Tremendous inundation in Silesia. As a con- 
 sequence, an epizooty among cattle and many other kinds of 
 animals.* 
 
 A.D. 1504. Great drought, failure of the crops, and mor- 
 tality amongst cattle it: Saxony .° ' And in this year there was 
 a cold winter; thereupon followed a very hot and dry summer. 
 For many months, from the beginning of April to the end of 
 Julv, there was no rain. The sky was cloudless, the sun was 
 glaring and hot, whereby the grass was scorched, so that there 
 was no hay or lattermath. The oats failed, and other crops 
 were little more fruitful. Hereupon followed a great scarcity. 
 Pigs died in large numbers. Many farmers drove out fine herds 
 in the mornino-, of which one-third did not return at nijiht. 
 Neither had the previous great mortality ceased, but, owing to 
 the intense heat, it rather increased ; so that in some places the 
 
 half, in others one-third, of the people died ^S'^S- A very 
 
 wet summer. Then came the pestilence, which had already 
 lasted several years. It was now more severe amongst the cattle 
 than it had hitherto been, and among men it was none the less 
 so.' " There was a great invasion of caterpillars in Northern 
 Germany, which destroyed all the foliage. Signacula, or blood- 
 spots, which Agricolo supposed to be lichens, so abounded on 
 linen, the veils of women, the food, and even in the air, in the 
 form of blood-rain, as to cause great fear.'' The great murrain 
 amonor the cattle at Meissen, in Saxony, led to the execution 
 of some hose luben, or supposed miscreants, who were suspected 
 
 > Hec/ccr. Epiflemics of the Middle Ages. ^ Annals of Ulster. 
 
 ^ Blaine. Canine Pathology. 
 
 * Chronic. Princep. Polon. Stenzel. Vol. i. ji. i68. 
 ' Fabrkius. Annals Misn. p. 170. 
 
 * Spaiii^enberg. Mansfeld. Chronic., book i. p. 402. 
 ' Mezeray. Op. cit., p. 819.
 
 128 History of Aiiimal Plagues. 
 
 of poisoning the pastures. Wirth thinks the malady was 'milz- 
 brand/ or splenic apoplexy — a form of anthrax. 
 
 A.D. 1508. The summer very wet ; inundations. In 
 Austria an epizooty amongst cattle and hogs, which was named 
 lues intercus — plague, or dropsy under the skin.^ Locusts devas- 
 tated Spain, and epidemic pestilence followed. 
 
 A.D. 1513-14. After a severe winter, a sudden thaw, famine, 
 rains, and inundations, an epizooty, contagious in its nature, 
 appeared in Friuli, from whence it spread to the States of 
 Venice, thence to Verona, and at last to France and England. 
 An epidemic in mankind raged at the same time in Italy and 
 in England. 
 
 Fracastor, who is the first writer to give detailed svmptoms 
 of these animal plagues in modern times, describes the malady. 
 He says : ' We refer to the unusual contagion of the year 1514, 
 which attacked oxen alone. It was first seen in the country 
 around Friuli, and gradually, but yet rapidly, was it carried to 
 Venice^ and from thence to our own countrv (Verona). The 
 ox at first, and without any manifest cause, ceased to eat. But 
 the herdsmen noticed in those infected a certain roughness and 
 small pustules over the whole mouth and palate {asperitas quce- 
 dam et parvce pustulce percipiehantur in palato et ore toto). It 
 was necessary to separate those infected from the rest of the herd, 
 otherwise the whole became contaminated. By degrees the spots 
 'or pustules descended to the shoulders, and thence to the feet. 
 Almost all in which this symptom was noticed recovered, but of 
 those who did not exhibit this extension of the eruption the greatest 
 part died.'- No treatment of the maladv is indicated. In recent 
 times the nature of this pest, as described by Fracastor, has 
 given rise to some discussion. Paulet, who has given us a class- 
 ical work on epizootic diseases, says that Ma maladie en ques- 
 tion n^etoit autre chose qu'une Ji^vre pest'ilentielle exanthe- 
 matique, qui se terminoit par une eruption critique aux parties 
 anterieures du corps, de la meme maniere que les fitvres eriip- 
 tives qu'on observe sur les hommes, telles que la petite verole, la 
 rougeole, les fievres pourpreuses; mais elle ressemble encore 
 
 ^ Chronic. Mellic. 
 - Fracastorus. Tract, de Contagiosis Morbis, lib. i. cap. 12.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 129 
 
 plus particulierement a cette fievre de Sydenham ; ^ ou niiliaire 
 malignej decrite par Hamilton,- AUioni/ et surtout par Wal- 
 thierus/ qui a observe que toutes les fois que I'eruption se 
 faissoit du cote du visage, ou qu'elle occupoit les orcilles, le eou, 
 les bras, Petoit la meilleure crise qu'on put espercr, ct celle qui 
 sauve ordinairement les malades. Hippocrate porte le nieme 
 prognostic dans les squinancies, lorsque I'humeur morhifique se 
 manifeste au-dehors.'^ It niav be observed that this author de- 
 signated the Cattle Plague or Rinderpest a Pklogoso-gnngreneuse. 
 Dupuy ^ (who termed the Cattle Plague a Cachexie or D'lath^se 
 f^arioleuse) and others think it was variolous in its nature. Lorin- 
 ser' imagined it must be the contagious typhus, or Cattle Plague; 
 and others, again, that it was glossanthrax. A few are of opinion 
 that Heusinger ^ was right in declaring it to be a malignant 
 form of Stomatitis aphthosa ; but one cannot help concluding, 
 from the symptoms enumerated, the contagious character of the 
 malady, its great mortality, and its likeness to the plague which 
 threatened to decimate our herds in 1865, that those who assert 
 its identity with the Rinderpest are justified in doing so. Though 
 F'racastor, in one part of his treatise, asserts that oxen alone were 
 affected, vet in another he says that not only did the plague 
 sweep away ' the wretched cattle, but also nearly the whole of 
 the unhappy flocks of sheep.^ This gives additional evidence as 
 to the disease being the veritable Plague ; though, as will be 
 subsequently noticed, diseases of a pestilential kind were preva- 
 lent among sheep from the beginning of the century. Besides, 
 the archives of the Imperial Agricultural Society of Southern 
 Russia mention that the 'Cattle Plague' appeared in Spain at 
 this period; so that Europe may have again been widely de- 
 vastated by this scourae. 
 
 And Schenkius" informs us that at this time Venice and Padua 
 
 1 Sydenha7ti. De Nova Febris Nigressu Schedula Monitoria. 
 
 ^ Hamilton. De Febre Miliar!. 
 
 ' Allionni. Febris Miliari Tractatio, No. 76. 
 
 * Medic. Germani, p. 151. * Paiild. Recherclies, &c., vol. i. p. 37- 
 
 * Dupuy. Traite sur les Maladies Epizootiques. Pari:*, 1836. 
 '' Lorinscr. Die Rinderpest. 
 
 ® I/cusitigcr. Recherches de I'athohjgic Comparee, vol. ii. p. l^S- 
 ^ Schenkius. History of Hanover, chap. xi. 
 
 9
 
 130 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 were visited by a malignant epidemic dysentery, from the people 
 having eaten the flesh of some diseased cattle that the butchers 
 had imported from Hungary. The squabble between the 
 butchers and the populace was serious. 
 
 Forster^ and Webster^ mention an epizooty, or distemper/ 
 as having destroyed much cattle in England in this year. They 
 also notice an epizooty among cats in England, but unfortunately 
 they neither give their authorities, nor do they describe the 
 symptoms. 
 
 A.D. 1515. There appeared this year in France, though it 
 had been noticed here and there since the commencement of the 
 century, a disease amongst sheep, which was contagious and 
 very dangerous. It was named fehris pestifera, vari nigri, or 
 more commonly the 'Tac;' a term, it seems, for a pestilential 
 disease which had appeared in the human species in 1411.^ 
 
 Gesner, in his ' Historia Animalium,' makes mention of the 
 disease as scabies: ''Scabiem oviumGalli vocant Tcc.^ Ambrose 
 Pare * savs that the Tac usually appears in the pestilential fever 
 (of man), and sometimes before the tumours or carbuncles be- 
 come apparent : ' In some cases there are eruptions on the skin 
 similar to the bites of fleas or bugs; sometimes, also, there are 
 elevations like small millet-seeds or the small-pox of children. 
 
 The vulgar call them the Tac,' &c. Belon, a learned 
 
 physician, who wrote a work on medicine^ in the 16th century, 
 in speaking of the 'Tac' oil {hiiile de tac), says that this sub- 
 stance was so named because it was employed in the treatment 
 of a disease of that name, 'a pestilential disease which attacks 
 and kills sheep.' 'The peasantry of Celtic Gaul,' he further 
 observes, 'knowing better than we how to cure it, go to the 
 apothecaries and ask for the Tac, which is an empyreumatic oil, 
 obtained from juniper wood, and which is designated Cade Serbin 
 in the South of France, a name borrowed from the Jews.' In 
 Languedoc and other parts of France this oil is yet named 
 ' oli de cade.' 
 
 The origin of the word appears to have been derived 
 
 1 Forster. The Disorders of Health, p. 153. 
 
 - N: Webster. Op. cit. 
 
 3 Paulet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 88. * Q^uvres ed. Malgaigne, vol. iii. p. 423. 
 
 * Medicamentis Servandi Cadaveris Vini Obtinentibus.
 
 Histo7y of Animal Plagues. 131 
 
 from the facility with which the affection could he propagated 
 by the touch, or contact. In this sense the term has been some- 
 what misapplied by the French, who have used it to signify the 
 scabies, and also the pourritnre, or ' rot/ of cattle and sheep. 
 
 Scheuchzeri mentions that the peasants of Lugano give this 
 name to the disease known as glossanthrax. 
 
 A.D. 1517. 'Was a very droughty and frosty winter, a very 
 hot summer, a very early and plentiful harvest. Wheat fell 
 from ten shillings a bushel to ten pence. There was a great \ 
 murrain of kinc, so mortally infectious, that dogs and ravens 
 feeding on their flesh were poisoned and swelled to death. ; 
 None durst eat beef. In the beginning of this year (says 
 Tyenius) ra^ed a pain and inflammation of the throat, so pest- 
 iferous, malignant, and contagious, that whoever, within six or 
 eight hours^ seizure, had not proper remedies applied, died in 
 sixteen or twenty hours.' ^ The epidemic sweating sickness 
 began at midsummer this year. 
 
 A.D. 1518. In the city of Cascante, kingdom of Navarre, 
 Spain, an epizootic disease appeared among the horses, which 
 consisted in a mass of abscesses about the head and throat, 
 accompanied by insatiable thirst, hectic fever, and emaciation. 
 Pedro Lopez of Zamora, chief veterinary surgeon of the king- 
 dom, gave directions for its treatment, which were promptly 
 successful.^ 
 
 A.D. 1524. In Ireland, ' great inclemency of weather, and a 
 mortality of cattle at the beginning of this year.' * 
 
 A.D. 1529. During the reign of the sweating sickness in 
 mankind, the weather was most inclement all over Europe, and 
 caused much alarm. Heavy rains had prevailed for a long time, 
 the earth was soaked, and the air was laden with moisture. 
 Deluges were frequent everywhere in Europe. In Brandenburg, 
 in the preceding year, swarms of locusts appeared ; ^ and in that 
 country, as well as in the north of Germany generally, it was 
 dangerous to eat fish, as it was reported that malignant and con- 
 tagious diseases in mankind had been traced to this cause." There 
 
 » Zungenkrebs, p. 4. "- T. Short. Op. cit.,vol. i. p. 88. 
 
 3 Villalba. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 135. ■• Annals of Kilroonaii. 
 
 * Annales Berlino-Marchici. " Leuthhisn: Scrii)toruin, p. <)o.
 
 132 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 j was probably some plague and development of a peculiar poison 
 
 j in the finny tribes; pestilence in man and animals raging nearly 
 
 ( everywhere. In various parts of the German states^ the birds of 
 
 'the air became affected with disease. In the neighbourhood of 
 
 Freyburg, in the Briesgau, for instance, they were found dead in 
 
 great numbers scattered under the trees, with pustules as large as 
 
 peas under their wings; indicating among them a disease that, in 
 
 all likelihood, extended far beyond the southern districts of the 
 
 Rhine. ^ Earthquakes were felt in Italy, and comets and meteors 
 
 were frequent everywhere; blood-coloured rain fell at Cremona,^ 
 
 and disease prev^ailed among the porpoises in the Baltic. ' During 
 
 Lent, to the astonishment of the inhabitants of Stettin, it was 
 
 J observed that porpoises came in great numbers up the frische Haff 
 
 as far as the bridge, and that the Baltic cast on its shores many 
 
 dead animals of this kind, which gave rise to the opinion that 
 
 ythe waters of the sea were poisoned.^ ^ Frightful famine in 
 
 Germanv and France. In Switzerland, an epizooty among the 
 
 cattle.*! A great epizooty among the pigs at Augsburg and 
 
 Thuringia during the prevalence of the sweating sickness in 
 
 mankind. Out of seventy attacked at Posangia, only ten were 
 
 left. Six hundred died at Ceyca, and were thrown out of the 
 
 city to be devoured by the wild beasts.^ 
 
 A.D. 1530. During the pest at Milan, according to Ripa- 
 montius, after mankind had been seized with the disease, cattle 
 were attacked. 
 
 A.D. 1534. Severe winter. 'Disease among pios continued 
 in Ceyca, and in the country around, to the great detriment 
 of the poor people. Forty died in our own Monastery. The 
 year, however, was healthy and fruitful.^" 
 
 A.D. 1539. In Ireland, '^ fever and bloody fluxes being rife 
 everywhere, whereof many died. An extreme hard winter 
 followed, insomuch that store of cattle perished in many places.^ ^ 
 
 ^ /. Schiller. De Peste Britanic. Commentaiy, fol. 3. ' The fowls of the air, 
 
 with tlieir delicate and irritable organs of respiration, feel the injurious influence 
 
 , much earlier and more sensitively than any of the unfeathered tribes, and have often 
 
 jbeen the harbingers of great danger, ere man was aware of its approach.' — Hecker. 
 
 2 Campo. Pp. 150, 151. ^ Klemzen. P. 254. 
 
 * Hans Stockars. Heimfart von Jerusalem. 1839, p. 197. ^ Mencken. Op. cit. 
 
 " Langins. Chronic. Nurembergens. ' Ware. Annals.
 
 History of A nivial Plagues. 13 
 
 o 
 
 In England, 'in 1539, the thirty-first year of Henry VIII., 
 was great death of burning agues and flixes; and such a drought 
 that Welles and small rivers were dryed up, and many cattle 
 dyed for lacke of water; the saltwater flowed above London 
 bridge.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1541-2. The summer of 1540 had been so excessively 
 hot, that the woods often took fire spontaneously. At this time 
 plague appeared in mankind in many parts of Europe, but/ 
 especially at Constantinople. At Geneva, Textor observed! 
 that birds left their nests at the commencement of the plaguej 
 and Fallopius thought he had discovered a pestilential bubof 
 on a bird. The following year, clouds of red locusts which 
 came from the interior of Asia, through Turkey, passed over 
 Sclavonia, Croatia, Austria, and Italy, and alighting in Spain 
 destroyed all vegetation, and were the cause of much misery.^ 
 Kaye saw a cloud of them in Padua which extended as far as 
 the eye could reach, and it was full two hours before they had 
 passed. ' In September a large number of locusts were seen 
 in this country, and especially around Leipsic, some with four, 
 and others with six wings — the king was about the size of a 
 sparrow. Wherever they came they devoured every leaf, herb, 
 and grass, and besmeared everything with a red blood-coloured 
 substance. In the day-time they travelled almost a mile (five 
 English miles) without resting; when they settled anywhere, or 
 were blown down by the wind, they lay a foot deep, and created 
 a dreadful stench.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1543. ' By reason of a great mortality among the cattle, 
 occasioned by great rains in the preceding season, nicat rose to 
 such an excessive price that mutton was sold at two shillings and 
 fourpence the quarter, and a lamb at three shillings and four- 
 pence. The consideration whereof induced the Lord Mayor and 
 Common Council to make a sumptuary law, for preventing 
 luxurious eating; whereby the Mayor was restrained from 
 having more than seven dishes at either dinner or sujipcr, and 
 the Aldermen and Sherifls to six, upon the penalty ot forty 
 
 ^ Stow. Annals. 
 
 ''■ Villalba. Op. cit. Liipcrcio Fanzano. Annales dc Aragon. 
 
 •* Vogds. Annal. Leipzig, p. 151.
 
 134 History of A7iiinal Plagues. ■ 
 
 shillings for every supernumery dish ; the sword-bearer to have 
 four, and the mayor and sheriff's officers three dishes.' ^ 
 
 A,D. 1544. In Peru, the wild and domesticated alpacas died 
 in great numbers from a cutaneous disease.^ This malady has 
 been observed to destroy these animals in modern times, when 
 they have been transferred from high to low countries. 
 
 A.D. 1552. The previous year had been remarkable for very 
 unusual weather, the atmosphere being heavily charged with 
 water, and various electrical phenomena were manifested. Mould 
 spots, or s'lgnacula, were observed on clothes in Germany, the 
 water was affected by red discolourations, and there was an 
 exuberance of the lowest cryptogamic species of vegetation. 
 Anthrax appeared among cattle at Lucca in Italy. ' When, 
 however, the farmers had considered the nature of the malady, 
 they immediately slew any cattle that were af!'ected. In this 
 disease it was worthy of notice, that if the blood of any of the 
 infected animals came in contact with the bare skin of a man it 
 produced carbuncles, which, if not opened, were harmless — a 
 wonderful circumstance ; but if opened, and not immediately 
 cauterized, they would rapidly spread, and be the cause of speedy 
 death. The f]esh of the slaughtered and diseased cattle was 
 'cooked and eaten, and yet caused no inconvenience, but broth 
 made from it proved fatal to whomsoever partook of it.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1556. An epizooty following a blight of the crops in 
 the cantons of Berne and Basle, in Switzerland.* In all proba- 
 bilitv this was anthrax. 
 
 A.D. 1559. ' In this month (July) there occurred a remark- 
 able circumstance : several wolves came in open day from the 
 woods near Horla and Wolffsberg, and hunted cattle and people; 
 they destroyed several cattle. In the circle of Magdeburg, there 
 arose, in certain parts, a contagion and mortality among cattle.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1567- Small-pox raging in the human species in many 
 countries. For the first time, for certain, according to some 
 
 1 Maitland. History of London, 1739, p. 141. HoUnshcd. Op. cit. 
 
 ^ Garci/asso. Historia General del Peru, 1722. 
 
 ^ Wiei-Hs. De Prtestig. dcemon., lib. iv. chap. 30. 
 
 * Urstis. Chronic. Basil., vol. viii. p. 22. 
 
 * Spaiigcnberg. Op. cit, 479.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 133 
 
 authors (but erroneously, as I have shown), there is mention 
 made of the small-pox in sheep. Joubert, a physician, in allud- 
 ing to the plague in man, thus notices the disease : ' Neither do 
 those people think wrongly, in my opinion, who argue that the 
 corpses of men who die by the plague are more hurtful to man 
 than those of horses are to horses, and of other animals to ani- 
 mals of their own species. Sometimes, nevertheless, it happens, 
 as Ficinus relates, that the plague passes from men to pigs, not 
 on account of anv similarity in their dispositions, but in their 
 flesh. The people of Montpellier commonly call the pest in 
 sheep picota {' picotte,^ the French term for variola ovina) : Mons- 
 pelienses pestem pecoribus famiUarem, Piccottam appellant. If 
 we may believe Arnoldus Villanovanus, the plague of man never, 
 attacks sheep, and that of sheep never attacks man. In pre-/ 
 vious years, as I hear, a certain pest attacked the cats alone ini 
 Lutetia, Parrhisii, and carried off an innumerable quantity.^ ^ ^ 
 
 'After Lent there came a great mortality among the sheep, 
 so that several thousand in my neighbourhood alone died, and 
 the same occurred in other parts.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1571. An epizooty among cattle, and an epidemy in 
 mankind at JVJemmingen.^ 
 
 A.D. 1572. In Ireland ' there was a great mortality of men 
 and cattle in this year.' * 
 
 A.D. 1578. Epizootic disease among cats and poultry at 
 Paris.^ 
 
 A.D. 1580-1. Influenza in man, as well as malignant fever 
 and small-pox, raged over Europe. According to Riverius, a pro- 
 digious plague of insects appeared in April and May, immediate- 
 ly before the breaking out of the influenza. They were supposed' 
 to rise out of the earth ; and so dense a multitude were they^ 
 that the daylight was obscured by them, and they were crushed 
 by millions on the roads." The air seems to have been tainted 
 to a strange degree, for birds felt its evil influence, and abandoned 
 
 ^ Jouk-rl. De Pestc Libellus. Lugd. 1567. Sec tlic year 1277. 
 
 2 Spau^enberg. Op. cit., p. 489. 
 
 ' Erhardt. Topograpliy of Memmingen, p. 63. 
 
 * Annals of the Four Masters. '" Pauld. Vol. i. ji. 56. 
 
 * Riverius. Opera Omnia Medica. Lugd. 16C9, p. 585.
 
 136 History of Animal Plagties. 
 
 \the countries in which the epidemic appeared. The birds of 
 passage migrated before their appointed time, and those whose 
 nature it is to build on trees and in elevated situations rested 
 during the night on the ground. Not only did this occur, but 
 animals wjiich fed on herbs and leaves became sickened with 
 their usual food, which seemed to be polluted by some virus in 
 the atmosphere.-^ 
 
 In 1581, says Dr Short, 'at six o'clock in the evening, in 
 April, was an earthquake not far from York, which in some 
 places shook the stones out of the buildings, and made the 
 church bells jingle ; the next night the earth trembled once or 
 twicein Kent, as it did also May the 1st following. November 
 the 1st, in Kent and the marshes of Essex, was a sore plague of 
 strange mice suddenly covering the earth, and gnawing the 
 grass roots ; this poisoned all field herbage, for it raised the 
 plague of murrain among cattle grazing on it. No wit or 
 art of man could destroy these mice, till another strange flight 
 of owls came, and killed them all. A great earthquake in 
 Peru.'^ 
 
 ' Salius Diversus. De Febre Pestilente. Francof. 1586, p. 62. 
 
 ^ T. Short. Op. cit., vol. |i. p. 267. Stow. Annals. This very unusual 
 irruption of mice in Kent and the marshes of Essex appears to have caused 
 some dismay ; and well it might, for the occurrence must have been as perplex- 
 ing as it was unusual. In other countries, however, this is not so, and the mice 
 or rats, or some cognate species, are noted for their migratory habits ; though 
 perhaps all do not give rise to'a 'plague of murrain,' whatever that may have 
 been. Some notices of these appear in this ' History ; ' a few others are men- 
 tioned as follows. Wrangell, when travelling in the far north of Siberia, speaks 
 of the misfortunes of a native hunter. ' He had expected that his dogs would 
 have been able to subsist during the summer on the mice, which they are in the 
 habit of catching, and had brought with him only as much food for them as he 
 calculated he should require for them on his return. Unfortunately the mice had 
 migrated, and in consequence the greater part of his dogs died.' ' The mice often 
 emigrate in large numbers from one island to another, and sometimes even to the 
 continent of Asia.' — Travels in the North of Siberia, pp. 497, 498. 
 
 Tschudi, for Peru, says : ' Numbers of the mouse family, from the small tree 
 mouse {Drymomys parvithis) to the large, loathsome, spinous rat (Echinomys 
 leptosoma), swarm over all the Montanas, and love to approximate to the dwellings 
 of man. These animals destroy the gathered harvest, and even in these remote 
 regions they become a plague.' — Travels in Peru, p. 424. 
 
 A species of marmot {Lagopus Tibetamis, Hodgson : the ' Kardiepien ' of the 
 Tibetans) sometimes migrates in swarms, like the Lapland lemming, from Tibet, 
 as far as Tungu. — Hooker. Himalayan Journals, vol. ii. p. 93. 
 
 The ermine also, according to Brooke {Travels itt Norway, p. 310), Pontoppi-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 137 
 
 A.D. 1586. According to Forster^ there was an epizocity of 
 rabies among dogs during the epidemic plague in Flanders, Tur- 
 key, Hungary, and Austria.^ It may be this epizooty to which 
 Dr Short refers in 1587, when he says : ' The Belgians groaned 
 under a terrible plague and famine; for the inhabitants of great 
 towns and villages in Flanders were either slain in war, dead of 
 the plague, or starved with hunger. All the country was waste, 
 so as wolves and wild beasts stabled in the houses; they were 
 become so numerous, that they killed and tore in pieces, not 
 only cattle, but men, women, and children. Dogs, with hunger 
 and madness, run up and down the country, biting and killing 
 cattle and one another.^ ^ 
 
 dan {Natural History of Norway), and Pennant {Arctic Zoology), emigrates in im- 
 mense numbers. But the most curious and notable of all creatures for this pro- 
 pensity is the lemming. Olaus Magnus believed them to be poisonous in their 
 action on vegetation. He says : ' In the aforesaid Helsingia, and provinces that 
 are near to it, in the diocese of Upsal, small beasts with four feet, that they call 
 lemmar, or lemmus, as big as a rat, with a skin diverse coloured, fall out of the 
 ayr, in tempests and sudden showers ; but no man knows from w hence they come; 
 whether from the remoter islands, and are brought thither by the wind, or else 
 they breed of feculent matter in the clouds : yet this is proved, that as soon as 
 they fall down there is found green grass in their bellies, not yet digested. These, 
 like locusts, falling in great swarms, destroy all green things, and all dyes they bite 
 on, by the venome of them. This swarm lives so long as they feed on no new 
 grass. Also they come together in troops like swallows, that are ready to fly 
 away ; but at the set time they either die in heaps with a contagion of the earth 
 (by the corruption of them, the ayr grows pestilentiall, and the people are 
 troubled with vertigos, or the jaundice), or they are devoured by beasts, common- 
 ly called lekat, or hermelin, and these ermines grow fat thereby, and their skins 
 grow larger.' — History of Goths aitd Vandals. 
 
 Lloyd has the following : ' We are informed by M. Malin, the naturalist, who 
 spent some time in Lapland, that in the summer and autumn, when the lemmings 
 traverse the forest and the ' fjalls,' they are pursued, killed, and eaten by the 
 reindeer when pasturing. — Scajidinavian Adventures, vol. ii. p. 74. 
 
 The ' Old Bushmen ' thus speaks of the sea-gulls of Lapland : ' Although oc- 
 casionally seen accidentally in other parts of Scandinavia, the peculiar breeding 
 home of the Buffons Skua (a variety of gull) is on the Lapland fells. They are 
 not always seen in the same numbers every year, and they say that it is the lem- 
 mings which draw them down to certain localities. One thing, however, is cer- 
 tain, that in 1862 we had a migration of lemmings at Quickiock, and that year 
 in one fell meadow, a little distance from the village, I shot about twenty-five old 
 birds, and procured above thirty eggs.' — Ten Years in Sweden, jx 401. 
 
 1 Foster. Op. cit., p. 156. 
 
 2 T. Short. Op. cit., p. 271. It is somewhat remarkable, that, until this date, 
 we should have no exact record of any epizootics of rabies in the dog. Tiie
 
 138 History of A nimal Plag2ies. 
 
 A.D. 1590. Rabies in wolves was epizootic at Montbel- 
 liard.^ 
 
 A.D. 159 1. In Sicily^ an epidemy and epizooty during a 
 hot and damp year. ' In this year there was a good deal of 
 blight, which the people called resin {itredo, rubigove, quam 
 valgus resinani appellat), on the trees, plants, corn, and every- 
 thing green ; and, miserable to relate, it destroyed all these in 
 a very short space of time. Cows, sheep, and all herds, on 
 account of the blighted and bad quality of the forage, became 
 emaciated, as if the blight had been of a deadly nature to 
 them, as well as to the vegetation. All milk was foul and of 
 a pale colour, and all the corn, pulse, and barley was light, 
 mildewed [cerug'mata) , and had a bad and corrupt smell, from 
 the constant rains, when collected by the farmers.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1592. Mortality among the fish at Leipsic.^ In 
 England was an excessive drought, and great death of cattle 
 from want of water. Springs and brooks were dried up; horse- 
 men could ride across the Thames at London.* The following 
 winter was so severe at Vienna, that the wolves entered the 
 town and attacked men and cattle. 
 
 A.D. 1598. After inundations and heavy fogs, there was a 
 general epizooty among cattle in Germany.^ In the same year 
 there appeared ergotism in the human species. 
 
 disease was known from the very earliest times, for Homer appears to allude 
 to it in the Iliad. 
 
 ' Not half so dreadful rises to the sight, 
 Tlii'o' the thick gloom of some tempestuous night, 
 Orion's dog (the year when Autumn weighs), 
 And o'er the feebler stars exerts his rays ; 
 Terrific glory ! for his burning breath 
 Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.' 
 
 Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Dioscorides describe it, and it was well known to 
 the Greek and Latin writers of a later age. And yet until the present century I have 
 been unable to trace its existence in an epizootic form. We have noted its occur- 
 rence in other animals, but not in the dog ; though in the early ages of our era 
 it must have been very prevalent, for we find that in Belgium, at a remote date, 
 pilgrimages used to be made to the shrine of St Hubert, as they now are, for the 
 cure of hydrophobia. Dudley Costcllo. The Valley of the Meuse, p. 297. 
 
 1 y. Ban/tin. Memorab. Historia Luporum, &c. Montbelliai-d, 1591. 
 
 ^ Marcelbis Capra. De Morbo Pandemonio, fol. 2. 
 
 ■^ Vogch. Annal., p. 268. * T. Short. Op. cit., p. 274. 
 
 * Ampsingii. De Medic, et Astron. Conjugio. Rostok, 1629, p. 206.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 139 
 
 A.D. 1599. Plague ill mankind in various parts of the 
 world, but especially in France and Upper Italy. To this was 
 added, in Italy, disease in cattle, which destroyed more than 
 thirteen thousand beasts.^ 'There is a certain manuscript, 
 which is worthy of credence, in which Antonius Faccius says, 
 that in the ninety-ninth year of that age in which Fracastorius 
 lived, so grievous a plague attacked the oxen, that the Senate 
 was bound to issue edicts to the public, to the efl'ect that no 
 flesh of oxen, no cheese lately made, no butter, nor yet milk, 
 should be sold in the State under pain of death ; but that nuit- 
 ton alone should be eaten.'" ' A plague among cattle and goats 
 in Italy, and by them communicated to other animals.'^ 
 
 An epidemic of dysentery in Venice and Padua was the 
 cause of the above order, which gave rise to a great contention 
 between the inhabitants and the butchers. The disease among 
 the cattle was supposed to have been imported from Hungary. 
 It may here be remarked, that the cities of Venice and Padua 
 had, from time immemorial, drawn their supplies of cattle from 
 Hungary and Dalniatia, and so severely and frequently did they 
 sufier from epizootic diseases, that at a later period they were 
 compelled to renounce this source of supply. Wirth, however, 
 as usual, classes the disease amongst the animals as one of an 
 anthracoid character.* 
 
 A.D. 1603. Very inclement season in London, and a pestil- 
 ence among mankind which was supposed to have been intro- 
 duced from the Low Countries. A famine prevailed, and ex- 
 tensive disease amongst all animals, but ])articularly cattle. 
 Even dogs suffered greatly. 
 
 A.D. 1604. In October great floods in England and Wales, 
 which destroyed cattle and everything else in the marshy coun- 
 try. Rabies canina was epizootic in Paris, and caused great 
 alarm.^ 
 
 A.D. 1609. A plague in Mcmmingcn from July to Decem- 
 ber, killing a number of people. From December, an cpizooty 
 
 ' Palladia. Storiade Friuli, vol. ii. j). 235. 
 
 "^ Ramazzini. De Contag. Epid. Bourn, 0pp. Genev. p. 794- 
 
 3 Cole. Quoted by Dr Short, p. 287. ^ Op. cit., p. 85. 
 
 5 Journal dc Henri IV., vol. iii. p. 221.
 
 140 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 in cattle, which was so fatal that all attacked died.^ ' Was a 
 most rigorous hard frost from December to April ; the Thames 
 became a hiorhwav ; birds and 2:arden stuff were killed/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1610. Plague showed itself in the suburbs of Grenada, 
 and spread rapidly. Spain and Constantinople suffered very much 
 from pestilence. The same epizooty as in the preceding year 
 became more general, and at the same time a malignant epi- 
 zooty reigned in Alsace, which did not even allow untamed birds 
 to escape ; these were often seen falling to the ground dead.^ 
 
 Gangrenous sore-throat declared itself in Old Castile this 
 year among the horses, cattle, and hogs; it destroyed entire 
 herds.* Catarrh prevailed in mankind throughout Europe. 
 '' As in the previous year, the trees suffered much from cold, so 
 in this year the bark and leaves were eaten by vermin, so that 
 there was no fruit; on the contrary, there was much wine. 
 Among the cattle there raged a contagious disease in the mouth, 
 so that many died.' ^ Was this the same disease that reigned in 
 Memmingen, Alsace, and Spain ? And was it anthrax (affect- 
 ing the mouth and throat), influenza, or ekzema, or all three? 
 
 During the pla2;ue in mankind at Constantinople, there was 
 a dreadful visitation of locusts. ' Such clouds, or swarms, of 
 grasshoppers so plagued the city and country about Constanti- 
 nople that they darkened the sun, and left not any green herb 
 or leaf in all the country; they entered the bed-chambers; they 
 were near as large as dormice, with red wings.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 61 2. An epidemy in Hesse and other parts of Germany, 
 followed by a great pestilence among pigs and cattle, according 
 to Goelenius. Previous to this a sudden and amazing number 
 of spiders appeared, and swarms of locusts swept Provence. 
 
 A.D. 1613. Plague in man still raged at Constantinople. 
 The cats were transported to Scutari, under a supposition that 
 they were the cause of the plague, being themselves distempered.' 
 
 ' Erhart. Op. cit,,p. 63. ' 
 
 ^ Clark's Examples. T. Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 292. 
 
 ^ Lcbensivald. Landstadt-und Haus-arzneibuch. Nuremberg, 1695. 
 
 * Fo7itecJia. De Anginis Disput. Compent., 1611. 
 
 * IValser. Appenzeller Chronik., p. 581. 
 
 ® T. Short. Op. cit., p. 294. Turkish History. 
 ' Forster. Op. cit., p. 157. T. Short, Mignot.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 141 
 
 A.D. 1614. A very deadly epidemy, and an epizootic dis- 
 ease among the fowls in Bohemia.^ The fowls collected in 
 groups of six or seven^ accordine^ to Schottkv, and holdinn- their 
 heads close together, would fall to the ground and die. A great 
 snow-storm in the west of England. The snow lay very deep, 
 and for a long time, and destroyed much cattle and sheep. 
 
 A.D. 1615. Epizooty among the horses in the canton of 
 Appenzell.' 
 
 A.D. 1616. Malignant angina appeared in the human 
 species at Naples. Plague appeared in Egypt, Norway, Denmark, 
 Bergen, the Levant, and other places. 'In consequence of an epi- 
 zooty, the character and results of which, as well as the source, 
 were unknown, and which manifested itself with great severity in 
 the provinces of Padua, Treviso, Vicenza, and Udine, the sale of 
 the flesh of bullocks and calves was strictly prohibited until the 
 month of Auoust. The slaughter of calves was interdicted until 
 the end of September. These orders were in force throughout 
 the V^enetian dominions, as far as the Mincio.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 16 1 7. Mercurialis plainly indicates that the epizooty 
 reiirning at Venice, where it was named niandussa, was angina 
 maligna, a form of anthrax which was even transmissible to man. 
 ' On account of the daily rains the herbage on the plains became 
 covered with mud, and the cattle eating this, were seized with 
 putridity of the throat, became suflbcated, and died. Some, when 
 half dead, were killed to be eaten, and the herdsmen and farmers, 
 fearing no such evil, quickly succumbed to the noxious food. 
 The calamity aflected all proprietors to a like extent.' * 
 
 The same disease appeared in the kingdom of Naples ; and, 
 indeed, from what one can gather, there is every probability 
 that since 1609 this malady has held sway in the greater part of 
 Europe among cattle. ' In this year a great slaughter of cattle 
 happened everywhere from the ignea pestis (anthrax), so that 
 they could not masticate their food, far less swallow it; where- 
 fore very many perished by a most miserable death, as I see re- 
 marked in some manuscript chronicles.'^ Hn 1618, a disease 
 
 1 Walser. Op. cit. * Ibid. ^ Bottani. Op. cil., vol. ii. p. 34. 
 
 * Ath. Kircheri. Scrutinium Physico-Med. Pestis. Rome, 1658, p. 60. 
 
 * G. Oiithovii. Judicia Jehovse, Groningcn, 1721, p. 740.
 
 142, History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 among the oxen happened in our country, by which they fell 
 down choked in a wonderful manner. Spain was the first place 
 which felt the full force of this malady. Afterwards Malta, 
 Sicily, Sardinia, Hydruntum, Apulia, Calabria, Latium, and at 
 length the whole of the Neapolitan province was affected; to 
 which, after two and twenty years, it had become so domiciled, 
 that many thought it would be some centuries before it entirely 
 disappeared.' ^ From its becoming endemic, it was designated 
 the ' houm annua lites.' 
 
 The garrotillo, or quinsy, was about this period committing 
 great havoc in man, especially in Naples, where it was also 
 named the male in canna. It may be mentioned here, that in 
 the winter of this year a terrific snow-storm happened in Eng- 
 land, which continued for thirteen days and nights, causing the 
 loss of 20,000 sheep in one district alone, — that of Eskdale 
 Moor. 
 
 A.D. 1625. Inundations, destroying cattle and horses at 
 Seville and Salamanca. On the authority of the archives of 
 the Agricultural Society of Southern Russia, the Cattle Plague 
 broke out in Hungary, passing thence into Italy, where it 
 appears to have raged for some time, as it is mentioned for sub- 
 sequent years. 
 
 A.D. 1628. In the states of Venice, Rot {pourriture, hiatta, 
 ynarciume) amongst sheep.^ 
 
 A.D. 1630. Famine in Italy the two preceding years. In 
 this year great inundations, and disease of plants, and famine in 
 Germany, lasting during 1631. An epidemy in man, and a bovine 
 pest in the whole of Upper Italy.^ Wirth, erroneously, I think, 
 mentions anthrax as prevalent in Italy. It was far more likely 
 to be the Cattle Plague, which had prevailed since 1625; ^'^ 
 which year he also mentions it as present in that country. At 
 Padua an epizooty among cats.* 
 
 A.D. 1635. Plague in mankind at Nimeguen, during which, 
 Diemerbroek says, 'about twenty hens, which were raking 
 
 1 Severimis. De Recondita Abscess. Nat. pp. 431 — 446. 
 
 2 Bottatii. Vol. ii. p. 37. 
 
 ^ Ibid. p. 43. Rainazziiii. De Contagiosa Epidemia. 
 * Miirato7-i. Govern, della Peste, p. 8.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 143 
 
 into some of the nastiness thrown out of an infected house in 
 the time of the plague at Nimeguen, contracted the distemper 
 and died. Some of them had the pathognomonic signs of 
 the plague.' He also mentions that before the plague broke 
 out, birds which were kept in cages died in many houses where 
 the disease afterwards appeared.^ 
 
 A.D. 1638. Cattle epizooty in Friuli.^ 
 
 A.D. 1640. ' The unforeseen uprising of the Portuguese in 
 1640, amongst other evils, was the cause of a cruel epizooty of 
 contagious scrofulous tumours [lamparones coiitagiosas) among the 
 horses, the result of a skirmish between the Spanish and Portu- 
 guese cavalry, and taking the captured horses toBadajoz; so 
 that, according to Martin Arredondo, there died more than 500 
 horses, which no remedies could save.' ^ This was in all pro- 
 bability an epizootv of glanders and farcy. An epizooty ap- 
 peared among the cattle of the Jura Alps, which caused great 
 devastation among the herds and alarm to the people. During 
 the panic, a poor woman, Catherine Miget, was put to the 
 torture and publicly burnt, as it was believed she had bewitched 
 the fountains of Sancy (Franche Comte) and the herds of the 
 district. 
 
 A.D. 1643. A bovine pest in Saxony. Week says: 'A 
 cattle contagion, the so-called flying pestilence [Jlissende pest) 
 appeared, of which many thousand head of cattle died, and for 
 which but one single remedy was found efficacious, namely : if 
 the infected animals were placed among horses, these took the, 
 infection, and the cattle recovered.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1648. An epizooty among the horses of the French 
 army in Germany. Solleysel, a celebrated French veterinarian 
 and author, has given us a description of it. It began by fever, 
 great prostration, and tears running from the eyes, and there 
 was an abundant mucous discharge of a greenish colour from 
 the nostrils. The horses also experienced loss of appetite, and 
 their ears were cold. Few of those attacked recovered. The 
 treatment adopted was with a view to neutralize the malignity 
 
 ^ Diemerbrock. De Peste. ^ BoHani. Vol. ii. p. 45. 
 
 ' Villalba. Epid. Espanol. vnl. ii. p. 69. 
 ^ Meyer. Topography of Dresden, p. 276.
 
 144 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 of the poison and to fortify nature ; ' for it was a poison,' 
 says this writer, 'which gave rise to the disorder and was the 
 cause of the fever. Remedies, at the commencement of the 
 epizooty, were of no avail. Precautions were taken to have all 
 the healthy horses removed from the infected stables, and they 
 were not to return to them until they had been fumigated, 
 whitewashed, and otherwise cleansed.^ ^ Solleysel designated it 
 a'fievre pestilentielle,^ very deadly at its commencement, but 
 afterwards amenable to medical treatment. It was evidently 
 ' influenza.' A catarrhal fever had been epidemic the previous 
 year. 
 
 A.D. 11549. Small-pox in sheep in Padua. ^ Epidemic small- 
 pox raging in mankind in Boston, U.S. Plague in Spain and 
 France. 
 
 A.D. 1650. A volcanic eruption in the Gulf of Santorin. 
 The accompanying evolution of sulphur and hydrogen issuing 
 from the sea killed more than fifty persons, and more than one 
 thousand domestic animals.^ Ergotism in man, especially in 
 Sologne. Pestilence in Russia and Poland. Myriads of locusts 
 were seen to enter Russia in three different directions, and soon 
 after they spread over Poland and Lithuania in such swarms 
 that air and earth was obscured by them. So numerous w^ere they, 
 that in many places they lay heaped to a depth of four feet, and 
 the very trees bent with their weight. They caused a fearful 
 amount of damage. Epidemic influenza all over Europe. 
 
 A.D. 1655. A disease among fish in the lakes and ponds, 
 according to the Chronicle of Godfrey. People who had gathered 
 the dead and dying creatures and had eaten them, were attacked 
 by a pestilential disease which killed a very great number; even 
 the dogs which ate the unburied dead were attacked by mad- 
 ness.* 
 
 A.D. 1656. Pestilence in man in the Neapolitan territories 
 and the Ecclesiastical States, which caused an immense loss of 
 life. An epizootic disease appears to have reigned at the same 
 time. It is noted: 'With regard to the human pestilence which 
 
 '^Solleysel. Parfait Marechal. Paris, 16S4, p. 404. "^ Bottani. P. 46. 
 ^ Lyell. Principles of Geology, p. 443. 
 * Gothofred. Chronic.
 
 History of Animal Plagiies. 145 
 
 invaded the city of Rieti and other cities of the Ecclesiastical 
 States, it is certain that these places received the contaoion 
 more than once, from those who were employed in the hospitals 
 conveying it when they passed into the houses of the healthy. 
 But the animals seem to propagate their pestilence among each 
 other without beino; brouoht into actual contact/ ^ 
 
 ' At the same time (as the plague in man), a cruel epizootic 
 disease aggravated the pestilence by attacking and destrovino- 
 the greater part of the oxen and sheep/ ^ A strange epizootv 
 w^as observed to affect tlic pelicans in the West Indies. So j 
 mortal was the disease, that their dead bodies covered many 
 islands. ' \\\ the year 1656, and in the month of September, 
 there was a great mortality among these birds, particularly the 
 young ones ; for all the shores of the islands of St Alousie, St 1 
 Vincent, Becoiiya, and all the Grenadins, were covered with, 
 the bodies of these dead birds.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1659. Either the same or another epizootic disease 
 appears to have prevailed in Italy in this year, for we liud that 
 the Senate of Venice was obliged to issue an order relative to 
 the use of the flesh of diseased cattle. 'Joint notice was oivdi 
 to the villages of Tessera, Campalto, and San Martino — com- 
 munes under the magistracy of Mestre, that all diseased cattle 
 were to be killed; and in order, for the protection of human life, 
 that their flesh might not be sold as food, they were to be 
 buried or publiclv destroyed. This law was published in these 
 villages.^ * 
 
 A.D. 1661. In England, Pepys w-rites on the 21st of January: 
 '■ It is strange what weather we have had all this winter. No 
 cold at all ; but the ways are dusty, the flyes fly up and down, 
 and the rose-bushes are full of leaves, such a time of the year 
 as was never known in this world before here.' ^ 'This dry, hot 
 summer drove many animals to firiizy and to madness, by 
 which farmers experienced much loss. It was remarked that 
 horses, oxen, and sheep were lirst attacked with symptoms of 
 
 ' Colantonj Ragguaglio. Delle Peste Scoperta in Rieti. Rome, 1658. 
 
 - Frari. Vol. ii. p. 484. 
 
 ^ Duter/re. Hist. Gencrale des Antilles. Paris, 1567, vol. ii. p. 273. 
 
 * Botlani. Vol. ii. p. 49. 
 
 * Samuel Pepys. Diary and Correspondence. 
 
 10
 
 146 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 phrenitis and vertigo. The herdsmen noticed that there were 
 worms in the heads of the afiected animals.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1663. The year 1662 was remarkable for a great 
 drouoht in England, bat the subsequent years were wet and 
 unhealthy, not only in Europe, but also in North America, 
 where plants and animals were alike diseased. Rot in sheep 
 was particularly observed in England, Germany, and other 
 countries, and even wild animals were said to suffer from this 
 aflTection. In Germany, ' one owner, who had originally in his 
 flocks 3000 sheep, now had scarcely 40 left. This disease was 
 
 commonly termed tgehi, egelichte, lehern Amongst wild 
 
 beasts, stags and hares were the first in that year which, chiefly 
 in the district of Rodacum, were either found dead, or so de- 
 prived of strength as to become an easy prey to the hunters. 
 .... The bodies of the dead creatures, when examined, ex- 
 hibited the liver and lungs in a putrid state. The livers of 
 I stags were full of hydatids (t'ennium). Among domestic ani- 
 mals, the plague committed the greatest ravages in sheep and 
 •young cattle. The sheep, without any distinction as to age, 
 were affected; and, moreover, the animals in utero were found 
 to have the same diseased appearances.^' The causes were 
 alleged to have been frequent inundations, the honey-dew and 
 rust of herbage, and corrupt water. The disease continued in 
 the two following years. 
 
 'The whole Venetian territories were seized this year with a 
 malignant epidemic, which infected 60,000 people. They be^an 
 with horror and a fever: some died quickly, the rest recovered. 
 It proceeded from monstrous and incredible numbers of small 
 worms.^ This year and the following, the livers of all sheep, 
 oxen, deer, hares, &c., were only bags of worms, like leeches, 
 and often the lungs also. Out of 3000 sheep not 40 were left 
 alive. Only old bullocks and sheep escaped, for all the young 
 and middle-aged died of this plague. Even the livers of young 
 in utero were eaten up with this vermin. Some farmers ascribed 
 it to the cattle eating iiumularia, which is very unlikely, both 
 
 1 Thomas Bartol'nii. Epist. Med. Cent., iii. Ep. 48. Hafn. 1667. 
 - Frohmann. Miscell. Nat. Cur., p. 245. ^ Bonct. T. Short. Op. cit., p. 338.
 
 Histoi-y of Animal Plagues. 147 
 
 since it is a restringent (astringent), and that it grows and is 
 eaten every year as well as this.^ To some great sheep-masters 
 this makes one of their epochs still, and is called the '' Rotten 
 Year/' most of all their great flocks of sheep dying then. In '63 
 was a great death of cattle in England from a most severely 
 rainy wet autumn. Their carcases were sold at very small 
 prices among ordinary people.'^ 
 
 Schnurrer writes : 'The year 1663 was a very damp one in 
 England, so that the sheep and cattle suffered severely from 
 fluke-worms {Egelioilnnern).'^ 
 
 A.D. 1664. Small-pox in sheep in Venice.* "During the sum- 
 mer a comet was observed, and a malignant epidemy is de- 
 scribed, which soon after developed itself as the Great Plague of 
 London. The signs said to foreshadow this plague were many, 
 but the principal were the birds and wild beasts having left their 
 accustomed haunts, and the almost total absence of swallows ; 
 swarms of flies everywhere, ants in masses, and the ditches filled 
 with frogs and insects. 
 
 A.D. 1669. 'This year was remarkable in consequence of the 
 unusual drougrht and heat of the summer. From May till Mar- 
 tinmas scarcely any rain fell. There arose a great scarcity of 
 water, especially upon the Alps. The cattle disease {viehpresten) 
 raged rather dangerously, and with mankind there appeared 
 dysentery.^ ^ 'After honey-dew [liojiigthau) in plants, a great 
 cattle disease followed.'" 'July 31st, was seen a great dark cloud 
 rise in the east near Litchfield, which coming near the city, was 
 over it about noon, and was a prodigious swarm of ant-flies, so 
 thick that they darkened the sky. They then fell down, filled 
 the houses, stung many people, put all the horses mad, and 
 market people were forced to pack up and be gone, and the 
 people at harvest-work were driven home. Thus they con- 
 tinued for three hours, covered and laid thick on the streets; 
 many of them were dead, and were sweeped together in great 
 
 ' Bonei. Sepulcr. Anatomic. ^ Hodges. T. Short. Loc. cit. 
 
 '^Schnurrer. Chronik dcr Seuchen. * Bottani. Vol. ii. p. 134. 
 
 '■' 'frumpy. Glarncr Chronik, p. 377- 
 " Scheiickzcr. Oryctoga Helvetic, p. 20.
 
 148 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 heaps; the remainder took their flight northward and molested 
 other places.^ 
 
 A.D. 1 67 1 -2. An extensive exanthematous epizooty among 
 cats in Westphalia. ' The head was covered with scabies, and 
 at first the ears were inwardly crusted with scaly matter. The 
 eves seemed as if they were covered with a film, although the 
 animals could see until suppuration took place; after this period 
 they died. Sleep continually oppressed them; and so drowsy were 
 they, that they appeared as if they had heard that celebrated 
 speech on the joys of sleep after dinner. The skin disease did 
 not proceed further than the head and neck. There was scarcely 
 a house in which some were not infected; and unless common 
 rumour be false, it seemed that it could be communicated from 
 one to another, as well as generated spontaneously. As a proof 
 of this, it attacked some which were closely shut up, so that they 
 might be free from all contagion from the diseased. Some are 
 supposed to have been cured by the fat of a whale; in the case 
 of most, however, medicine was of no avail, and few survived. •* ^ 
 In this year small-pox again appeared amongst sheep in the 
 Venetian states.^ 
 
 A.D. 1674. Small-pox in sheep again in the Venetian territory. 
 In Seeland, the largest of the Danish islands, ' rot ' in sheep, and 
 the customary fluke [distoma hepatica) found not only in the 
 livers of these animals, but in those of other domesticated and 
 wild creatures. Willius gives the following observations : ^ All 
 the race of oxen sickened. A languor seized their whole body, 
 their breathing was short and rapid; they had a frequent hack- 
 ing cough. They ate as usual, bred, and grew fat. The fatness 
 was in every part of the body most extraordinary, bat the flesh 
 was very flaccid. The lungs were filled with innumerable 
 hydatid cysts, some of which were the size of two fists. On the 
 exterior of the lungs of one cow I reckoned seventeen, but they 
 lay so thick within, that they would not admit of being counted. 
 The whole of the thorax was filled with reddish serum ; the 
 vessels of the heart were enveloped in copious fat; in the peri- 
 cardium a liquid, similar to that observed in the chest, was 
 
 ^ dark. Examples. T. Short. P. 353. 
 2 Wedlius. Miscel. Nat. Curios., Dec. i. ^ Bottani. Loc. cit.
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 140 
 
 found ; and the muscular fibres of the heart, when exposed, were 
 seen to be soft and wasted. The hver, however, in all of them, 
 was most affected. In manv cows it was full of watery tumours, 
 varying in size from a fist, an apple, a walnut, or a hazel nut. 
 In some cases there was a large tumour in which a few of the 
 lesser ones were included. The livers of some oxen were free 
 from hydatid cvsts, but they were everywhere scirrhous. The 
 gall bladder was very much increased in size, and full of peculiar 
 fluid which was pale in colour, and flowed like water. Not only 
 in nearly all the branches of the vena portae, but also in the 
 biliary ducts, many worms were found (like dhtoma). ... I also 
 remember that in this year I found some dead hares in the 
 month of spring in the country, and their hearts were flaccid, 
 while their livers were dotted here and there with black spots.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1679. Great epidemy in Andalusia, but more severely 
 at Vienna. The summer hot and damp. Mushrooms were 
 very plentiful, according to Sorbait. Cats and birds died in 
 Vienna during the plague. In Hungary, diseases of a carbim- 
 cular nature appeared. The following account may be interest- 
 ing. ' In the little town of Czierko (in Hungary), in the sum- 
 mer of 1679, a certain winged insect, unknown to all, appeared, 
 and mortally wounded both man and beast with its sting, 
 causing great mortality among them. For instance, in this one 
 little township, thirty-five men, and a great number of oxen and 
 horses, were killed by them. No one was proof against their at- 
 tack, and they fixed their stings on any part not covered by a gar- 
 ment, namely, the face, the neck (and in this spot the Poles par- 
 ticularly suffered, on account of their habit of cutting their hair), 
 the hands, or any other part of the naked flesh. A hard tumour 
 soon formed on the part stung, and unless the wounds were im- 
 mediately attended to in the first three hours, and the poison v\- 
 tracted by scarification, or some other like means, all after-treat- 
 ment was unavailing, and the sufferers died within a few days. 
 This species of insect was unknown in those parts, and had ne\ er 
 before been seen by any one. Many people were jiersuaded that it 
 was sent by God for a punishment ; and it seems evident that it 
 was the work of a deity, because they confined themselves within 
 ^ Willius. Acta Ilavniens. 1674, p. 132, obs. 76.
 
 150 History of Animal Plagices. 
 
 the borders of Czierko^ and leaving the Germans alone, had sought 
 only the Poles. At the end of September, however, a violent 
 wind drove these insects to us, but on account of the extreme 
 cold, we did not suffer an equal amount of loss, for except 
 one ox and two horses which they killed, only one person was 
 stung, who, however, recovered.' ^ This was written on the 
 confines of Silesia and Poland. 
 
 A.D. 1680. A cold winter and heavy storms in the spring- 
 time and summer. Invasion of locusts. ' Some annals attest, 
 and the following history certifies, that an epidemic disease in 
 fish is a most sure prognostication of a future plague. Before 
 the last attack of the plague, in the year 1680, fish in the fresh 
 water lake of Mansfeldi, and, in a less degree, in the salt lake of 
 Langenbogia, perished in great numbers from some epidemic 
 disease. They had spots of various colours — black, red, yellow, 
 and green — dotted here and there over their bodies. They 
 exhaled a foul odour and had a nauseous taste; and from 
 eating them, people of the poorer class suffered great pains in the 
 chest, intense prostration of body, nausea, vomiting, and foul 
 and malignant fevers. The medical men at Halle, Islebie, and 
 some other places, after carefully examining this wonderful 
 phenomenon, all attributed it to one cause, — namely, the foul 
 nebulae which pervaded the water at that time; for these nebulae 
 were so corrosive, that the faces of men fishing in the lakes 
 became ulcerated. The surface of the water was covered with a 
 greenish scum.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1682. Damp summer and inundations. An eruption of 
 Vesuvius ; the city of Catania destroyed by an earthquake ; an 
 eruption of Mount Etna, destroying 60,000 people. A comet 
 was seen, and fogs or mists of a blue colour and sulphureous 
 odour, which destroyed the forage, and extended from Italy to 
 England, were spoken of. In this year there was a great epizooty 
 of glossanthrax, or carbuncle of the tongue, which seemed to 
 spread from west to east, through Switzerland, France, Ger- 
 many, and Poland. A witness to its ravages in Holland, to 
 which country it had at last found its way, in the month of 
 
 ^ Stegmann. Ephem. Nat. Curios., vol. ii. p. 427. 
 ^ Ibid. Dec, vol. ii. p. 386.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 131 
 
 May, thus describes it : '^ I am able to bear witness, that, in the 
 year 1682, the ignea pestllcnt'ia raged among the cattle in the 
 country of Groningen, for in that year I happened to be living 
 there; and it was said that this deadly fire was first kindled in 
 Italy. Then it crept into Burgundy, and spread over the whole 
 of Switzerland, Germany, and Brabant, and in its course, in the 
 month of May, it attacked the cattle in the district of Gronin- 
 gen, where it continued up to the end of the year; and if I am 
 not deceived, in the following year it held its course as far as 
 Friesland. The disease was a fiery burning, and the cattle suf- 
 fered from inflamed pustules on the tongue, and not until great 
 havoc had been created was any remedy found. The following 
 treatment proved efi'ective. Sharp and jagged silver instru- 
 ments were used to scrape the tongues of the sick animals 
 until they were raw and bleeding. In this way art over- 
 came disease.^ ^ Dr Winder, chief physician to the Prince 
 Palatine, and who wrote from the Rhine in December, 1682, 
 to his friend Dr Slare, gives a very lucid account of its com- 
 mencement and progress. ' In 1682, on the borders of Italy, a 
 murrain infected the cattle, which spread into Switzerland, the 
 territories of Wurtemburg, and other provinces, making great 
 destruction among the cattle. The contagion seemed to projia- 
 gate itself in the form of a blue mist," which fell upon those 
 
 ^ Out/tovii. Judicia Jehovse. Groningen, 1721, p. 740. 
 
 ^ The influence of a ' mist ' in the production of disease, either in the animal or • 
 vegetable ivingdoms, has, from the earliest times, been looked upon as a certainly. 
 This history of epizootics will testify to some of these instances, in relation to the 
 plagues of the lower animals, but more numerous examples will perhaps be found 
 in the narratives of epidemic invasions. We constantly read in the ancient records ' 
 of atmospherical perturbations either preceding or accompanying severe pestilential ,' 
 visitations. 'On the island of Cyprus, before the earthquake, a pestiferous wind \ 
 spread so poisonous an odour, tliat many, l)cing overpowered liy it, fell down sud- 
 denly and expired in dreadful agonies. A thick stinking mist advanced from the 
 east, and spread itself over Italy.' This was previous to the Black Death, and 
 Ilecker remarks that the German accounts make particular mention, with regard to ) 
 that infliction, of a 'thick stinking mist which advanced from the east and spread 
 over Italy ; there could be no deception in so palpable a phenomenon.' The Abbe 
 Hue, a Jesuit missionary, who travelled much in China, gives a curious and strik- 
 ing description, gathered from the Chinese, of a 'mist' seen in the ]irovince of 
 Shantung, north China, which proved to be a precursor of cholera. — llie Chinese 
 Empire, p. 286. 
 
 The invasions of cholera in this country have been similarly heralded or
 
 1^1 ■ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 pastures where the cattle grazed, insomuch that whole herds 
 returned home sick ; being very dull, forbearing their food, and 
 most of them would die in twenty-four hours. Upon dissection 
 there were discovered large and corrupted spleens, sphacelous 
 and corrupted tongues, and some had angina maligna. Those 
 persons who carelessly managed their cattle, without a due 
 regard to their own health, were themselves infected, and died 
 like their beasts. Some imputed it to the witchcraft of three 
 Capucins in Switzerland, who were killed ; but,' says he, ' this 
 contagion may perhaps proceed from some noxious exhalations 
 emitted from the earth, by three distinct earthquakes, perceived 
 here in the space of one year.' The treatment was simple — 
 generally scraping or cleaning the tongue, washing it with a 
 lotion of salt and vinegar, and the administration of garlic, or a 
 dose of gunpowder, soot, brimstone, and salt. Dr Slare adds in 
 a postscript : ' I lately received an account from two ingenious 
 travellers, who assured me the contagion had reached their 
 quarters on the borders of Poland, having passed quite through 
 Germany, and that the method used in our relation preserved 
 and cured their cattle. They told me the contagion was observed 
 to make its progress daily, spreading near two German miles in 
 twenty-four hours. This, they say, was certainly observed by many 
 curious persons, that it continually, without intermission, made 
 its progress, and suffered no neighbouring parish to escape ; but 
 it did not at the same time infect places at great distances. They 
 added that cattle at rack and manger were equally infected with 
 those in the field.' ^ Dr Slare fancied the infection was con- 
 veyed by some volatile insect. On the 20th of June, at Nord- 
 lingen, it was noted^ ' we yesterday saw the first symptoms of 
 
 accompanied. Dr Williams, in his ' Principles of Medicine,' remarks : 'The pre- 
 valence of the south-east wind was observed to be particularly favourable to 
 the increase of both cholera and influenza ; and I cannot but think that this had 
 some connection with the general tendency exhibited by the former to spi'ead from 
 east to west. Has the morbific property of this wind aught to do with the haziness 
 of the air when it prevails — a haziness seen in the country remote from smoke, and 
 quite distinct from fog ? What is this haze ? In the west of England a hazy day 
 in spring is called a blight.' In more recent times, so late as 1 866, a blue mist was 
 noticed in England during the mild visitation of cholera. 
 
 ^ An Account of a Murren in Switzerland, and the Method of its Cure. Philo- 
 sophical Transactions, vol. xiii.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 153 
 
 this disease in our town's-cattle. It was called the "flvincr cancer'* 
 {Jiiegende krebs), and it travelled, in twenty-four hours, two 
 leagues in length by four miles in breadth/ ^ 
 
 In August it was in Saxony, where it was observed that it 
 travelled at the above rate.^ In the Journal des Suvans for that 
 period, we find the following account : ' This disease, which is 
 perhaps the same as that which the last news informed us was 
 afflicting Flanders and Catalonia, commenced in the summer in 
 the Lyonnais and Dauphine, and spread with fury to many 
 other provinces of the kingdom. The cattle which were at- 
 tacked ate, worked, and performed all their other ordinary 
 functions of life, until all at once they were seen to fall and die. 
 There formed on the tono;ue a black or violet-coloured vesicle 
 which formed an eschar in five or six hours. This no sooner fell 
 off than the animals died. In some of those which were opened, 
 the entrails appeared as if rotten, and the tongue for the most 
 part gangrenous and falling to pieces. All kinds of remedies 
 were tried ae:ainst the disease, but that which answered best was 
 to rub the vesicle on the tongue witii a piece of silver until the 
 blood came. After this the wound was dressed with vinegar in 
 which was dissolved salt and pepper. This disease was so con- 
 tagious, that it was easily contracted bv simply touching any- 
 thing that had been near the part affected. A man lost his life 
 through being helped to food from a spoon which had been used 
 to rub the tongue of a diseased ox, and a gentleman of a town 
 in Guienne was attacked by the malady in consequence of hav- 
 ing put in his pocket a piece of thirty sous with which his farmer 
 had scraped another affected animal's tongue. He was treated 
 like the ox, and recovered.' ^ 
 
 ^ Nachricht aus Welschland und Spanien wegen Bezauberung des Viehs. 16S2. 
 
 2 Vogels. Annalen von Leipzig, p. 816. 
 
 ' Journal des Savans, 1682, p. 399. The quaint veterinary wriicr, Leonard 
 Mascal (Of Oxen, Horses, Sheepes, Hogges, Dogges. London, 1596), is the 
 earliest writer in England whom I can find describing the hlaiiie, or glossanthrax. 
 There is no proof that the disease ever reached Britain during tlie progress of 
 those great epizootics of lliis nature which marched in such a mysterious, yet regular, 
 course on the continent of Europe. The outbreak of 1252, among horses and 
 cattle, appears to have been limited to England, and from.wiiat Mascal relates, the 
 malady would seem to have existed in this country from time immemorial, and to 
 have been due to local and other circumscribed influences.
 
 154 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1683-4. The winters of these years were the coldest ever 
 known ; the summers were rainy, and the autumns cold. Gloss- 
 anthrax was yet prevalent in Germany. 'The sannner of the first 
 year was again very wet. On the 25th of November great cold 
 set \vl, which lasted until the 6th of February the next year. 
 The ensuing summer was very hot and dry; then came an early 
 harvest. In both these years there raged an epizooty among 
 cattlcj called the burning cancer [hrennende krehs). Small silver 
 saws were used to scrape off the blisters or ulcers from the 
 tono-ues.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1685. ' In November, a plague amongst cattle began 
 at Groeblowitzius, Tschechnitius, where all perished of an un- 
 known infection. Some we sent to Kuntzendorsum, but there 
 also they all died. No medicines, no remedies availed aught, 
 although we tried many.' ^ Heusinger suspects this was a variolous 
 affection. In the spring an immense flight of grasshoppers de- 
 stroyed all the corn, the vines, willows, pulse, and hemp in 
 Languedoc. 
 
 A.D. 1686. Friesland inundated, and many thousands of men 
 and cattle drowned. A terrific hail-storm did an immense 
 amount of damage. After the capture of Luxembourg by the 
 French, the army suffered from scurvy. ' After this expedition, 
 when the army was approaching the town of Treves, on the 
 Moselle, it came to the Monastery of St Matthew the apostle, for 
 whose feast a countryman had kept a team of three fine horses. 
 Having no place where he could put them, they were left with- 
 out fodder for three days in the part where the inhabitants of 
 the Monastery were accustomed to urinate. The horses, op- 
 pressed with hunger, devoured the long grass which was impreg- 
 nated with urine, and when their master saw this, he prognosti- 
 cated they would suffer; and the result proved him to be correct, 
 for the fattest of them was seized around its feet and legs, and 
 at length over its whole body, with scabs and foetid ulcers, and 
 being led out by its master in the middle of the night into the 
 pasture-land where numbers of horses of the Gallic army were 
 feeding, it infected many, and spread this pest as if it had been 
 
 ^ Steubing. Topographic der Stadt Herborn, p. 21. 
 ^ Fibiger. Acta Mag. Wratislaw. Stenzel. Scrip, rer. Silesia.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. i 
 
 oj 
 
 an endemic among thd troops. One oF the remaining two wasted 
 away from the disease and died; the other became immensely 
 swollen in the abdomen, and also died. The men with scurvy 
 had the same symptoms as these horses exhibited.'^ This may 
 have been an outbreak of farcv. In July all the cattle in Stein, 
 Grublowitz, and Metzdorf (Silesia) were affected with '■ foot and 
 mouth disease ' {pelle ex lingua et ungidis decentihus — aphthous 
 fever).^ Diderich in his ' Historia Pestis ^ says: 'I have re- 
 marked among mv cows in Schamburg, near Custrine, in the 
 year 1686, as well as among all the other cattle in the place, 
 that, in the middle of the winter, fourteen days after each other, 
 and without a single exception, all were thoroughly salivated, 
 just as happens when the old women of Hamburg cure the 
 French, and other chronic diseases, with mercury. Never- 
 theless, no single head died, although during the whole time 
 the stock could eat but little. This strano-e sickness was not re- 
 marked bevond this place.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1688. ' The winter was severely cold in Germany, with 
 great snow, followed by a sudden thaw and heat. In summer 
 broke forth an epidemic catarrh, with danger of suffocation. . . 
 It was called the hot catarrh, for the matter discharged by the 
 nose was very thin, clear, and hot. A slio;ht fever attended the 
 defluxions. . . . About the middle of May beran a fever in 
 London, and all over England, which reached and spread all 
 over Ireland m .July. The symptoms were the same in all. It 
 began and ended its course in seven weeks. . . . Though not one 
 of fifteen escaped it, yet not one of a thousand that had it died. 
 It was generally observed, both in England and Ireland, that, 
 some times before the fever beiran a slio-ht but universal disease 
 seized horses, viz. a great defluxion of rheum from their noses. 
 This fever spread all over Europe from cast to west.' ^ ' An 
 epidemic of influenza in England and at Dublin, which was pre- 
 ceded by a distemper attended by nasal defluxion (thought to be 
 glanders) among horses, especially those belonging tt) the king's 
 
 ' Eggerdes. Ephem. Nat. Curios., p. 416. 
 
 ^ Stcnzel. Scrip. .Siles., vol. ii. p. 363. 
 
 ^ Kanold. Jalireshistorie von d. Seuchen des Vichs. p. 80. 
 
 * Dr Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 455.
 
 156 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 army, then encamped on the Curragh of Kildare.' ^ ' Earth- 
 ! quake of Smyrna. Swarms of insects foreboded a pestilence ; an 
 epidemic catarrh followed all over Europe, beginning among 
 horses and ending with men, as is frequently the case/ '^ 
 
 Great swarms of insects are mentioned by Sir Thomas Moly- 
 neux as infesting Ireland and eating up everything of the herbage 
 and leaves of trees and plants. In this account' concerning the 
 swarms of insects that of late years have much infested some 
 parts of the province of Connaught, in Ireland/ he says, 'The 
 first time great numbers of insects were taken notice of in this 
 kingdom, I find, was in the year 1688. They appeared on the 
 south-west coast of the county of Galloway (Galway), brought 
 thither by a south-west wind, — one of the common, I might 
 almost say trade-winds, of this country, it blows so much more 
 from this quarter in Ireland than all the rest of the compass.^ 
 They passed inland towards Headford, ' and in the adjacent 
 country, multitudes of them showed themselves among the trees 
 and hedges in the day-time, hanging by the boughs, thousands 
 together, in clusters, sticking to the back one of another, as in 
 the manner of bees when they swarm. . . . Those that were 
 travelling on the roads or abroad in the fields found it very un- 
 easy to make their way through them, they would so beat and 
 knock themselves against their faces in their flight, and with such 
 a force as to smart the place where they hit, and leave a slight 
 mark behind them. ... A short while after their coming, they 
 had so entirely eat up and destroyed all the leaves of the trees 
 
 ^ Dr Thompson. Annals of Influenza, Sydenham Soc. 1852. 
 
 ^ T. Forster. Atmospherical Origin of Epidemic Disorders of Health, p. 162. 
 A curious superstition was formerly prevalent regarding St Stephen's Day (Dec. 
 26th), viz. that horses should then, after being first well galloped, be copiously let 
 blood, to insure them against disease in the following year. In Barnaby Googe's 
 translation of Naogeorgus, the following lines occur relative to this popular notion : 
 
 'Then foUoweth Saint Stephen's Day, whereon doth every man 
 His horses jaunt and course abrode, as swiftly as he can. 
 Until they doe extreemely sweate, and then they let them blood, 
 For this being done upon this day, they say doth do them good. 
 And keeps them from all maladies and sicknesse through the yeare. 
 As if that Steven any time tooke charge of horses heare.' 
 
 The origin of this practice is very ancient and somewhat obscure, but the anti- 
 quary Douee supposes it to have been introduced into Britain by the Danes.
 
 \ 
 
 Histoi'y of Animal Plagues. i^y 
 
 for some miles about, that the whole country — thouo;h it was 
 in the middle of summer, was left as bare and naked as if it had 
 been the depth of winter, making a most unseemly and, indeed, 
 frightful appearance ; and the noise they made whilst they were 
 seizing and devouring this their prey was as surprising, for the 
 grinding of the leaves in the mouths of this vast multitude alto- 
 gether made a noise very much resembling the sawing of timber.' 
 Every green thing was devoured by these animals, and ' out of 
 the gardens they got into the houses, where numbers of them, 
 crawling about, were very irksome.' And in the ensuing spring 
 of 1689 their 'spawn, which they lodged underground, next the 
 upper sod of the earth, did more harm in that close retirement 
 than all the flying swarms of their parents had done abroad, for 
 this vounsr destructive brood did not withhold from what was 
 much more necessary to have been spared,' but devoured ' the 
 roots of the corn and grass, and eating them up, ruined both 
 the support of man and beast.' The insect appears to have 
 been the Melolontha vulgaris, or common cockchafer. This 
 plague was checked as follows: 'High winds, wet and misly 
 weather, were extremely disagreeable to the nature of this insect, 
 and so prejudicial as to destroy many millions of them in one 
 day's time. . . . During; these unfavourable seasons of weather, 
 the swine and poultry of the country at length grew so cunning 
 as to watch under the trees for their falling,' and eat them in 
 abundance ; and the author was assured ' that the poorer sort of 
 the native Irish (the country then labouring under a scarcity of 
 provisions) had a way of dressing them, and lived upon them as 
 food.' It was also found that smoke was very offensive to them, 
 and therefore large numbers were got rid of ' by burning 
 heath, fern, and such like weeds,' in their vicinity. Towards 
 the end of summer they began to disperse; ^and so wholly dis- 
 appeared, that in a few days you should not see one left in all 
 those parts that was so lately pestered with them.' During the 
 ensuing spring 'great quantities of the eggs of this insect were 
 exposed, on ploughing or digging up the ground.' 
 
 Rutty, describing this influenza in man, mentions that an 
 ' universal distemper seized the horses in J^ubliu.' ' 
 ' Jiuttv. History of the Weather and Seasons.
 
 158 History 0/ Anwial Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1689. In mankind, ^spotted fever, small-pox, and 
 others; then followed murrahi of sheep.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1690. Ramazzhii writes: 'For the first four or five 
 years preceding this, the whole of Italy had experienced uncom- 
 monly dry weather, during which time all the crops were most 
 abundant, and it was imagined that there would be universal 
 I good health ; for it is commonly and correctly believed that 
 I everything is more healthy in dry weather. In the year preced- 
 1 ing this, however (1689), about the time of the equinox, heavy 
 rains fell, which continuing during the whole spring of the year, 
 produced an unfavourable season. The summer continued for 
 the most part rainy. About the time of the summer solstice 
 signs of rust ^ {riibigo) in the wheat began to be observed, which 
 
 ^ T. Forster. Loc. cit. 
 
 2 The rust of plants, the Epj;(Tt/3j/ of the Greeks, 7-obigo of the Romans, who 
 had their fiction regarding the god Robigus, and their Robigalia or Robigalia festa 
 in his honour to avert this destroyer, the rouille of the French, der rost of the Ger- 
 mans, and the rubigo of the botanist, has been known from the earliest times, but 
 it may well be doubted' if, until modern days, many diseases of plants have not 
 been included in this term. It is only within a few years that the study of the 
 various microscopical fungi has revealed the true nature of the enphytozics or epi- 
 phytozics to which they give rise. Unger was of opinion that the causes which 
 led to their appearance in the plant are to be foimd in the ground, the electricity 
 I of the atmosphere, humidity, and the absence of light. Theophrastus thought 
 rust was due to the rays of the full moon, and Diogenes Laertius relates how the 
 philosopher Empedocles preserved tlie crops of Agrigentum against tlie rust by 
 hanging up the skins of animals between them and the north wind. The physi- 
 cians of the si.xteenth century imagined its appearance was owing to a malignant 
 dew, and in the south of France at the present day the agriculturists are so per- 
 suaded that tlie rust of wheat is due to a fog or mist, that they term it the maladic 
 brouillard. The generative faculty and contagious character of the several fungi 
 are not yet sufficiently known to be definitely pronounced upon. Mr Cook, in his 
 excellent little work on ' Microscopi Fungi,' says of them : 'Unfortunately, this 
 group of fungi contains species but too well known for their ravages amongst gram- 
 inaceous plants, especially the cereals. "Corn rust," as it is generally called, has a 
 reputation little better tlian mildew, and it really deserves no better, for it is only 
 another form of that pest of the farm, from the mycelium of which the corn-mildew 
 is at length developed. There are two species very closely allied (doubtless only 
 forms of the same species with different spores) which attack the leaves and culms 
 of growing corn, and bursting through the cuticle, give a peculiar rusty appearance 
 to the plant. One of these corn-rusts is botanically termed Trichobasis rnbigo-vfra, 
 or the "true rust Trichobasis," the latter, which is the generic name, being a com- 
 pound of two Greek words (t/irix, a hair, and basis, a foundation), on account of 
 the spores being at first furnished at their base witli a short, thread-like peduncle, 
 which at length falls away. The other corn-rust is Trichobasis Ii7!eans, or " line-like 
 Trichobasis," htcau?,e the sori or pustules are linear, or lengthened out like a line ;
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 159 
 
 perceptibly increasing, proved highly obnoxious to the grain, 
 covering, as it did, the plants from the stalk to the ear with 
 spots like blood. This pestilence also attacked beans and all 
 other kinds of pulse ; so that in a few days were destroyed all 
 the preconceived hopes for the prosperity of the year. Never- 
 theless, the extreme fertility of the previous years had enabled 
 them to lay up some store for the future, and this lessened the 
 calamity. In the beginning of September, and vet more at the 
 exact time of the equinox, rain fell more copiously, and lasted 
 throughout the whole month of October, and as a consequence, 
 the banks of the rivers could with difficulty restrain the tremend- 
 ous power of the floods flowing between them. The two last 
 months were nearly rainless, and the year 1689 closed with 
 favourable weather. But in the beginning of the year 1660 
 (during which the pestilence of rust, by eating into the corn 
 and every other kind of crop, brought desperate fevers first to 
 those in the country, then to those in the town), the rain 
 returning, but more heavily and nearly continuously, clouded 
 the minds of all. Thus we passed a dreadful winter, with 
 
 the spores nearly double the length of those of the otlier coni-nist, and not so 
 bright in colour. By intermediate forms these two rusts pass insensibly the one 
 into the other, so that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them. Both have the 
 spores clustered together in the pustules, at first attached by their peduncles, but 
 they soon become free, and are scattered like rust powder over the plant.' 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever, that plants infested by these minute fungi, 
 and used as food by animals, often cause diseases of a serious nature, and this 
 fact was well known to tlie old physicians. We have here the evidence of Ramaz- 
 zini, and others will be found in this history. Niemann declared that sheep would 
 not eat wheaten or oaten straw when it was covered with rust or Puccinia. — Gas- 
 parin, p. 236. 
 
 M. Gohier gives many examples of epizootics which he believed were caused by 
 the rust of straw. — Sur Us effcts des Failles RouilUs. Lyons, 1804. 
 
 Gerlach maintains that straw covered with Uredo linearis and Uredo riibigo- 
 vera is often the cause of anthrax. He also observes that horses employed to carry 
 away colewort were often attacked by ptyalism, and that this might be due to the 
 Stellaria media, which was very plentiful, and was always covered with Uredo 
 caryophyllacearum ; for he noticed this affection in sheep which had pastured on 
 the Stellaria media. The same author also testifies to anthrax being due to vetches 
 and clover infested by Credo leguminosarum, and that the Puccinia fisi ox 'pea 
 rust,' has been the cause of abortions in sheep, inversion of the uterus, and puur- 
 peral fever. — Mag. F. Thierheilh, vii. p. 216. 
 
 Metaxa has witnessed the production of anthrax after the use of food contami- 
 nated by Uredo rtibigo. — Annali, ix. p. 68. Other veterinary authorities niigiu be 
 quoted in sujjport of the above assertion.
 
 i6o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 constant rains, accompanied by intense cold, and snow which 
 kept falling and thawing. The month of March, however, 
 contrary to custom, was without rain, and remaining so up 
 to the time of the equinox, with great serenity of the atmo- 
 sphere, raised our spirits; when, once more, the heavens seemed 
 to let loose upon us all the water contained in their bosom; so 
 that for the space of a night and a day everything was full of 
 water, and this State (Lombardy) presented the appearance of an 
 island. In the beginning of June signs of rust appeared, as in 
 the previous year. The mulberry first became affected. The 
 same blight, the worst disease that attacks crops, increasing little 
 bv little, soon laid hold of the corn and all kinds of pulse, but 
 especially beans ; and it did this not only on the low ground 
 where the water was stagnant, but also in the more elevated 
 places, and on the very hills themselves. It was a most grievous 
 and deplorable sight for the eyes to look around, and see the 
 fields not green, but black and covered with a kind of soot. For 
 as in the preceding year this disease had covered the corn with a 
 red colour, so in this year it sprinkled it with a carbonaceous 
 matter known as the great smut* [magna atredo). In the whole 
 
 1 Mr Cooke says regarding this agricultural pest: — 'One of the fungal 
 diseases of corn long and widely known has obtained amongst agriculturists 
 different appellations in different localities. In some it is the "smut," in others 
 it is respectively "dust-brand," "burnt-ear," "black-ball," and "chimney- 
 sweeper," all referring, more or less, to the blackish soot-like dust w^ith which 
 the infected and abortive ears are covered. This fungus does not generally 
 excite so much concern amongst farmers as the other affections to which their corn 
 crops are liable. Perhaps it is really not so extensively injurious, although it en- 
 tirely destroys every ear of corn upon which it establishes itself Wheat, barley, 
 oats, rye, and many grasses are subject to its attacks, and farmers have been heard 
 to declare that they like to see a little of it, becafuse its presence proves the general 
 excellence of the whole crop. No one who has passed through a field of standing 
 corn, after its greenness has passed away, but before it is fully ripe, can have failed 
 to notice, here and there, a spare lean-looking ear, completely blackened with a 
 coating of minute dust. If he has been guilty of brushing in amongst the corn, it will 
 still be remembered how his hands and clothing became dusted with this powder ; 
 and if at the time he should have been clad in sombre black, evidence will have 
 been afforded — in the rusty-looking tint of the powder when sprinkled upon his 
 black continuations — that, however sooty this powder might appear whilst still 
 adhering to the ears of corn, it has an evident brown tint when in contact with 
 one's clothes. This powder, minute as it is, every granule of it constitutes a spore 
 or protospore capable of germination, and ultimately, after several intermediate 
 Stages, of reproducing a fungus like the parent of which it formed a part. During
 
 History of Aiiwial Plagues. i6i 
 
 of the province of Este, which is usually the most fruitful of all, 
 the vintage had never been so poor^ whole bunches of grapes 
 being eaten away slowly by this pest. Nuts alone, which, stramre 
 to say, in the preceding years had been very scanty, were not 
 
 the growth of the plant its virulent contents flow like a poison through the inner- 
 most tissues, and at length attack the peduncle or axis of the spikelets of the ear, 
 raising up the essential organs and reducing them to a rudimentary state. Brong- 
 niart, who made this species the special subject of observation, states that the 
 fleshy mass which is occupied by the fungus consists entirely of uniform tissue, 
 presenting large, almost quadrilateral cavities, separated by walls, composed of one 
 or two layers of very small cells filled with a compact homogeneous mass of very 
 minute granules, perfectly spherical and equal, slightly adhering to each other, and 
 at first green, afterwards free or simply conglomerate towards the centre of each 
 mass, and of a pale rufous hue ; at length the cellular walls disappear, the globules 
 become completely insulated, and the whole mass is changed into a heap of powder 
 consisting of very regular globules, perfectly alike, black, and just like the repro- 
 ductive bodies of other fungi. . . . The spores in this species are exceedingly minute. 
 It has been ascertained that forty-nine of them would be contained within a space 
 the one hundred and sixty thousandth part of a square inch ; hence one square inch 
 of surface would contain little less than eight millions. These myriads of spores 
 are shed from the ears, and nothing remains but the barren matrix in which they 
 were borne when the farmer proceeds to gather in his crops. At that time he sees 
 no more of the "smut," all remembrance of it for the time is gone ; his only thought 
 is to stack his com in good condition. But the millions of spores are dispersed, 
 ten millions at least for every ear that has been "smutted," and will theynot, many of 
 them, reappear next year, and thus year after year, with as much certainty as the 
 grain upon which they are parasitic ? Like many of the parasitic fungi, so destruct- 
 ive in the farm and the garden, this species belongs to the family in which the 
 spores are the distinctive feature. After many botanical changes, the " smut " is at 
 length regarded as a fixed resident in the genus Ustilago, with the specific name of 
 Scgetum, which latter signifies "standing corn ; " it is therefore the Ustilago, or Smut 
 of the standing corn.'' — Ibidem, p. 76. 
 
 The reports as to the effects of these fungi on the health of animals are conflict- 
 ing. Some authors assert that they are innocuous, others that they cause disease. 
 Among the latter we may cite Gerlach, who reports that geese and ducks to which 
 he had given the refuse of bunted wheat died from anthrax. A more striking ex- 
 ample is the following : 'In the years 1842 and 1844, I have observed in one 
 farm a gangrenous fever and real anthrax among horses. Instead of oats they had 
 been fed on wheat, and then on the refuse of bunted wheat ; shortly afterwards 
 they were attacked by indigestion, the foeces were hard, and the balls which were 
 evacuated were covered with flakes of mucus ; daily they were seized with colics, 
 and the slightest occasion, such as a chill, over-exertion, &c., would bring on a 
 typhus or gangrenous fever and a true form of anthrax of such a violent description, 
 that in one day two or three animals would become ill and die.' In the same jour- 
 nal (Magazin/iir Thierhcilktinde) an observation is given which would go to prove 
 that the forage oI)tained from wheat that has been affucled with smut will cause 
 abortion in cows, and another observation that it may induce what is known as the 
 
 'arthritis' of lambs. 
 
 II
 
 1 62 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 affected by the mildew. Nearly all the vegetables were destroyed, 
 as by a blast from heaven. 
 
 ' Even another species of destruction was added to this, for 
 caterpillars and insects laid waste whole gardens, leaving the 
 plots bare. A similar disease appeared in melons, so that ani- 
 mals rejected them as food. The heavy rains, which had almost 
 unremittingly continued up to the end of July, were followed by 
 a dry period of nearly two months ; it was nevertheless unac- 
 companied by great heat. Animals of every species showed the 
 effects of the long-delayed drought, by dying in great numbers. 
 Sheep were first attacked, and, after they had sickened for a few 
 days, variolous eruptions appeared on their heads and necks, and 
 generally caused blindness; so that, if they did not perish from 
 the virulence of the disease, they at length died from hunger. 
 Pigs also perished in droves from suffocation. . . . That which 
 was the cause of death in animals, in my opinion, arose from 
 the acid nature of the mildew ; for not taking into consideration 
 the morbid constitution of the atmosphere, which was no doubt 
 noxious to beasts, on account of the contaminated character of 
 the forage, the blood became acid and circulated feebly, and 
 either whole flocks of sheep died suddenly, or were seized 
 with small-pox ; for one can confidently assert that the erup- 
 tion which appeared on the head, neck, and legs was undoubt- 
 edly variolous, when neither in shape, nor in colour, nor in the 
 matter contained in them, nor in their size, nor in the w^ay in 
 which after suppuration a black scab remained, did the pustules 
 differ from those of small-pox in children. In like manner, other 
 animals suffered from the diseased plants. Even bees, extracting 
 no sweetness from the calyces of the flowers, but a bitter poison, 
 either died or left the country. And it is not to be wondered at 
 that cicada in this year were mute ; for although there was heat 
 in the summer, it had no influence in exciting them to sing, 
 probably because they did not obtain the nutritious food neces- 
 sary, or they had for the most part died.' ^ 
 
 ' In the year 1690, and on the 13th of March, I observed an 
 epidemic among dogs at Anda, of an anginous character. After 
 
 ^ Ramazzini. Const. Epid. Op., ed. Geneva, p. 120 — 141.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 163 
 
 a very mi^ty night, domestic and sporting dogs, besides three 
 others, all perished in the town, of which, out of curiosity, I took 
 the trouble to take twenty-one for examination, and I found 
 their necks swollen externally, and their fauces internally, while 
 the muscles of their throats were much inflamed/ ^ Wirth ascribes 
 the losses in Italy amongst the cattle, sheep, and other animals, 
 to anthrax/ Miliary fevers or sweating sickness committed 
 great ravages in mankind in Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Erfurt, and 
 Jena. Spain and Italy also suffered much from epidemic dis- 
 eases. 
 
 Locusts invaded Poland and Lithuania in three bodies, and 
 in three different directions. The Abbe Ussans, who was an 
 eye-witness, says that in some places where they had died on the 
 top of each other, they lay in masses four feet high. Those 
 which were alive and took refuge on the trees, bent the branches 
 to the ground, so great was their number and weight. The 
 people believed that they had Hebrew sharacters on their wings, 
 and a rabbi pretended to translate them as the 'wrath of God.' 
 Rains came and killed them, and their putrefying bodies so in- 
 fected the air, that the stench was nearly insupportable. Cattle 
 which grazed in the fields afterwards, also died in great numbers, 
 and verv quickly.^ 
 
 A.D. 1 69 1. Glossanthrax in Switzerland. Ramazzini con- 
 tinues, 'The character of the weather in this year ('91) was dry 
 and dusty ; at first, on account of the north winds, and after- 
 wards becai'ise of the continual and scorching heat. As the 
 month of January was drawing to a close, strong north winds 
 blowing at the time, so intense a cold set in that the rivers were 
 frozen over, and ever)'thing was stiff with frost. But since no 
 snow fell, we suffered not only a very cold, but also a very dry 
 winter. About the time of the equinox the frost broke up, and 
 so sudden was the change from intense cold to immoderate heat, 
 that from the time of the equinox to the end of March, the 
 weather did not differ much from summer. In the month of 
 April the heat somewhat relaxed, but it remained as dry as be- 
 
 ^ Stegmann. Ephem. Nat. Cur., p. 384. - Wirth. Op. cit., p. 85. 
 
 ' L. Figuier. Les Insectes, 1S67, p. 366.
 
 164 History of Animal PI agttes. 
 
 fore. This dry state of the atmosphere continued to May, with 
 the exception of a few moderate showers^ so that we suffered 
 from a great lack of herbage in this year ; beans, also, and all 
 kind of pulse became dried up^ because of the want of moisture, 
 and but a scanty hope remained that a good harvest would be 
 the result. In the same way as in the preceding year, great 
 destruction was caused to animals, and especially to sheep, so 
 that the whole of the ovine race was nearly swept away. So hot 
 a summer succeeded as had never been seen before; the Etesian 
 winds brought no alleviation of the continual heat, and on this 
 account many animals, and especially dogs, were driven to mad- 
 ness. . . . This tempest of diseases entirely disappeared, except 
 small-pox, which was increased to such a pitch by the intense 
 heat, that not only were young people attacked, but even the 
 aged, and especially those who were pregnant.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 169T-93. Eruption of Mount Etna. Earthquakes felt 
 in England, France, and Germany. Swarms of locusts from the 
 east invaded Germany. 'The winter of this year ('91) was 
 seasonable; the whole year, indeed, was a favourable one. The 
 following year, however, was not marked with the same moder- 
 ation. The winter was mild, and had the character of spring, 
 and to it succeeded a spring with the character of winter, as 
 if the seasons had been changed ; and from the vernal equinox 
 up to the solstice, frosts, with strong north winds, were continual, 
 and the rains were so frequent and heavy, that rivers everywhere 
 broke down their banks and inundated the country. Every one 
 was already prepared for an unpropitious and unhealthy year, 
 both on account of the destructive nature of the rains, which 
 indicate disease to seedling plants, and also because of the appar- 
 ent signs of blight on the leaves of the mulberry tree, which is a 
 forerunner of sterility, as we had experienced in previous years 
 in the great calamity which then attacked the cispadane and 
 transpadane countries. The summer that followed up to the 
 dog days seemed like spring, and what appeared very strange, 
 the nightingale was heard to sing in the vineyards before the 
 cicadoe were observed. Thus the summer arrived with the mild- 
 
 1 Ramazzini. Op. cil., p. 157 — 1S6.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 165 
 
 est state of the atmosphere ; but yet to us It was unseasonable, 
 rains from time to time falling with great force. Hence, on 
 account of the moist state of the soil, and the moderate temper- 
 ature, all kinds of grain grew to so great a height and luxuriance 
 that the fear of a bad harvest speedily left the minds of all. But 
 an unforeseen mildew speedily dispelled their hopes, for the 
 wheat, barley, and all kinds of pulse were quickly demolished, as 
 if stricken by a blast from heaven. The same contagious blight 
 struck the whole cispadane and transpadane country. The 
 epidemic disease, which, in these three years, all so dissimilar in 
 their character, had filled both city and country with many deaths, 
 was the purpurata or petechial fever (scurvy).' ^ In Hesse, for 
 1693, Valentine describes a pulmonic affection among cattle, 
 which killed great numbers. He says, 'The preceding winter 
 being wet, but towards the close very cold, at the beginning of 
 spring an unusual heat set in, and continued throughout the 
 whole summer; which sudden change produced an unequal and 
 unnatural motion of the humours and breath, followed by death 
 to man and beast. Oxen and cows succumbed in numbers. 
 Amongst other causes, a corrosive dew, which spotted linen with 
 marks more or less dark-coloured, and corroded everything, was 
 supposed to produce ill effects. From the observations of the 
 butchers, it was proved that these animals died from pulmonary 
 phthisis [phthisi pulmonali necahantur) , to which, without doubt, 
 the severe cold after the intense heat much contributed. At the 
 end of July and the beginning of August, besides dysentery and 
 malignant fevers, a certain intermittent fever, like tertian fever, 
 attacked man.' ^ 
 
 Wirth, and a few other veterinary writers, have imagined this 
 outbreak to be an cpizooty of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, but 
 there is every reason to doubt the correctness of their surmise. 
 That malady was not known for certain till a later period. 
 
 A.D. 1692. In October swarms of locusts appeared in Pem- 
 brokeshire and the coasts of Wales ; they seem, from the descrip- 
 tion, to have been the true eastern locust.? 
 
 1 Ramazzini. Op. cit., 187 — 193. 
 
 2 M. B. Valentinu Constitutio Epid. llassiaca. Ephcm.Nat. Curios. Syden- 
 ham. Op. ed. Geneva. Vol. i. p. 276. ^ rhilosupliical Transactions.
 
 1 66 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A,D. 1693. ^^ earthquake, the shocks of which were per- 
 ceived in England, France, and Germany, but particularly in 
 Sicily; also an eruption of Mount Etna. An invasion of locusts 
 in Germany, proceeding from the east. Saxony more especially 
 suffered from their ravages. Epizootic catarrh among horses in 
 Europe, followed by epidemic catarrh in October.^ ' In Britain 
 and Ireland, October was a course of moderately warm weather 
 for the season; but some snow falling in the mountains and in 
 the country, it turned suddenly extremely cold, and there quickly 
 succeeded a hard frost for some few days at least. After this 
 followed such a general cough and cold, as not one out of thirty 
 escaped. ... It spent its fury in five weeks. It was three weeks 
 sooner in England than in Ireland. It not only affected these, 
 but the whole continent, though not all at the same time.' ^ ' In 
 October, an infiuenza began among horses, and then attacked 
 men, as usual.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1694. An eruption of Mount Vesuvius. A supposed 
 epidemy and epizooty of ergotism. Brunner writes : ' By what 
 unfortunate combination of circumstances, for so many years, 
 the whole of nature seemed to labour under an unhealthy atmo- 
 sphere, remains a secret. Many men, and those most learned, 
 have written on the state of the air, and I have been a spectator 
 of most grievous calamities ; for not only did unwonted fevers 
 attack and kill the human race, and would submit to no remedies, 
 but also the beasts were harassed by deadly diseases. I know 
 that sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, and geese were not free from the 
 contagion. There was also a lack of corn, not only on account 
 of the inordinate consumption of it by the soldiers, but also from 
 the character of the ground. Some of the corn was so plainly 
 diseased, that it was dangerous for man to eat of it. I know also 
 that peas, which formed a great part of the food of the army, 
 were infested and diseased by a small insect which made a minute 
 hole in them. I never remember seeing such an abundant crop 
 of darnel (or tares) mixed with the oats, and which prevented 
 the making of good oatmeal, our chief food, for it was needless to 
 
 1 Webster. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 335. 
 
 2 Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 395. Philosophical Transactions. 
 
 3 T. Forster. Op. cit., p. 163.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 167 
 
 attempt to labour on it, it was so bad. All grain disappeared, 
 and in its place small, black, horn-shaped masses became ap- 
 parent, which were highly injurious to mankind. These were 
 named '^ St Martin's corn." A woman was shown to me by a 
 surgeon who suffered from convulsions every eleventh day, solely 
 from eating this corrupt grain; and the same surgeon told me 
 he had amputated a leg mortified from the same cause.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1695. In the spring and summer of this year, many 
 stinking fogs prevailed in Limerick and Tipperary. During the 
 winter, spring, and part of the harvest, there fell in several 
 places a kind of thick dew like butter, soft, clammy, and of a 
 dark yellow colour. It fell in the night, chiefly in marshy low 
 grounds, on grass, and the thatch of cabins. It seldom fell 
 twice in the same place. It lay near a fortnight on the earth, 
 then changed colour, turned dry and black. It fell often in 
 lumps as big as one's finger-end, lay thin and scattered, had 
 a strong ill scent. Country people used it for scabs or sore 
 heads with great success. Cattle browsed safely on the ground 
 where it fell.^ Apoplexy became quite epidemic in Italy, from 
 the ex'cessive scorching heat and great drought of the summers of 
 1693 and '94, which were followed by most severe winters, and* 
 continued heavy rains from October, '94, to April, '95. Volcanic' 
 eruptions and earthquakes were frequent. In Banda, the volcano j 
 of Mount Gounoug Apy vomited forth fire and ashes in such 
 heaps that the sea at its base became dry land, llie stench of 
 brimstone was so intolerable, that during the westerly monsoon 
 it could not be endured in the streets of Neira. The noise was 
 terrific. Banda was in a great terror, and much sickness pre- < 
 vailed in Neira. The rains tasted sour from the sulphureousr 
 fumes, and the whole country became a desert through the fire,! 
 stones, and ashes thrown over it.^ Inflammation of the feet of' 
 cattle in Hesse, coincidently with aphthae in man. 'At the 
 time of the autumnal ecjuinox (towards the end of August), 
 mankind was afflicted by an inflammation in the gums, tongue, 
 and mouth. I also observed, here and there, an inflammation in 
 
 ' Brun7icr. Ephem. Nat. Curios. Dec. 1694. 
 
 - Philosophical Transactions. Dr Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 402. 
 
 ^ Dr Short. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 399.
 
 1 68 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the feet of brutes {in hrutis verum pedum injiammationes).' ^ At 
 Pesth, in Hungary, Rayger writes, 'On the seventh of June, the 
 dew was noticed to be of a purple colour on the leaves of the 
 trees and vines; also on the linen garments of the men labouring 
 in the vineyards, where it exactly resembled the colour of spots 
 of mulberry or cherry juice.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1697. In Sweden, glossanthrax in cattle.* Epidemic 
 small-pox was very prevalent in the human species in Germany, at 
 Augsburg, Stuttgart, Bale, &c. Stegmann says, 'In the month of 
 February of this year, dogs were observed to die in some places 
 from an epidemic disease marked by a burning fever. When 
 their bodies were dissected, nothing was found worthy of remark 
 except thickened blood, and a quantity of black bile. ... In the 
 same month of this year fowls, pigeons, and geese perished from 
 an epidemic; under their wings were found ulcerated pustules, 
 and when their bodies were dissected, the liver was observed to 
 be dry and parched.^* November and December, '98. 'In 
 these months, small-pox attacked men of all ages, for I saw a 
 woman more than seventy years of age, and a man more than 
 sixty, both stricken with the disease. Animals, also, were not free 
 from the small-pox ; of these the winged tribe, but particularly 
 geese and poultry, nearly all perished. Sheep and pigs, however, 
 which were given purging draughts with care (such as ashes of 
 the stalks of beans or cut corn, mixed with human urine), for the 
 most part recovered.^ ^ 
 
 At a later period, I have entered into a review of the 
 opinions of several eminent comparative pathologists on the 
 variolous disorders of animals, and their transmissibility to dif- 
 ferent species. It may be remarked here, however, that the small- 
 pox of birds is a malady which very ancient authors have noticed. 
 Palladius,^ for example (a.d. 300), in his description of the dis- 
 eases of common poultry and peacocks, mentions an exanthema- 
 tous affection by the name oigrana circa ocuLos, which has been 
 supposed to be this malady [Heusinger). ' Si amarum lupinum 
 
 ^ Sydenham. Opp. Geneva, vol. i. p. 283. 
 
 - Ibid. Op. cit., p. 731. ^ Schnurrer. Op. cit., voL ii. p. 229. 
 
 * Stegmann. Constat. Mansfeld. Ephem. Nat. Curios., p. 384. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 108. * Scrip, rer. Rustic. Edit. Schneider. Vol. iii.
 
 History of Animal PlagiLes. 169 
 
 comednnt [gallince), sub ociil'is illis grana ipsa procedunt, qiicB 
 nisi acii leviter apertis pelliculis aiiferaniur, exstingmnit.' Deme- 
 trius (a. d. 1261) says: 'Si in ore aid in alia corporis parte pustulcB 
 sint, trade alteri accipitrem scite tenendum, tu vero acicula pus- 
 tulas aperito, cesque sinito evaporari, deinde melle nosato ilUnito' 
 And in De Cresentiis (a.d. 1233 — 1307) / we have a more decided 
 designation : * Item nascuntur columhls varioli circa ocuhis, qui 
 exccecant eos, maxime mense Augusto. Vendendi sunt aut come- 
 dendi cum solo capite sunt infecti.' Buhle and Bossi^ assert that 
 a disease similar to small-pox is known to affect turkeys, and 
 that the Italians term it coralli. Nitsch^ says that wild goslings 
 and wild pigeons, when young, often have the small-pox {pocken 
 kranklieit). Bechstein* also declares that wild fowl are affected 
 with the 'blattern,^ and that the disease is contagious. In India 
 the malady appears to have been known from the highest an- 
 tiquity, and an English observer in quite recent days thus alludes 
 to it: 'While on this subject, I would beg to submit to the 
 society the propriety of inquiring into the exact nature of that 
 disease among fowls, which is called small-pox, or maota, by the 
 natives. In Calcutta it is not much heard of; but up the 
 country, where almost every one is compelled to keep their own 
 stock, it becomes a very interesting matter. It generally appears 
 in the rains, and seems highly infectious or epidemic; when one 
 fowl is attacked, it is generally followed by a succession of others, 
 so as sometimes to depopulate the farm-yard. The symptoms 
 are pyrexia and a refusal of food, soon after which pustules break 
 out on the head, about the ears and eyes, and on the upper and 
 lower surface of the tongue. Indeed, I believe they generally 
 appear first in this latter situation. Afterwards they appear in 
 different parts of the body, chiefly under the wings. The animal 
 languishes for four or five days, and then dies. Is this disease 
 at all allied to human variola ? In its symptoms it bears a good 
 deal of resemblance to it, and deserves, on that account, to be 
 investigated.' ° 
 
 * Opus Ruralium Commodorum, I47i. 
 
 2 Bossi. Trattato de Malattie degli Ucelli. Milan, 1823. 
 
 3 Naumann. Naturgcsch. die Vogel Deiitschlands, vol. i. p. 125. 
 ■* Naturgeschichte der Stubenvogcl, ]ip. 20, 456. 
 
 * lytler. Transactions of Med. and Thys. Soc. of Calcutta, vol. iv. p. 423.
 
 lyo History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 The malady is probably prevalent at times in all hot coun- 
 tries^ and affects different species of the feathered tribe. Guer- 
 sent speaks of its frequency in pigeons in Italy. 'Birds, particu- 
 larly ringdoves, are principally liable, in warm countries, to an 
 eruption of pustules [houtons) very like those of variola ; but this 
 disease has not yet been well described. It is so common in 
 Italy, that in a dove-cot containing a thousand pigeons, scarcely 
 a hundred will be found which have not been affected; otherwise 
 it is rarely grave, for at the most no more than a twentieth of 
 those attacked die.^ ^ 
 
 Swediaur, in describing the plan, or 'yaws,' a disease affecting 
 the human species, and which is endemic in West Africa, 
 Guiana, the West Indies, and Brazil, informs us that in the 
 latter country young turkeys, chickens, and pigeons contract a 
 disease accompanied by the eruption of tuberculous pustules, 
 exactly like those seen in the squamous form of the vaws. ' The 
 eruption takes place around the eyes, on the neck, on the 
 wattles, and also on the crest of gallinaceous creatures. When 
 they are affected, their feathers stand erect ; they are dull and 
 prostrated; they separate themselves from the other birds, and die 
 in great numbers.^ 
 
 The supposed variolous malady is very contagious, and various 
 authors have asserted that, in Europe, turtle-doves have caught 
 the infection of small-pox from man.^ 
 
 As before noticed, it has been declared that the ovine small- 
 pox was derived from the turkey ; and many writers have 
 affirmed that sheep were infected by fowls and turkeys.* Brug- 
 none, Leroi, and Toggia fully recognize the analo2:y, if not 
 identity, of the variola of turkeys with the variolous diseases of 
 quadrupeds, and Toggia is strong in his belief that turkeys can 
 communicate their small-pox to sheep. During a very deadly 
 epizooty of the disease among these birds this veterinarian en- 
 ( deavoured to preserve them by vaccination, but utterly failed.^ 
 
 ^ Diet, des Sciences Medicales, vol.'xiii. p. 87. 
 - Der Wohlerfahrene Thierarzt, vol. ii. p. 37. Bechstein. P. 557. 
 2 Mem. de la Soc. Agricol. 1791, p. 145. Gilbert. Instruction sur le 
 Claveau. 
 
 * Storia e Cura delle Malatti de Buoi, vol. iii. p. 221 ; vol. iv. p. 173.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. lyi 
 
 Heusinger, however, is not quite satisfied as to the identitv of 
 this bird disease with small-pox. 
 
 A.D. 1698. Epidemie catarrh in France and an epizocitv 
 among cattle, but especially horses, and which has been de- 
 scribed as a bilious plague.^ 
 
 A.D. 1699. ' V^olcanoes and earthquakes. Widespread in- 
 fluenza in the human species in America all the previous 
 winter, followed by malignant spotted and other fevers. Catarrh 
 among horses, and then among people.^ ^ 'In 1699 a severe 
 and awful catarrh was epidemic in England, and the same 
 malady, with much cough, was epizootic among horses in 
 England and France.'^ The plague of insects in Ireland, noticed 
 in 1688, appeared again this year. 
 
 In Germany, in 1700, small-pox was prevalent, and ergotism 
 was very frequent. ' On the 4th July, a.d. 1699, a moisture of a 
 sweet and glutinous character was observed on the corn and 
 the leaves of trees and fruits. This honey-like substance, or 
 dew, although of a sweet and pleasing flavour, seemed neverthe- 
 less to conceal a volatile pungency or sharpness; so that some 
 of those who were sufficiently curious to touch it with their lips 
 were immediately affected with a singular nausea and vomiting, 
 and on the lips of several people a small ulcer appeared. A 
 few persons, who had at that time delayed too long in the 
 fields, were seized with burning fevers, and those who walked 
 with naked feet, as the field labourers were accustomed to do, 
 were suddenly attacked with pustules and ulcerations on them. 
 Corn, also, and especially the grain of wheat, on which the dew 
 had settled most largely, was diseased in a remarkable manner, 
 being black and gross. This is what is commonly called 
 'blighted corn^ {mutter- korti). But as in more fertile years the 
 grain was marked in this way, so in the present was it very 
 abundant, especially in the valleys and low grounds throughout 
 the whole of Thuringia, and in the country and provinces around 
 Erfurt; so that in the memory of man a more prolific crop had 
 never been seen. From the use of this, instead of ordinary and 
 
 * Bascome. Op. cit. "^ Forster. Op. cit., p. i6j. 
 
 3 Webster. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 344.
 
 172- History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 good food, in the subsequent year (1700), men, both old and 
 young, were afflicted with many epidemies. 
 
 *A dew of" like consistency and flavour was noticed in the 
 next year (1701), and came at spring-time. It was not so hurt- 
 ful to corn as to apples and garden-stuff, in which it caused 
 disease and worms.' ^ 
 
 1 Hoyerus. De Rore Melleo. Miscellany Natural Curios., p. 172. 
 
 \
 
 ^n 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1700 TO 1715. 
 
 In the advent of the i8th century, we have the commence- 
 ment of a most interesting period with regard to the history of 
 epizootic diseases. Medical science was rapidly becoming more 
 exact, in consequence of the greater care with which it was 
 studied, the larger amount of patronage it was receiving, and 
 the increasing number of great minds who set themselves to im- 
 prove it. Some of the collateral sciences, which have since 
 afforded medicine such welcome aid, were also attractinir at- 
 tention, and were being developed slowly, though surelv, 
 through the united or individual influence of philosophers and 
 men of genius. 
 
 The diseases of the lower animals, especially those of an 
 epizootic character, were receiving more careful investigation, 
 because of the great national interests involved; and from this 
 time, we find a few of the most eminent physicians devoting all 
 their energies in prosecuting researches of vast moment for the 
 welfare of this department of comparative pathology. The de- 
 scriptions of epizootic diseases have been drawn up with the 
 greatest care by these men, who spared no time or labour in 
 inquiring into their nature, their origin, and the best means for 
 their prevention, or for curing the pest-stricken herds and flocks. 
 
 Another feature or event in this century deserves notice. 
 The veterinary art was i)rogressing, though far more tardily than
 
 1/4 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 human medicine. Until the middle of the century, in France, 
 and indeed in every other country where the health of the 
 domestic animals was at all cared for, those who ministered 
 to their maladies were generally most incompetent for that 
 office — being farriers (horse-shoers), shepherds, butchers, grooms, 
 coachmen, and charlatans of every description, whose ignorance 
 made them bold, but who, in the majority of instances, only 
 added to the misery of their patients. Those who really in- 
 tended to devote themselves to acquire a knowledge of animal 
 diseases, took lessons from some one of these men who had ac- 
 quired a reputation for superior skill. These individuals were 
 generally to be found attached to the great stables belong- 
 ing to kings or noblemen, or to regiments of cavalry. Not- 
 withstanding the very meagre education they acquired, it was 
 sometimes noted that distinguished men originated from these 
 somewhat barren sources. But in reality the veterinary art 
 was in a most unsatisfactory state until 1762. In this year 
 M. Bourgelat, an advocate, seeing the great havoc caused by 
 cattle and other animal plagues, was the means of establishing 
 the first veterinary school at Lyons ; and to this zealous veter- 
 inarian is due the honour of being the founder of modern 
 scientific research, as applied to the medicine of the lower ani- 
 mals. The following year, the French government, ever in 
 advance, and ever ready to befriend science, instituted the 
 veterinary college now at Alfort, near Paris. By means of the 
 great liberality exercised towards this institution, it became the 
 focus of veterinary science and the parent of all other institu- 
 tions established for a similar purpose, and it has remained since 
 that time the first in the world. Many of its professors and 
 graduates have afforded invaluable assistance in promoting their 
 science, and some of them have greatly distinguished themselves 
 in inquiries pertaining to epiozootic maladies. A third govern- 
 ment school was founded at Toulouse, and soon after Vienna 
 had a national college established by order of Maria Theresa, 
 which, remodelled and reorganized by Joseph II., is now the 
 largest in Germany. Prussia quickly followed ; for in 1768, so 
 severely had that country suffered from animal plagues, that the 
 illustrious Cothenius, physician to the King of Prussia, brought
 
 Hisfoi-y of Animal Plagues. ly^ 
 
 before the Berlin Academy of Sciences a project for the estab- 
 lishment of a veterinary school in that city. The idea appears 
 to have originated with the King himself, Frederick the Great; 
 but through the able representations and zealous interposition of 
 Cothenius, the national school was founded at Berlin, and it has 
 proved of incalculable benefit to Prussia from that to the pre- 
 sent time. At Munich, Dresden, Hanover, Carlsruhe, and 
 Stuttgart, others sprang up. In Spain, a magnificent school 
 was commenced ; and in Italy four such establishments were 
 soon flourishing. Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, 
 and Russia, with great liberality and discernment, founded col- 
 leges for teaching veterinary science. It was not until 1792, 
 however, that England had a veterinary school, but this of a 
 private and speculative nature, deriving no benefit from the 
 State, but allowed to push its own way from the fluctuating 
 support or patronage of private subscribers, and the fees of the 
 students. The Scottish capital, in the beginning of the 19th 
 century, through the patient and energetic exertions of a private 
 individual, had a school; and in recent years others, also pri- 
 vate, have been commenced in Glasgow and London. Un- 
 fortunately, however, and much to the cost of the country, 
 veterinary medicine has not received that encouragement and 
 confidence so necessary to the welfare of any branch of science. 
 In Britain, it has been left to grapple with ignorance and 
 empiricism. In many instances it has also, greatly to the de- 
 triment of commerce and the welfare of the nation, been ig- 
 nored by prejudice and narrow-mindedness, and its representa- 
 tives put aside for the self-sufiicient amateur, the unlearned 
 cow-leech, or the plausible impostor — a mode of proceeding 
 which has kept it far behind, when compared with continental 
 nations. 
 
 Consequently, to men of education and natural al)ility, it at 
 present offers the most meagre inducements as a way to distinc- 
 tion or emolument; and the same ]niblic apathy which permits 
 the ravages of disease to decimate our herds and flocks, also pre- 
 vents those men from entering the profession and studying this 
 science, whose object it is to avert or ameliorate these ravages. 
 
 From this chang-e in the mode of investiirating the diseases
 
 176 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 of animals by scientific teachings and demonstrations on the 
 continent, since the middle of the i8th century, it may easily be 
 inferred that a great re-action would take place, and that those 
 fearful scourges — fearful alike to the nations and to the animals 
 which they visited, would receive much elucidation as science 
 became more competent to observe and to speculate. 
 
 And this has been the case. The task of noting their beffin- 
 ning, their progress, their various phases, and their nature, has 
 been removed from the domain of the oftentimes obscure general 
 observer of passing events, whose abilities were nearly in all cases 
 far from those of a scientific tendency, to a special domain 
 swarming with anxious investigators ; until, as we draw nearer 
 to our own day, the real difficulty the chronicler has to contend 
 with is the great number of authorities to be consulted, and the 
 immense amount of matter he must examine before he can 
 satisfy himself as to the best extracts for historical purposes. 
 
 A.D. 1701. An eruption of Vesuvius. The winter long and 
 cold, followed by a dry and hot summer. In Suabia and in Ger- 
 many generally, an epizooty affecting cattle and other animals, 
 which carried off large numbers. It was said to be a dropsy of the 
 chest. ' At the commencement of spring the weather was cold, 
 and continued so until the end of April. From this time, how- 
 ever, the heat was intense, and the scant and light rains made 
 no impression on the parched state of the ground. No cold set 
 in until the end of September, when frost appeared. After the 
 slow germination, and contrary to all hope, the harvest and 
 vintage were good ; but the apples and pears fell from the trees 
 before their time, in consequence of disease from worm; nor 
 could they be preserved in any way, being too much destroyed. 
 The leaves of the beech-trees were covered with an extraordinary 
 quantity of gall-nuts, and cabbages were greatly damaged by 
 being eaten into by caterpillars. Somewhere in the neighbour- 
 hood (our own district of Tubingen being safe), dropsy in the 
 chest [hjdrops pectoris) carried off many cows, and there was a 
 great mortality among young geese in some places, so that they 
 were obliged to be buried, on account of the stench. The sum- 
 mer induced great relaxation of the bowels. Infants were first 
 attacked in the month of June, more in the month of July, in
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 177 
 
 which month a kind of griping diarrhoea affected adults, and 
 at last cholera appeared, with vomiting and cramps in the 
 leers. '^ 
 
 A.D. 1702. A disease among horses on the banks of the 
 Rhine, following cold and damp weather, and in Lombardy 
 through a failure in the forage.^ The weather in Yorkshire was 
 so fearfully hot that within six miles' compass, in the month of 
 April, thirty-six or thirty-seven draught of oxen were killed in 
 ploughing. The same in other places.^ 
 
 A.D, 1703. Very wet and damp. Inundations. In Eno-- 
 land a fearful thunder-storm. A great storm and flood at 
 Bristol, in which 2000 sheep were drowned. At Berkeley 15,000 
 sheep were drowned, and multitudes of cattle on both banks of 
 the Severn. An earthquake in Italy, during which springs of 
 water became opaque and milky in colour, exhaled an odour of 
 sulphur, and sometimes emitted foul-smelling gases. "* Ergotism 
 prevailed throughout the whole country of Frieburg. The dis- 
 eases of horses and cattle were more frequent than in the pre- 
 ceding year. They appeared in Mantua, on the banks of the 
 Rhine, in Prussia, and especially on the banks of the Oder. 
 Kanold writes that 'the principal cause of these maladies con- 
 sisted in the presence of immense moving swarms of vermin \\\ 
 Prussia, and especially in Elbingen, in the month of May. They 
 fell upon the earth in such numbers, that they might have been 
 gathered by shovelsful. They were considered by some people 
 to be ants; nevertheless they were provided with four wings.'* 
 
 A.D. 1704. An eruption of Vesuvius. Epizootics among 
 horses in Germany, Alsace, in the Low Countries, and in Po- 
 land, where they died in great numbers. The diseases were 
 believed to be contagious, and the importation of horses from 
 tbese places into England was prohibited." 
 
 A.D. 1705. A malignant epidemic fever broke out at Ceuta, 
 causing great mortality. The post-mortem appearances of those 
 
 ' Camerarius. Ephem. Nat. Cur. pp. 66, 67. 
 
 "-Kanold. Jahreshistorie von den Seuchen des Viches, von 1701 bis 171 7. 
 Ludissin, 1721, p. 4. 
 
 •■* T. Short. Op. cit., p. 425. * Schnurrcr. Vol. ii. p. 235. 
 
 ' Kanold. Op. cit., p. 5. '' Ibid. P. 7. 
 
 12
 
 178 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 who died were as follows : the blood coagulated in the ventricles 
 of the heart, especially in that of the right side, and also in the 
 vena cavae; the pulmonary artery was similarly engorged. In 
 the aorta the blood was also very thick, but in moderate quantity; 
 the pulmonary veins were nearly empty. These phenomena 
 were not observed in all cases, since in the majority the blood 
 was only thickened and not coagulated ; and the cause of this 
 difference was according to the greater or less degree of power of 
 the nmlis^naiit ferment. The mortality among horses in Poland 
 still raging. Very many also dying in Saxony, and on the banks of 
 the Rhine. ^ Glossanthrax again appeared in Dauphine. 
 Wirth says: ^ In the year 1705 this disease again appeared 
 in France, and a portion of Switzerland also suffered from it.^ ^ 
 We find noticed in this year an epizooty among the chamois in 
 Switzerland. It appears to have been cutaneous, and very 
 deadly. 'A similar, and as it proved, a severe disease, resem- 
 bling a leprous scab, attacked not only the old animals, but also 
 many young ones. Upon the Freiburg were found this year 
 numbers of dead chamois which had leprous skins. Of the 
 nature and origin of this disease, the hunters have various 
 opinions.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1707. An eruption of Vesuvius, and an island five miles 
 in circumference thrown up from the bottom of the sea in the 
 Archipelago. An extraordinary and memorable invasion of flies 
 in London. They covered the clothes of every one, and lay 
 so thickly on the streets that the imprints of the people and 
 horses' feet were made visible as if it had been snowing.* An 
 aphthous malady attacked the feet and tongues of cattle in 
 Franconia. ' A certain territory in our country was affected by a 
 malignant disease which attacked vegetables, and from which 
 animals sickened and died. In the course of the spring of this 
 year, in the whole district of Hannaberg and Franconia, nearly 
 
 ^ Kanold. Op. cit., p. 7. Heusinger cannot find a description of the disease, 
 and my researches have proved no more availing in discovering its nature. In 
 all likelihood the malady was a form of that protean epizooty — 'influenza.' 
 
 ~ Wirth. Op. cit., p. 362. 
 
 2 Scheucher. Naturgesch. des Schweizerlandes. 
 
 * Chamberlain. History of London.
 
 Histo7y of Animal PI ag7ics. 179 
 
 all cattle were infected with a tumour in the extremities 
 [lumorem partium extremarum), accompanied with emaciation 
 and intense debility. The " serum " of the blood beino; very 
 impure, also caused a tumour on the tongue which was intensely 
 hot, and there was a great loss of saliva, and even a sloughino- of 
 some parts of the organ. The disease disappeared in time from 
 prescribed remedies. . . . The same disease, arising from impurity 
 of the " serum," affected many young men, by wasting away 
 their strength with malignant catarrh.'^ Epidemic influenza in 
 England. ' In April horses had dangerous coughs.^ ' July 8th, 
 a most memorable excessive hot day; many horses died on the 
 road.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1708. A comet appeared, and there were volcanic erup- 
 tions. During the spring-time and the summer the above 
 aphthongiilar malady (aphthous fever) raged in Silesia and in 
 Poland.^ Great mortality among the horses of the armies on the 
 Rhine. Plague in man at Dantzic, and in the city of Seville the 
 previous year. Immense crowds of insects, especially spiders, 
 were observed, previous to the occurrence of pestilence. Influenza 
 in man was general in Europe and America. In Hungary and in 
 Transylvania, a disease of a carbuncular nature amongst animals. 
 Ansfeld, a physician, asserts that a black cloud having obscured 
 the sky and filled the air with a foul odour, all animals — cattle, 1 
 horses, pigs, dogs, wolves, hares, and foxes — died soon after in 
 great numbers.* In November universal catarrh in Europe, fol- 
 lowed by an epizooty in horned cattle and horses, especially in 
 Holland.^ In Ireland, Sir Thomas Molyneux gives an account 
 of an ' universal cold that appeared in 1708, and was immediately 
 preceded by a very sudden transition of atmospheric tempera- 
 ture from heat to cold, in Dublin and its vicinity.' " Rutty says 
 that the frost lasted ' about nine weeks,' and that about that 
 period there was 'another great Rot among the sheep here 
 (Dublin).'^ Rabies was epizootic amongst dogs in Suabia.* 
 
 A.D. 1709. In the whole of Europe a most severe winter, 
 
 ' Stcurlin. Ephcm. Nat. Curios., p. 156. - T. Short. Op. cit., 435. 
 
 ^ Kanold. Op. cit , p. 9. ^ Loi^k. History of the IVsl, i>p. 35S, 421, 437. 
 
 ' Webster. Op. cit. " Memoirs. 
 
 ' Kutty. Registry. * Wirtlt. Op. cit., p. 236.
 
 i8o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and in the spring wide-spread inundations, causing a great 
 famine and destruction among men, cattle, birds, and other 
 animals. Influenza in man in Dublin. In France and in Italy 
 the olive trees were destroyed. Sologne and other countries were 
 visited by scorbutic disease and gangrenous ergotism, a fourth 
 part of the rye crop having been infected with the ergot or spur. 
 A most unfavourable summer in England, the crops suffering 
 very much, and the wheat generally on the N.E. side of the fur- 
 rows being destroyed. In Dantzic, an epidemy of a very serious 
 character. Previous to its appearance, ' crows, daws, sparrows, 
 and other birds, which at other times are to be seen in the town 
 and about the gardens in vast numbers, were all fled, and none 
 of them were to be seen until November; the same was likewise 
 observed of the storks and swallows.^ None were to be seen for 
 four months.^ In France and in Suabia, heavy mortality amongst 
 animals, and a pustular epizooty destroyed nearly all the fish in 
 the lake of Zurich." In Russia and in Asia, locusts committed 
 great depredations. Kanold asserts that the dreaded epizooty of 
 contagious typhus (Cattle Plague, Rinderpest, Pestilentz des 
 Viehs) had commenced its rava2;es in Russia. He savs of the 
 weather, in writing from Dantzic to J. Kanold at Breslau : ^ We 
 have now so strong a frost that the like has not been seen for 
 twenty or thirty years. It has already lasted fourteen days. As a 
 consequence, the pestilence in Thorn, as also in Graudenz, has 
 subsided ; yet the misery is great, for the cold presses hard upon 
 the poor, and many men are frozen to death in the open 
 streets. Cattle and birds die from the frost, and many rivers 
 are entirely frozen. Thence arises much distress, especially as 
 grain is very dear. As in Poland, the pest arose solely and 
 alone from the great need of the people, who were obliged to 
 live upon roots, bark, &c. I much fear this evil will extend 
 itself.^ ^ And elsewhere he states : ' The contagion of the plague 
 (in man) is the most cruel of all, and from the year 1709, 
 which year had already struck terror into every one from 
 the fearful cold accompanying its commencement, the two fear- 
 
 ^ riiilosophical Transactions, No. 337, p. loi. 
 ^ Hartmami. Helvetische Ichthyologie, 1827. 
 ^ Sendschriben von der Peste in Dantzig, p. 4.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. i8i 
 
 fill inundations which followed the cold, as well as from the 
 alarming spread of the human pestilence, we had still to learn 
 that it could strike yet greater terror through an unusual 
 epizootv in cattle. The first beginning or appearance of the 
 disease in Europe, arose in that part of Tartary which lies on the 
 borders of Asia; but whether it was originally generated in this 
 corner of Europe, or whether it was brought thence from Asia, 
 or yet whether perhaps it was an endemic disease, as the plague 
 of man is in Turkey and Egypt, I am unable to decide with so 
 much certainty. I content myself in remarking upon the com- 
 mencement of this epizooty in the year 1709, in the above-men- 
 tioned neighbourhoods. Although the accounts written at the 
 time, and from these places, were very sparing, especially as to 
 the numbers of those attacked by this disease, yet it seems that it 
 appeared first in Astrakan, on the banks of the Don, or Tanais, 
 and the Volga; from thence it spread to Kazan, in Lesser 
 Tartary, and even to Moscow, when it caused great ravages in 
 these governments among the horned and horse stock, but prin- 
 cipally the former. From the symptoms of the disease itself, one 
 learns at the time nothing, except that from the very first attack 
 it was highly contagious; that it affected large numbers of cattle, 
 and that very suddenly, killing them almost at once; and that 
 it spread itself quickly in many neighbourhoods. So well marked 
 were its characteristics, that its progress was easily noted. It 
 extended itself steadily, but uniformly, over many kingdoms 
 and lands during many years, even notwithstanding the best care 
 and tending, until at last in later times, and in enlightened 
 countries, attention was directed to the study of its nature 
 and symptoms.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 7 10. The weather was generally fine and apparently 
 healthy. Dr Short, however, says that in October and November 
 great floods prevailed, that the winds were very variable, but 
 mostly south, and that 'the air was foggy, thick, moist, vapid, 
 often stagnant, long without sun, and very unhealthy in Carniola 
 and Augsburg/ ^ Sweating sickness in man at Copenhagen and 
 in Sweden, and pestilence in Lithuania. Eartlujuake at Stettin. 
 
 * Kanold. Jahreshistoric, p. 17. ^ Dr Short. Op. cit.
 
 1 82 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Russia was ravaged by the Tartars. Swarms of locusts in the 
 Ukraine, Podolia, Kiev_, Pioly, Kaminietz, Buczinow, GalHcia, 
 Wallachia, and Hungary.^ They also appeared in Saxony, in 
 August. In Transylvania, animals suffered equally with man 
 from plague. ' Dogs especially were driven to madness ; they 
 made a noise with their mouths, and were gasping with the heat 
 like owls. They were marked on the body with carbuncles. On 
 the pigs which succumbed to this disease, huge tumours and hard 
 scabs of a carbuncular nature were observed behind their ears. 
 Swarms of locusts intercepted the rays of the sun, so that a bird 
 could scarcely fly horizontally. There was, also, so large a mass 
 of worms, caterpillars, toads, and such like things, that all food 
 in the shape of vegetables was unpleasant and injurious to man.'^ 
 / The contagious typhus of cattle (Cattle Plague) was spreading 
 onwards in Russia, in the governments of Riazan, Worotin, and 
 Moscow. In the autumn it had got as far into the Ukraine as 
 Kiev and Tcherkasi, and was extending in Volhynia, Podolia, 
 and Transylvania. Cattle, above all other animals, suffered from 
 it, but also often enough the horses.^ This is undoubtedly a 
 similar mistake to that made by some zealous but imperfectly 
 informed people, when the same disease appeared among cattle 
 in England in 1865. Horses and other solipeds — indeed, all 
 animals except ruminants, are exempted from it. Kanold, the 
 author of this statement, imagined the disease was caused by 
 the locusts. 
 
 A.D. 1 71 1. Swarms of locusts in Southern Russia and in the 
 kingdom of Naples. Disease in birds and fishes.^ Towards the 
 end of the year a deadly epizooty appeared among horses in 
 Naples. It continued until the following year, in which it will 
 be more fully noticed. 
 
 The contagious typhus of cattle spread this year from Russia, 
 by way of Poland, into Prussia, Brandenburg, and Silesia; from 
 Hungary into Austria, Bavaria, and Suabia ; from Dalmatia 
 into Italy ; and from Russia into Moldavia and Wallachia. It 
 
 1 Kanold. Op. cit., p. 27. ^ Loigk. Hist. Pest., p. 359. 
 
 3 Kanold. Jahreshistorie, p. 25. 
 
 * Ibid. Ilistor. Relationen von der Pestilentz des Hornviehs. Breslau, I7I4> 
 
 P- 43-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 133 
 
 found its way through the governments of Moscow, Riazan, 
 Worotin, Ukraine, PodoHa, and \"()lhynia; and from these coun- 
 tries travelled into the provinces of Polesia, Lithuania, Sendomir, 
 LubHn, Cracow, Siradin, Kahsch, Posen, Masovie, and entered 
 Prussia, where, in the month of October, it had got as far as the 
 neighbourhood of Konigsberg; on the other side, it penetrated 
 from Poland into Silesia, from whence it became diffused in the 
 vicinity of Bojanowa, Medzibor, Ohlau, Brieg, and Breslau. 
 It only spread hij contagion, and Kanold says that whatever 
 course it pursued, ' notwithstanding the lateness of the season, 
 they who had two or three herds of stock upon their lands could 
 scarce keep a single animal, and large numbers of cattle were 
 found lying dead upon the roads.' ^ 
 
 From Hungary it was carried into Carinthia, Styria, Austria, 
 and as far as Augsburg in Bavaria. Gerbezius, writing on the 
 28th of December from Lavbach to Augsburg, says : ' Animals 
 also continued to die. It is certain that so many showers, ac- 
 companied with rust (blight), had made the pastures very un- 
 healthv ; and vet it is more probable that the continuation of 
 the mortality is rather to be attributed to the spreading of 
 the contagion which was brought among them, than to the 
 luihealthv pastures.'^ And wilting on the 12th of January, 
 1712, to Fabffius at Vienna, he adds, ^ You make mention 
 of that disease bv which nearly all the oxen, cows, and calves 
 have been killed about you ; know, then, that there has been 
 a like mortality among the same animals with us, except that 
 hitherto it has not extended so far, but has remained on each 
 side of the Royal road {regia via), along which Hungarian 
 cattle are driven from Styria into Italy ; on that tract nearly 
 all have perished ; and as with you, no trustworthy remedy can 
 be found which will prove satisfactory. Every one agrees that the 
 cause of this disease arises from infected cattle being driven from 
 Hunjrarv into Italy; but whence it was orio-inallv derived there arc 
 many differences of opinion. But if we take into consideration the 
 warm and rainy character of the end of last summer, and tlie whole 
 of the autumn, we may easily perceive that the infection was 
 
 ' Kanold. Jahrcsliisloric, p. 33. 
 - Ephcm. Nat. Curios. Appendix, p. 36.
 
 184 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 derived from the corrupt state of the pasture lands from the ex- 
 cessive rains ; and besides this, to the putridity occasioned by 
 the numbers of dead locusts and cicadae that were about at the 
 end of the summer and beginning of the autumn of 17 10. 
 They say that the State of Carniola avoided the plague through 
 prohibiting, by public edicts, the admission of pigs from Croatia, 
 because there might have been mixed with the acorns they ate 
 in the oak forests thereabouts, some of the locusts which com- 
 pletely covered the ground around Sagratia, and the vicinity of 
 Hungary and Croatia. It was also remarked with us that dogs, 
 and some say crows, which fed on the diseased flesh, immediately 
 died.'i 
 
 According to Schroeckius, it manifested itself at Augsburg 
 towards the end of the summer of 171 1. 'About the end of 
 the summer and throughout the autumn, that plague which had 
 been so destructive to the bovine race in Germany and Italy, 
 after it had proceeded by degrees from Hungary towards the 
 Danube, attacked our territory and produced great destruction 
 to beasts, sometimes destroying whole herds amongst us, and in 
 many neighbouring places. And this was not caused by any 
 foulness in the atmosphere, but by the contagion of oxen 
 brought from the infected countries; and this was patent, 
 because it first attacked those pastures adjoining the foreigners, 
 and altogether spared those cattle to which no infected animals 
 had approached, and which had been immediately separated from 
 any in the same herd that were infected.'^ He termed it a 
 ' malionant dysentery.^ ' The saliva that the diseased beasts drop- 
 ped in the pastures infected them, and thus communicated the 
 malady to those cattle which afterwards grazed thereon. It ap- 
 peared certain that this acrid matter passed by way of the mouth, 
 oesophagus, the stomachs, and the bowels, and, in infecting these, 
 caused an irritation which was soon communicated to the nerves, 
 from whence arose the spasmodic movements. The constriction 
 of the vessels which followed, induced congestions and inflamma- 
 tions, and converted the whole body into a corrupt mass. In 
 
 ^ Gerbezii. Clironologia Medico-practica. Frankfort, 17 13, p. 203. 
 
 2 Schro'eckii. Constitutio Epidemica, Ephem. Nat. Curios. Appendix, p. 23.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 185 
 
 some the tongue was inflamed and covered with red vesicles ; 
 the excretions were sanguinolent, as in maHgnant dysenterv. The 
 principal symptom of the disease, at the commencement, was a 
 difficulty in breathing and a higher temperature than in health. 
 The intestines, near the liver, were found after death covered with 
 bile, and the stomachs inflamed/ Schroeckius desi<2:nated it a 
 malignant dysentery — a name which gave it a widely different 
 signification from those given it by other writers of the period. 
 This diversity of opinions, says Paulet, on the denomination of 
 a disease, proves how difficult it is to characterize it sufficiently. 
 The disease spread from Russia and from Hungary, into Mol- 
 davia, Wallachia, Sclavonia, Istria, and Dalmatia.^ As has been 
 already noticed, this fearfully contagious malady was conveyed 
 from Hungary into Friuli, in Italy ; but its history is best told 
 when the infection had been introduced into the province of 
 Padua. On the 27th of August, 17 11, a drove of infected 
 cattle from Hungary, sent through the agency of Dalmatian 
 merchants, and which had been disembarked at Venice, passed 
 through the village of Sermeola, about two leagues distant from 
 Padua ; and one of these beasts, straying from the others, was 
 taken to a farm named Pampagnini, belonging to the brothers 
 Borromeo, where it was put into one of the cow-houses. In 
 about eight days the whole of the cattle on this farm became ill, 
 and soon all died, with the exception of one, which had been 
 treated by a seton in the neck. The disease soon spread into the 
 neighbouring districts, and it was believed, and the public records 
 sanctioned this belief, that this Hungarian ox had conveyed the 
 germs of the pestilence.^ Though Lancisi mentions this fact, 
 and although it has been recognized by many authors^as the only 
 source of the epizooty in the whole of Italy, yet a comparison 
 of the preceding observations will show that it had many other 
 sources. Already, in this year, it had cruelly devastated the whole 
 of the Venetian territory, had scourged Mantua, Brescia, Pavia, 
 Voghera, Tortona, Alessandria, Parma, and Genoa, and had even 
 reached Switzerland and the kingdom of Naples. Nevertheless, 
 
 ^ Ka7iold. Op. cit., pp. 51 — 53- 
 
 2 Epistola de Padre Borronuv, Tcatino, scritta ad uii suo amico (Lancisi). 
 Rome, 15th Dec. 171 1. Naples, 171 2.
 
 1 86 History of Animal Plagties. 
 
 there can l)e no doubt as to the correctness of the opinion which 
 attached suspicion to the Hungarian cattle. For many centuries, 
 the herds of Venice and Lombardy have suffered from invasions 
 of the Cattle Plao-ue, through the commerce in foreign cattle 
 across the Adriatic, as this history testifies. Dalmatian cattle- 
 dealers are frequently mentioned in connection with the advent 
 of this scourge — these men being engaged in carrying oxen 
 to Italy from a country which, from the earliest times, has 
 borne the unenviable reputation of harbouring the contagion. 
 And to this source may we not ascribe the many outbreaks 
 of ovine variola which have decimated the flocks of Venice and 
 Lombardy ? 
 
 Many excellent authorities testify to the progressive inroad 
 of this most remarkable and deadly epizooty, and there was 
 no lack of close observers; but of all these, the best were, perhaps, 
 Lancisi and Ramazzini — two physicians who gave the malady 
 their utmost attention. Ramazzini, who gives the most classical 
 description, describes it as follows: '^Tt is evident that this disease, 
 which has created such dreadful havoc among the whole bovine 
 race, from its cold shiverings, followed by excessive heat through- 
 out the whole body, is a malignant and deadly fever, as its accom- 
 panying symptoms testify. In the first place, there is intense 
 anguish, heavy breathing and continued snorting (or groaning) 
 accompanied by fever, stupor, and slothfulness or weariness; a 
 continued running of ill-odoured matter from the mouth and 
 nostrils is observed, and most foetid excrement, sometimes mixed 
 with blood, is passed ; there is loss of appetite, and chewing the 
 cud (rumination) ceases. On the fifth and sixth days, pustules 
 break out over the whole body, and tubercles of a variolous cha- 
 racter. On the fifth or seventh day, death ensues, which very few 
 escape, and those more by chance than from the effects of reme- 
 dies. We may reasonably suppose that the miserable oxen suffer 
 much internal pain, when they lie groaning, or while they stand 
 motionless with heads cast down towards the ground ; but from 
 dumb animals, who can make no signs, it is impossible to say for 
 certain what is the ailment in their case, and therefore remedies 
 are difficult to find. In the carcases of as many oxen as were 
 dissected by the eminent professors Molinetto and Viscardo, it
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 187 
 
 was noticed in all, strange to say, that the omasum was hard and 
 compact, and the leaves closely adherent; while all were of great 
 size and emitted a horrid stench. In other parts, such as the 
 brain and lungs, hydatids were found, enclosed in huge bladders' 
 as if full of wind ; these, when dissected, exhaled a noxious efflu- 
 vium. The tontjue was covered with ulcers towards the root, 
 and full of little vesicles on its sides. I know for certain, that 
 that portion of the body which was observed in the abdomen (the 
 stomach) to be hard and compact like stone, was primarily pro- 
 duced by a contagious miasma, which, while pursuing its own 
 course of destruction, weakened and corrupted the gastric juice 
 [illud verh corpus durum et compactum ad instar caicis quod in 
 omaso ohservatiir, primum productum esse contagiosi miasmatis 
 pro certo haheo, dum tacite scevitiam suam exercens, stomachicum 
 fermentum lahefactat et corrumpit.) ... It might reasonably be 
 expected that mankind would be left uninjured ; for if, in the 
 space of three months, the plague had attacked no other ru- 
 minating and horned animal, or in any way injured horses, pigs, 
 or wild creatures, there is no reason why it should affect men, 
 who are so different from these creatures.^ ^ 
 
 Ramazzini and other physicians were of opinion that the I 
 disease was similar to, or identical with, small-pox in man ; and ' 
 this opinion was discussed and controverted in a circular issued 
 by the Philosophical College of Padua, on the 28th of October, 
 1711. 
 
 This bulletin goes on to say : ' We have seen the eflfects of 
 the disease to be most frequentlv in the viscera already de- 
 scribed ; that is to say, in the first ventricle or omasum {pr'imo 
 ventricolo, detto Omaso : this is an error, as the "omasum " is the 
 third compartment of the ox^s stomach), where one sees dryness, 
 hardness, and contraction towards the middle, with a collection 
 of alimentary substances rendered hard and stony; the second 
 ventricle {secondo ventricolo) is found extremely full of food 
 
 {escre7nenti),\\'\\.\\ an abundance of fetid gas The following 
 
 organic changes are found in the viscera, with few exceptions : 
 we see the lungs evidently inffamed, as well as the neighbouring 
 
 ' Ratnazziiii. Diss, dc Contagiosa Epidcmia qua: in I'atavino agio in liovcs 
 irrepsit. Geneva, 1711..
 
 1 88 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 parts ; bat at other times only the bronchial glands, tonsils, 
 and adjoining textures, as well as the muscles of the oesophagus 
 and larynx; the morbid appearances often extending to the 
 tongue in a great number of cattle as a deep and somewhat 
 transverse fissure, sometimes involving the whole organ; these 
 fissures, as the disease progresses, become foul callous ulcers. 
 Besides these various morbid characteristics, other rare (or incon- 
 stant) appearances are observed, such as suppurating tumours 
 showing themselves in the glands of the throat, and abscesses 
 in the lungs and liver; at other times, a number of small tumours 
 arise upon the skin covering the body, which neither suppurate 
 nor change colour, but slowly disappear or remain until the death J 
 
 of the animal. From this last and rare circumstance, it has been ■ 
 
 the opinion of some that this affection should be universally 
 designated " variola bovina ; " to which disease, however, many 
 high authorities thought oxen were not liable. But yet, if this 
 be the case, as might be suspected, how is it that, in so general a 
 disease as this variola is, so small a number exhibit the morbid 
 eruption on the skin ? Nor does variola usually make such great 
 slaughter of the sick, nor yet is it so general or so rapid in its 
 course. Besides, in what other cutaneous affection was so rarely 
 seen a simple elevation of the skin, except in the human morbilli } 
 or some hard and badly suppurating tumours unequally raised on 
 one or more parts of the body ?^^ The writer who drew up this 
 report was Marco Novara, professor of practical medicine at 
 Patavia. 
 
 In this year, or the preceding, the small-pox of sheep is sup- 
 posed to have appeared in England for the first time, — though 
 erroneously, if the student will refer to the year 1277. Dr 
 Fuller, in his work on Eruptive Fevers, says : ' There was, 
 about the year 17 10 or 171 1, upon the South Downs in Sussex, 
 a certain fever raging epidemically among the sheep which the 
 shepherds called the small-pox ; and truly, in most things, it nearly 
 resembled it. It began with a burning heat and unquenchable 
 thirst; it broke out in fiery pustules all the body over. These 
 
 ^ Bottani. Op. cit., vol. vi. p. 98. Dr Michelotti, who was in the Venetian 
 territories in October, 171 1, gives an excellent description of the malady; a trans- 
 lation will be found in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 365, p. 83.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 189 
 
 pustules maturated, and, if death happened not first, dried up 
 into seabs about the twelfth day. 
 
 ' It could not be cured, no, nor in the least mitigated, by phle- 
 botomy, drinks, or any medicines or methods they could invent 
 or hear of. It was exceedingly contagious and mortal, for when 
 it came it swept away almost whole flocks; but yet it could in 
 nowise be accounted the same with our human small-pox, be- 
 cause it never affected mankind.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1712. Winter cloudy; much snow. Summer damp. 
 Inundations in various countries. Earthquakes, and a creat 
 eruption of Vesuvius, lasting from February until July. 
 Epidemic miliary or sweating pestilence at Miimpelgart, and 
 catarrhal fever or influenza in various places. In Hungary many, 
 insects and venomous reptiles. ' In the months of June ancjl 
 July there was intense heat, accompanied by swarms of insects] 
 snakes, and reptiles, which especially attacked the country people. 
 The wliole of the body of one who had been bitten was imme- 
 diately impregnated with a poison of a sulphureo-saline nature, 
 and swelled throughout, beginning with the tongue, and to such 
 a degree that articulation was impossible. There was also acute 
 head-ache. Cattle, too, were attacked by them, and great mor- 
 
 * Thomas Fuller, IM.D. Exanthematologia, or an Account of Eruptive Fe- 
 vers, especially the Measles and Small-pox. London, 1730. A Mr Hall, who 
 lived about the middle of the last century, and who published a work on agriculture 
 {The Gentleman Partner), mentions a disease somewhat analogous to sheep small- 
 pox ; but as unfortunately I am not now in a position to be able to refer to the 
 book, I will quote what Dr Paulet says in his Treatise on Epizootics, published in 
 1775, when speaking of what he terms the 'crystalline disease' of sheep: 'We 
 ought to distinguish clearly between the hydatids which accompany the rot and a 
 crystalline eruption to which sheep are liable, particularly in England. It begins 
 at first, according to Mr Hall (seeZd? Gentilhomme Cultivateur, tome x. chap.-xxxi. ), by 
 an inflammation of the skin around the chest and the belly, from whence it extends 
 to the other parts. Tliis inflammation is always accompanied by blisters {cloches) 
 which contain an acrid Ijlood-coloured lluid. The disease is very contagious ; and 
 if the affected sheep are not sejiarated from the healthy ones, the whole flock runs 
 the risk of being infected. This is, perhaps, the disease which the ancients termed 
 pusula. It is necessary to change the water and the pasture. The best means of 
 treating it consists in taking two drachms of sulphur, half an ounce of honey mixed 
 up in half a pint of nettle-juice, and giving this to the sick sheep every day for two 
 weeks. The blisters must be opened in order to allow the humour to escape, and 
 the wounds washed with the juice of wormwood. The fourtli tlay, tlie sheep must 
 be bled.' ' Vol. ii. p. 287.
 
 190 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 tality ensued. Many of the men to whom remedies were not 
 immediately appHed on the first day, died from the poison. It 
 I was worthy of remark, that at certain hours the water was foetid 
 I and red, and after some days regained its limpid character. 
 When chemically examined, a kind of red earth was found in 
 the water, mixed with nitrous particles, but the stench was 
 attributed to a bituminous viscid matter.' ^ 
 
 Anthrax also appeared in Hungary, and an epizooty of 
 rabies amongst the deer tribe. ' August being excessively wet, 
 the mortality among cattle increased, and they were seized with 
 a white pustular eruption {pustulis albicantihus), attended with 
 difficulty of breathing. When the pustules were opened, a 
 purulent matter with a noxious exhalation was discharged, 
 as well as an intolerable stench from the mouth. The animals 
 groaned loudly from the intense pain. Wild beasts of all kinds 
 perished in large numbers at Somogy; and in the woods the 
 country people found dogs which had been driven there by 
 madness after feeding on these beasts ; and men bitten by them 
 were quickly seized with frenzy and hydrophobia, imitating the 
 barking and the madness of dogs, and attacking those near 
 by biting at them. Some even contracted the madness while 
 trying the remedy of washing the mouths of the beasts with 
 vinegar and salt.' ^ 
 
 In Lower Hungary, there was an extraordinary mortality 
 amongst the wild hogs. They died in such great numbers, and 
 their ])utrefving bodies were such a nuisance, that an order was 
 issued for their interment.^ 
 
 An epizooty of anthrax in France;* also in the neighbour- 
 hood of Augsburg, which was imagined to be derived from Hun- 
 gary. Schroeckius writes: ' The grievous plague must not be over- 
 looked, which seized and killed many horses, mostly without the 
 city, and afterwards did not spare the oxen, pigs, geese, fowls, or 
 even the wild beasts, while it lasted up to July. Hard tumours ap- 
 peared on the breast and groin, and other places, and they so 
 quickly spread themselves in all directions, that in a short space 
 of time death ensued. It seems to me that this arose from the 
 
 ' GenselUi. Constit. Epid. Infer. Hungariae. Eph. Nat. Curios., App. p. 4. 
 2 Ibid. p. 4. 3 Ka7told. Op. cit., p. 104. * Paulet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 93.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 191 
 
 stings of hornets, which were observed in incredible numbers 
 and of unwonted size. It is not very wonderful, then, that, 
 as the dead bodies of the oxen that had died the previous year 
 were nowhere buried sufficiently deep, and had become putrid and 
 fit food for these insects, they should in this way have gener- 
 ated and increased the virulencv of the poisoned humours. Thus 
 these poisonous atoms in the humours of animals stung by them, 
 multiplied themselves, and were then able to infect other animals. 
 As an example of this, there was a horse belonging to a baron 
 kept in a stable in the vicinity of some animals that had died of 
 this malady, and were not buried sufficiently deep, so that one 
 foot protruded through the ground. This was cut off with an 
 axe by a servant, and while he was doing so some matter flew up 
 into his eve. This soon caused swelling and inflammation, 
 which quicklv spread to the other eye and over the whole head, 
 and as the poor man was without medical aid, he shortly died.^ ^ 
 With regard to the French epizooty, M. Herment states : 
 ' In many provinces, it is observed that the horses and cattle are 
 attacked bv a kind of farcied tumour, about the size of a nut, 
 which appears about the flanks and gradually increases, com- 
 municating with the scrotum, which becomes prodigiously swoll- 
 en. The vessels in the neighbourhood are so engorged, that they 
 become like cords. The tumour is hard, black, and does not 
 contain pus, resembling in this respect the anthracoid swellings 
 which often manifest themselves in man during the progress of 
 
 ' Schroeckii. Constit. Epid. Eph. Nat. Curios., App. 27. Trofessor Gamgee, 
 in his Treatise on the Diseases of the Domestic Animals, gives us a perhaps more 
 striking illustration than this of Schroeckius, of the potency of the carbuncular poison. 
 He says : ' I have seen various forms of anthrax in the marshy plains of tlie Papal 
 States during the summer months, especially in July, August, and September. The 
 activity of the developed poison was very great, and one instance more particularly 
 struck me. One of the fine white bullocks of the Roman States was conveyed in 
 a cart to tlie slaughter-house at Ferrara, in the month of August, 1854. I'rofessor 
 Maffei condemned the animal as being affected with carbuncular fever. The anmial 
 was buried ; but a jobber determined to sell the flesh, and during the night disin- 
 terred the carcase. He removed the meat in bags to a hiding-place, and in doing 
 so carried the bags over his shoulders. He had thro\yn off his jacket and set to 
 work in his shirt. Next morning, a diffuse erysipelatous innammatiun set up over 
 tlie back, notwithstanding that no abrasion of the skin could be detected, and the 
 juice of the flesh had had to permeate through the bags and shirt. In three days 
 the man was a corpse.' P. 283.
 
 192 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 contagious diseases. When this tumour, which the peasants 
 call charhon, shows itself on the breast or about the head, the 
 animals die so quickly, that there is scarcely time to aid them. 
 When the swelling is accompanied by considerable fever and 
 beating of the flanks, it is necessary to begin the treatment by 
 bleeding, and soon afterwards by opening the tumour, wherever 
 it may be, by incisions in the form of a St Andrew's cross, wash- 
 ino" the wound with salt water or with brandy,' &c.^ 
 
 In Lower Hungary, an epizooty of small-pox in sheep, de- 
 scribed by Adam Gensel, destroyed whole flocks. 
 
 A severe epizooty among horses manifested itself over nearly 
 the whole of Europe, frequently in different places appearing at 
 the same time as the so-called contagious typhus of cattle; 
 at other times, and in other localities, breaking out before or 
 after that disease. ThiS affection among horses prevailed in 
 Russia, Lithuania, Podolia, Volhynia, Prussia, Pomerania, 
 Brandenburg, Moldavia, and Wallachia.^ At the same time it 
 raged over nearly the whole of Germany, in Belgium, the north 
 of France, and in Italy, — especially, it would appear, in the 
 environs of Naples and Rome. Army horses suffered very 
 much. Kanold describes it as it appeared in Germany: 'But 
 I must not here forget to mention that in many countries and 
 neighbourhoods cattle were not the only animals affected: prin- 
 cipally, and in some: instances alone, horses were attacked and 
 died in large numbers; for the same sickness could be traced 
 from July, and sometimes even from May, till the winter, in 
 Pomerania, in Brandenburg, in Saxony, in Franconia, Suabia, 
 Mecklenburg, Hanover, Holstein, but especially in Trittow, 
 Rheinbeck, and Eutin ; so that often, in many villages, two or 
 three horses alone escaped. In Brandenburg and Mecklenburg 
 it attained its greatest severity in July and August, but after 
 October it began to decline. Further, it ravaged the various 
 neighbourhoods of the Upper Rhine, in Alsace, the horses in 
 both armies, and especially Landau, Germersheim, Philipsburg, 
 and elsewhere. Also on the Lower Rhine, particularly in the 
 
 1 M. Hermeiit. Remedes pour Preserver et Guerir les Chevaux et les Bestiaux. 
 Geneva, 1716. 
 
 * Kanold. Jahreshistorie, p. 94.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 193 
 
 Cologne district, where no less than in Luxemburg, in Brabant, 
 and Artois, in the armies a troop could scarcely muster a dozen 
 effective horses. Also in Picardy, and other places on the borders 
 of France and Germany, it did much damage; and it caused 
 a great mortality among the horses in Lithuania, Poland, Prussia, 
 Hungary, Moldavia, Wallachia, and far into the interior of 
 Turkey/ ^ 
 
 Lancisi describes it as it appeared at Rome : 'A disease of 
 this kind sprung up amongst us at the commencement of the 
 month of March. There had been a most grievous mortality 
 amono; the herds of oxen at Padua, and afterwards amono; the 
 horses in the stables at Naples, especially in the months of 
 January and February; so much so, that out of every ten 
 horses seized by the plague at Rome, scarcely one survived. At 
 the end of June of the same year, 17 12, by the grace of God, 
 the epidemic among the horses at Rome ceased, the contagion 
 beino- checked within the city and its environs. Judf^ino- from 
 those which had been attacked, it was clearly evident that the 
 epidemic was of two kinds — both of which, however, arose from 
 the same ill disposition of the blood; in the one case the circula- 
 tion being too languid, and in the other too rapid. The too 
 rapid circulation differed in no way from an acute fever, which 
 at first produced cold shiverings over the whole body, accom- 
 panied by loss of appetite and constipation, and, as a consequence, 
 colic severely affected them. At length inflammation set in, 
 especially of the whole intestines — omcntiun, bowels, and 
 stomach. This was found to be the case on post-mortem examin- 
 ations of some of the bodies. This kind of disease, although 
 the least frequent, was more severe and fatal than the other, for 
 it quickly polluted the whole body as if by contagion, and in 
 two days the animals died. 
 
 'But the second kind, which was less grievous in its results, 
 oppressed us most heavily, so that it might with justice be called 
 the epidemic. The horse at first refuses food and drink, hangs 
 its head low and averted, while the eyes are dull aiid seemingly 
 vacant. The jaws are not closed, but arc observed to be j)ro- 
 truded and more rigid than iisu.il to the very toj) of the wind- 
 
 ^ Kanold. Jahreshistorie, pp. 94, 119. 
 13
 
 194 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 pipe, though without any symptom of pain. In this condition, 
 if any one continues to exhaust or fatigue a horse whose health 
 is impaired by neglect, as is sometimes the case, the disease 
 immediately increases. Acute fever and anguish ensue, there is 
 a discharge from the nostrils, and the throat soon begins to swell. 
 Others become sluggish and thrust out their tongues, which are 
 coloured with a yellowish tint; then there arises shivering and 
 convulsions of the body and staring of the coat, retention of 
 urine, and cold sweats; those so affected for the most part die. 
 On the other hand, those recover, when, from their mouths and 
 nostrils there is a more copious discharge, and who give vent to 
 a large flow of ill-odoured urine, or who have swellings on the 
 
 limbs or joints As regards the origin of the disease, all 
 
 are agreed that the internal and chief cause of the epidemic was 
 the fact of the blood abounding in over- stimulating or lymphatic 
 particles ; for on the surface of the blood taken from the veins, 
 a portion became of a whitish-yellow colour, and of the nature of 
 lard. Besides this, there was the mucus discharge from the nos- 
 trils, both by natural and artificial means, and which marked the 
 disease. Lastly, dissection of the dead bodies showed hard sub- 
 stances of a polypoid nature in the heart and about the pericar- 
 dium, and even in the windpipe and oesophagus, which most 
 clearly indicated that lymph itself, which usually has the power 
 of adding solidity to the textures, makes the disease more intense 
 than the variety of the parts affected would warrant us in sup- 
 posing. We attribute the external cause of this calamity to the 
 impurity of the atmosphere, thinking, as we do, that in this year 
 the air was full of noxious liquid particles which adhered to the 
 bodies of the horses; and we are led to this opinion because the 
 plague attacked the whole equine race without distinction, and 
 in so large a city there must have been a great dissimilarity in 
 the food and water; moreover, nothing could be found to check 
 I the epidemic. As regards contagion, all are of opinion, and 
 rightly so, that the disease was not carried in the breath or ex- 
 halations ; for, generally speaking, it was not those in neighbour- 
 ins; stables to the infected that were attacked.^ ^ 
 
 ^ Lancisii, De Equorum Epidemia, quce Romcie Grassata est vere. Rome, 1715. 
 
 I
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 195 
 
 The treatment consisted in bleeding, but only in the feverish 
 or hot stage, because in the cold one it was found to be hurtful. 
 In the latter stage, treacle and cordials were given, and gruel of 
 barley or bran, with sal-ammoniac dissolved therein. The liver of 
 antimony, and those drugs which induced salivation, were the 
 favourite medicines. Emollient enemas were much lauded. 
 Vesicants were not much used, but setons were thout'-ht to be 
 beneficial. Frictions with the hands, often and loner-continued, 
 were deemed of most service. If the disease extended to the 
 articulations, it formed swellings, which condition Lancisi, follow- 
 ing Vegetius, denominated the 77ialis arthritica, as he fancied it 
 to be the same disease as the malis of the Greeks. This exten- 
 sion, or transference, of the malady to the limbs, he indicates as a 
 favourable symptom. The disease, with careful treatment, was 
 not a fatal one; indeed, this author says that all the horses 
 might have been saved. 
 
 Though in one part of his treatise he thinks it was not a 
 contascious disease, vet in another he believes that the saliva of 
 an aft'ected horse might communicate it to a healthy one. The 
 Italian hippiatrists termed it the ^epidemic fever of horses,' but 
 we have no difficulty, I think, in distinguishing an cpizooty of 
 the protean equine disease, ' influenza.^ The way in which they 
 induced salivation was to fix a bit in the horse's mouth around 
 which was wrapped in linen a quantity of assa-foetida, and a 
 like quantity of laurel-leaves, all mixed up with vinegar. 
 
 Kanold, strangely confounding many diseases with the con- 
 tagious typhus of cattle, and believing that it might be com- 
 municated to horses, is yet strongly of opinion that at least in 
 Holstein, Alsace, Artois, and other places, the horse disease was 
 not contagious, that it could not be transmitted to cattle, and 
 that it was not propagated like the virulent malady of these ani- 
 mals, but that it ceased suddenly in the winter of 1712-13.^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague, in the mean time, still raged in Russia, Po- 
 land, Silesia, and Turkey, attacking one place after another in 
 those countries it had missed in the preceding year.^ In Silesia 
 alone, Kanold computed that 100,000 head of cattle had per- 
 
 1 Kanold. Op. cit., p. 124. * Ibid. Jahrcshistorie, p. 124.
 
 196 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ished.^ It spread into Moravia, Austria, Styria, and the Tyrol, and 
 it even invaded Switzerland.^ In Italy its ravages were dread- 
 fully severe. ^At the end of the preceding year, a ruinous mor- 
 tality among cattle had penetrated from Hungary into Italy : — 
 a scourge which all who witnessed it thought the most disastrous 
 event that had ever befallen mankind. This year it spread 
 itself widely in the State of Milan — to wit, Verona, Brescia, 
 and Mantua — causing a horrid slaughter of these essential animals. 
 The same happened in the kingdom of Naples and in the States 
 of the Church, in which immense damage was inflicted during 
 the month of September. In that month, it has been estimated 
 that 70,000 head of oxen and cows perished ; and in Cremona 
 alone, there died more than 40,000. The pestilence made terrible 
 havoc in this vicinity.'^ In Germany it was still spreading, and 
 having penetrated Saxony the year before, it now diffused its 
 subtle poison in Thuringia, spread wider and wider in Bavaria 
 and Saxony, and at last wandered into Franconia, where it 
 harassed the districts of Anspach, Neubourg, Bamberg, and 
 Wurzburg, as far as Fulda.* 
 
 A.D. 1713. In Hungary, the year was wet. Many swarms of 
 mice appeared in that country, in France, and in Saxony, where 
 the weather was excessively dry. Insects destroyed the vines. 
 In Russia, Poland, and Italy, multitudes of grasshoppers. 
 Small-pox in man at Constantinople, where inoculation was 
 practised. An epidemy (the plague) was very fatal in Austria. 
 
 Altogether the year was a very unpropitious one for animal 
 life. At Basle, the fowls aiid geese and the deer tribe died in 
 great numbers. Hares, wolves, and foxes were also found dead 
 in large quantities. In Poland, the mortality was very great 
 among moorfowl; and in Silesia and Alsace, deer suffered much. 
 In Hungary, hares, foxes, and wild hogs perished from a disease 
 resembling, or identical with, rot in sheep.^ In the country of 
 
 1 Kanold. Histor. Relationen, chap. ii. 
 
 2 Walzer. Appenzeller. Chronik. p. 715. 
 
 2 Muratori. Annali d'ltalia, vol. xvi. p. 412. 
 
 * Nottelmann. Vorstellung was die jetzt herumvagirende Seuche sei. Niim- 
 berg, 1713. Romeiscns. Untersuchung der jetzt wiithenden Viehseuche. Wurz- 
 burg, 1 7 13. 
 
 » Kajtold. Jahreshistorie, p. 1 84.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 197 
 
 Kaskow, Hungary, an epizooty raged among cats durinsi; the 
 spring, and so deadly was it, that in many villages not one ot" 
 these creatures remained alive, and the peasantry complained 
 very much of the mischief done by the increasing swarms of mice, 
 in consequence of their destroyers dying.^ 
 
 Sheep, of all other kinds of animals, perhaps perished in 
 largest numbers. In some places where this happened, the disease, 
 from some accounts, was rot, and from others it was supposed 
 to be small-pox. In the upper part of the kingdom of Naples the 
 malady was so severe, that in a short time 50,000 sheep and pigs 
 perished — showing, too, that the porcine tribe was affected. The 
 disastrous epizooty also visited the sheep and goats in Poland, 
 Prussia, Silesia (where on six farms alone there succumbed 1470 
 animals), and appeared in Saxony, Franconia, Bavaria, Suabia, 
 Austria, Hungary, France, and Holland. Kanold describes it 
 as follows : — ' The sheep began to tremble, and became so weak 
 that they immediately lay down, and seldom got up again. Yet 
 usually they continued to eat, sometimes with avidity, but still 
 they did not recover their strength. They convulsivelv jerked the 
 head and neck upwards, which was generallya very dangerous sign. 
 The ewes in lamb aborted, and those which reached the full time 
 of gestation had flaccid udders and were deficient in milk, and - 
 the lambs were very weak. The wool, which previously was of a 
 fine white, became of a blackish colour, as if it had been strewed 
 over with black dust. The symptoms generally continued until 
 the fourth day, and sometimes even to the eighth day, when they 
 died. On examining the bodies after death, much external 
 dropsy was observed, and this often occurred in the internal 
 cavities; the abdominal viscera were frequently found inflamed, 
 the gall-bladder was in some large, in others small ; the lungs 
 and liver were, generally speaking, diseased, and in the majority 
 of cases gangrenous; the heart was flaccid and wasted, I have 
 been positively assured that the disease was so contagious, that 
 the shepherds have carried the infection in their clothes from the 
 unhealthy to the healthy.' ^ 
 
 He adds, that though contagious, it was not nearly so much 
 
 ^ Loigk. Histor. Pestis, v. 437. ^ Kauold. Op. cit., 175.
 
 198 History of A nimal Plagues. 
 
 so, nor yet so prevalent, as the Cattle Plague; in fact, he clings to 
 the opinion that the disease was not the same as that then affect- 
 ing the bovine species, nor was it caused by that malady. Some 
 believed that this complaint in sheep was induced by the mice, 
 but Kanold says : ' In the mean while, it appears that the above 
 visitation of mice was not the real cause of the disease in sheep; 
 but that both were brought about by the unusual sultriness 
 and humidity of the weather/^ There can scarcely be a doubt, 
 however, that this great mortality amongst the sheep and goats 
 really originated from contact with the diseased cattle, and was 
 produced by the same contagion. 
 
 According to Wirth, the epizootic contagious pleuro-pneu- 
 monia of cattle was present in Switzerland. He says, ' Certain it 
 is, that it (pleuro-pneumonia) manifested itself in the years 1713 
 and 1 7 14 in Suabia, and also in several cantons of Switzerland.' ^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague continued its ravages in all the countries 
 named in the preceding year. In Russia, it had enlarged its 
 boundaries, and attacked the governments of Novgorod, Plaskow, 
 Petersburg, and Ingermanland. In Germany, it was reported 
 in Bresgau, Wiirtemburg, Baden, the valley of the Rhine, Pfalz, 
 and Alsace. It was still spreading in Switzerland, but in Hol- 
 land its violence was excessive, and it was said that there alone, 
 from 1 7 13 to 1723, it had destroyed 200,000 cattle. In Italy it 
 was steadily marching on, and causing sad havoc in every place, 
 with the exception of Piedmont. In the kingdom of Naples, in 
 Calabria, and in the Romagna, its advances were causing the ut- 
 most apprehension and fear. The learned doctor and physician 
 to Pope Clement XL, Giovanni Lancisi, was sent to investigate 
 the nature, and prescribe measures for the suppression, of the 
 murderous pest raging amongst the herds of the Romagna. To 
 the ability displayed by this man, while obeying his instructions, we 
 are much indebted for an accurate description of the symptoms 
 and post-mortem appearances of the malady, as manifested in that 
 part of the Roman dominions. His report is as follows : ' In the 
 middle of the summer of 17 13, there was a rumour at Rome that 
 
 1 Kanold. Op. cit. 
 
 2 Lehrbuch der Seuchen und ansteckendeii Krankheiten der Hausthiere. Zu- 
 rich, 1846, p. 298.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 99 
 
 a large n inn her of infected oxen, from the districts on the Medi- 
 terranean, were being driven from the market of Frusino to us ; 
 wherefore it was wisely decreed that no markets should be held, 
 nor any cattle admitted into the place. But merchants intro- 
 duced oxen into the city secretly by by-ways, because their hopes 
 of selling them publicly had been frustrated; and these being 
 driven about in all directions, and becoming mixed with our 
 hitherto healthy stock, spread abroad the disease. For when any 
 foreign merchants had doubtful or suspicious cattle they could 
 not sell in their own country, they brought them to Rome surrep- 
 titiously, and sold them for less than the usual price. But the 
 butchers of the city, who had not yet discovered the deceit prac- 
 tised upon them, were led to buy these animals at a reasonable 
 rate, and in this way were immediately disseminated the germs 
 
 of the hidden contagion Every fact clearly shows that 
 
 the cause of the plague is some exceedingly fine and pernicious 
 particles [corporis particidas, qiice summd qiiidem teniiitate, et 
 pernic'itate prcpclitcc) which pass from one body to another, by 
 contact, or by the means of fomites. It therefore resembles a 
 special virulent poison ; a few particles affecting the whole or- 
 ganism, and acting, in all likelihood, just as we see a ferment act 
 in bread or wine, a minute portion leavening the entire mass. . 
 'The first svmptoms of disease in some oxen we had under 
 observation were timidity, bellowing, snorting, and other indi- 
 cations of sudden fright or agitation, as if some poison had 
 affected their mobile spirits, causing spasms of their nervous 
 fibres, and producing convulsions externally and internally. We 
 also saw others, but a few only, which were naturally weak and 
 destitute of stamina, die suddenly, as if struck with a thunder- 
 bolt. In general, however, the first symptoms of the plague 
 were debility, sudden dulness, drooping of the head, tears flow- 
 ing from the heavy eyes, and mucus and saliva from the nostrils 
 and mouth. This was accompanied, in the mean while, by fever, 
 with shivering and staring of the coat, nausea, and an inclination 
 to lie down. There were always inflammations {p/i/ognscs), 
 pustules, hydatids, and ulcers on the tongue and mouth, accom- 
 panied by intense fever. In not a few there were scattered over 
 the skin watery tubercles, and the hair full off. At (irst they
 
 200 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 suffered from excessive thirst, and drank greedily ; afterwards 
 they wholly abstained from food and water, and w^ere unable to 
 bwallow or chew the cud. The want of sustenance caused death 
 to take place more quickly than would have been the case from 
 the nature of the disease. In the stomach lumbrici (worms) 
 were very often found, and the dejections were very fetid, of 
 various colours, and sometimes stained with bloody humours. 
 Nearly all the cattle, at the later stages, were foul-smelling; their 
 breathing was laborious and heavy ; not unfrequently there was 
 a cough, and within seven days they generally died. Those 
 which reached another day (but they were very few) usually 
 escaped, especially if the hair became rough and fell off; and if 
 they could not easily arise from a recumbent position, it was 
 usual to prevent their attempting to do so. 
 
 ' It was proved by examination, that they continually suffered 
 from affections of the bowels. This appeared most evident on 
 three examinations which we held on the dead bodies of oxen, 
 that had died of the disease; for besides ulcers in the mouth, 
 fauces, eesophagus, stomach, and lungs, there were spots of a 
 colour varying from red to livid or gangrenous, nearly the same 
 in each animal; but the lesions in the intestines were not alike in 
 all. For in the first ox which had perished on the third day, we 
 found in the omasum [pmaso) a hard mass of hay, and that ball 
 which Pliny calls the tophus of young heifers, produced by licking 
 off the hairs with their tongue and rapidly swallowing them, 
 when, by the peristaltic motion, they were rolled up, and the 
 saliva was obliged to pass through, as in a filter. The other 
 intestines were in a fair, healthy state. In the second, which 
 died on the sixth day, the liver, intestines, and lungs were com- 
 pletely mortified. In the third, the heart and brain were nearly 
 corrupt. ... And it is extremely wonderful that this deadly 
 poison, which had destroyed the bovine race with such havoc in 
 these years, was wholly innocuous to other animals. ... It is 
 also remarkable, that the seeds of the contagion were not only 
 carried by sick oxen, but were more frequently conveyed by shep- 
 herds and veterinary surgeons, who brought the infection to the 
 healthy; and it was also transmitted by dogs and other animals 
 which had touched the diseased with their hair, wings, or
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 201 
 
 feathers/ ^ This philosophic and far-seeing patriot gives us such 
 a high opinion of his wisdom and truthfuhiess in his work on 
 this plague, that we must quote more largely from it, in order 
 that we may satisfy ourselves how advanced were his opinions, 
 and what the adoption of them by his disciples of a later age 
 would have saved our own country in a similar emergency. As to 
 its being an imported disease, he had ho doubt whatever; Ille 
 fatalis, navi ex Hungarid advectus bos. As quickly as possible, 
 when its presence was discovered, all traffic in cattle was to be pro- 
 hibited, and the law enforced with the utmost rigour in the case 
 of those who moved cattle about. But the disease was still 
 raging; 'as a neglected spark at first, it had at length set Italy in 
 a blaze,^ and it was extending everywhere. Pope Clement, with 
 real paternal solicitude, awaited the result of Lancisi's inquiries, 
 and when the time came that the report was to be delivered, there 
 was an assembly of cardinals. Lancisi described the disease, 
 dwelt on its terrific character, and the hopelessness of medical 
 treatment, and then recommended what he deemed the wisest 
 course. ' I advised that every diseased animal should be 
 killed; for I maintained that, should they be left to a slow 
 death, the costs for medicines, veterinary surgeons, attendants, 
 and other means, would be very great ; and not only this, but 
 their very presence would assist in the diffusion of the contagion. 
 The Sacred College, however, ordained that this measure was 
 too severe, and that remedies should be tried ; and, in truth, 
 they were greatly influenced in this decision by the number of 
 people who pretended they had infallible cures for the affec- 
 tion. But the fact is,^ added the sagacious Lancisi, ' that in 
 the cattle, as in the human plague, not every one who takes the 
 disease dies of it. Some recover, thanks to Nature, rather than 
 to the remedies which are resorted to.' The attempts to cure 
 the disease only resulted in failure, and its indefinite extension. 
 Edicts were issued, forbidding the bringing of cattle from the 
 Campagna into the city district of Rome, under penalty of death 
 to a layman, and of the galleys for life to an ecclesiastic. The 
 
 1 Lancisii. Dissertatio Ilistorica de Bovilla Pcste ex Campanix finibus, anno 
 1 713. Rome, 17 15.
 
 2,02 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 sale of hides was interdicted, and the flesh, horns, and fat of 
 the animals were ordered to be buried in deep pits and covered 
 with- quicklime. Religious ceremonies were prescribed, and 
 prayers offered, by order of the Sacred College, to stay the pro- 
 gress of the plague. Measures also were taken to prevent the 
 sale of diseased meat. Inspectors were appointed to visit the 
 markets ; and only those pieces of flesh which were stamped 
 with a hot iron by the inspector were allowed to be sold. Salt- 
 ing the diseased meat was also forbidden. ' It may, perhaps, be 
 doubtful,' says Lancisi, ' whether the eating of diseased meat is 
 hurtful; but still it is best to err on the safe side.' Skinning 
 the dead carcases was prohibited, because thereby exit would be 
 given to diseased matters, which might thus be spread abroad by 
 the wind, and through the infected soil. ' The severity of the 
 edicts were complained of,' he adds, ' but it is a fact that here, 
 where the laws were strictly enforced, the plague was arrested 
 much sooner than in the other parts of Italy.' 
 
 A number of sage measures are detailed, intended to anticipate 
 the misery which might arise from the destruction of cattle; 
 and the great liberality shown by the Papal Government to those 
 who had suffered losses is made manifest. Calculations made of 
 the beasts killed by the plague, during its nine months' visitation 
 in the Campagna and the city district, showed that '26,2^% had 
 perished. 
 
 The various edicts issued by the Sacred College are given at 
 length by Lancisi, because ' he thinks they will be of great 
 service to posterity, if a similar misfortune should ever again hap- 
 pen — which mayHeaven avert! Theymay be regarded as sure and 
 certain documents, teaching how the plague may be extinguish- 
 ed,' &c. With regard to the nature of the malady, he agrees 
 very closely with the opinion given by Ramazzini in 1711. He 
 reminds us that the Greeks made four classes of cattle diseases : 
 the dry, the moist, the articular, and subcutaneous; and he en- 
 deavours to show, that, in this contagion, three of these classes 
 were present, the articular alone being absent. He asks, ' why 
 should we exclude the subcutaneous ? . . . Do we not see 
 that the skin is stripped of its hair by the disease, horripila- 
 tion, tremor of the shoulders and buttocks, and that it is
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 203 
 
 infected with spots and pustules {inaculis denique et pustuUs 
 infccta cutis) ? so much so, indeed, that some have thought that \ 
 the oxen were destroyed, not by the plague, but by the puStular 
 disease called small-pox [loves non lue, sed ipsis pustulis, qiias 
 variolas vacant, inter ire).' As before mentioned, he had no doubt ' 
 whatever about the origin of the malady in Italy, though there 
 seems to have b^en some disputation regarding it; thus affording 
 us another wonderful example of the analogy of the outbreak 
 in those days and in that part of the world, to that which 
 we recently suffered from. He says: ' I now come to a question 
 of the deepest importance, wherein there can be no dispute 
 about the mere signification of words. Whence came the pesti 
 lence ? It is certain that our cattle were free from the plague, pre 
 vious to the arrival of the Hungarian ox at the estate of Count 
 Borromeo. From that spot, and from that moment, spread the 
 flame which has decimated our herds. The arguments used by 
 some objectors, that the plague appears amongst cattle far 
 removed from a manifest source of infection, arc easily disposed 
 of. .... Is it not certain that the still more terrible plague 
 which destroys mankind, is often carried to great distances by 
 animals, and in clothes, papers, 8cc. But where could I find a 
 better proof of the fact than in your own excellent commentaries 
 (those of Bishop Borromaeus)? Did not the herdsman who 
 attended the diseased animals, afterwards visit other cattle in per- 
 fect health and infect them all, through the contagious particles 
 adherin*'- to his clothes ? Did not the most learned Valisneriusi 
 write to caution me that the disease might be conveyed long dis- 
 tances by dogs ? Considering these things, and reflecting in how\ 
 many ways, and how far the pestilential virus may be carried by 
 men and animals and by winds, there is no need for me to seek for 
 hidden and unknown causes of the disease, when I have before 
 my eyes the proof of its origin offered by that Hungarian ox. 
 You yourself relate the case of an ox in perfect health, which tell 
 ill immediately after feeding in a field where diseased cattle had 
 been previously pastured; reminding me of the words of Gesner: 
 'Oxen in feeding infect the grass, in drinking the fountains; 
 when housed they infect their stalls, and in this way healthy 
 cattle peiish through breathing the emanations from the sick.'
 
 204 ' History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Lancisi believed that the virus obtained access to the body by the 
 air passages and the stomach. 
 
 We have already seen what his preventive measures were; 
 but_, he asks, what should we do for its cure? ' My opinion is 
 this (setting aside the prevention of its contagion, which, me- 
 hercules ! I would say, is the most excellent and only mode of 
 averting the disease), that we must endeavour to preserve the 
 oxen from beinff infected, by giving them proper diet; and that 
 when they are infected, the only thing which can save them from 
 death is still a proper diet. Hitherto the disease has eluded all 
 the powers of pharmacy ; and experience has shown, that 
 nothing avails more than a sparing diet. Applications of vine- 
 gar, oil, &c., may be used to the tongue, palate, &c. But as to 
 venesection and violent remedies, they are always hurtful in con- 
 tagious diseases; and the sentence of Hippocrates may be here 
 well called to mind : " So act that if you do no good, you at 
 least may do no harm." I think it is well posterity should know 
 that, of all the many and powerful remedies tried during the 
 pestilence, none has been found which will bear the name of a 
 proper or specific remedy.' He tells us what modes of treat- 
 ment were generally adopted ; how purgation and bleeding only 
 hastened the approach of death, but that acids, mixed with 
 aromatic substances, soothed the inflammation in the mouth. 
 The inhabitants of Mantua and Venice made much use of sul- 
 phur, of onions, and of juniper-berries, but, he adds, 'As for 
 our experience at Rome, I must confess that we met with no 
 remedy which could be called true, sure, or sound and specific. 
 Many we found useless; many hurtful; and some few seemed 
 useful.' Some success from his prescribed treatment (giving 
 good food in small quantities at frequent intervals, and washing 
 out the mouth with a mixture of garlic, sulphur, vinegar, and 
 common oil) was supposed to have occurred in the Ecclesiast- 
 ical States and in Tuscany. As topical agents to be employed in 
 anticipation of an attack, he recommended setons and caustics 
 to be used in the neck, shoulders, and thighs, in order, as he 
 says, to give issue to the virulent matter in a direct manner. One 
 of his chapters is headed thus : ' The only sure Remedy for 
 Warding-off the Pestilence is to prevent all Intercourse of
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 205 
 
 Healthy with Infected Cattle, and with all other Infected Bodies.' 
 'It was observed/ he savs, 'that those who carefullv obstructed 
 every chink through which contagion might approach, preserved 
 their cattle from the plague. Thus, while the disease was raging 
 everywhere, the cattle on the estates of Prince Pamphilo and of 
 Prince Borsihese, bv the 2;reatest care and watchino; to avert 
 every possible source of infection, remained unaffected ; it was 
 also observed that others, the owners of large herds, had a simi- 
 lar good fortune; and that the Monasteries also escaped the con- 
 tagion when the disease was rife in the towns, even though they 
 were built in the centre of the plague-haunted districts. This 
 was owino; to their cattle having no communication whatever 
 with those beyond the high walls enclosing their pastures. 
 
 The last chapter of the invaluable work sums up his admir- 
 able reflections on this disease. ' The steps which a wise 
 government should instantly take, whenever (which may Heaven 
 avert !) the pestilence may again appear upon our borders, 
 are these. All roads and by-paths should be carefully guarded, 
 so that no ox or dog be allowed to enter the country. Any 
 animal so entering should be forthwith destroyed and buried. 
 Should the pestilence, however, gain admission, the separation 
 of the sick from the healthy must be enforced by decree. In- 
 deed, in mij opinion, by far the safest course is instantly to 
 destroy the animal, and luith the poleaxe, so that no infected 
 blood may escape on to the ground ; for, in attempting to cure 
 the diseased animal, the veterinary surgeon may convey the 
 plague to healthy oxen. The healthy cattle must be removed 
 from their former pastures, which must now be regarded as 
 contaminated. The diseased oxen should be kept in stables, 
 to which no one is admitted except the veterinary surgeon 
 or the herdsman. The fountains and vessels used by the ani- 
 mals should be frequently cleaned with quick lime. The clothes 
 of the shepherds also should be fumigated. The dead carcases, 
 from which not one hair is to be removed, must be buried 
 in deep pits; and any saliva or secretions which may drop 
 from them on the way to the pit are to i)e carefully removed. 
 If any cows are infected, their milk is instantly to be thrown 
 into a hole in the ground; and the severest punishment should be
 
 2o6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 inflicted on those who disobey this order. The passage of all 
 rustics and dogs should be forbidden. 
 
 ' Such are the means, and the reasons for employing them, 
 which I offer for the purpose both of avoiding and of suppressing 
 the plague. For in truth, when I reflect upon the diflicidties — the 
 expense, the dangers, and the labours incurred in carrying them 
 out, I confess that I know of no means by which the plague 
 may be more easily, more surelv, and more expeditiously 
 suppressed, than by instantly knocking on the head every infected 
 animal, and burying it deeply in the earth.' In apologizing 
 for writing the treatise, he says : ' I may be asked of what bene- 
 fit can this commentary be to posterity, as I have no remedy to 
 offer for the cure of the plague? I answer, of very great bene- 
 fit ; for it is no little thing in human affairs to know what to 
 avoid and what is true — lucrum etiam in rebus humanis non 
 exigimur est habere certum atque exploratum quod vitemus. And 
 surely we have learnt this much, that, from the very beginning 
 of the plague, all commerce in cattle must be arrested ; and that 
 if we are not able to cure the disease, we know at least how to 
 deal with the evils attending it. Here, as happens in many 
 other diseases, we may prevent their occurrence ; but, when once 
 they have possession of the body, we are powerless to cure them — 
 -E contrario, cum jam facta sunt, nulli cedunt medicamini.' 
 ' Should this plague ever recur hereafter, posterity may study 
 these pages with some satisfaction, and certainly with profit.' 
 Through the energetic measures recommended by this true 
 patriot, Rome and the Campagnawere rid of the disease in nine 
 months ; while in other parts of Italy it raged for several years. 
 In Ferrara, the malady was observed and described by Nigrisoli^ 
 and Lanzoni ; - in the states of Venice, by Mazini ; in Modena, 
 by Morandi; and in Cremona, by Cogrossi.^ Nigrisoli's ac- 
 count of the malady is lucid and exact. The disease was a 
 malignant and contagious fever, and among the remarkably well- 
 observed symptoms, the ulcers and pustules on the palate, throat, 
 and tongue were not overlooked. 
 
 ' NigrisoU. Opinions on the Epidemic Disease in Cattle, 1714- 
 2 Lanzoni. Acta Eraditor, 1713, 1714. ^ Journal de Venise, vol. x.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 207 
 
 Lanzoni's description of the symptoms is good. ^ The oxen 
 attacked by the malady spat out their food ; then suddenly their 
 ears dropped, and their hair became erect; nearly always a tremor 
 was present; tears ran from the eyes, and mucus (or lymph) 
 flowed from the nose ; there was diarrhoea ; pustules made their 
 appearance in some cases under the skin, so that they seemed to 
 be attacked by small-pox. At length, in the short space of seven 
 days, they died in great pain (manifested by groaning)/ 
 
 The malady was also well described at this time by the 
 Medical Society of Geneva.^ 
 
 An epizootic disease appeared among the horses this year in 
 Italy." It was, in all probability, a continuation of that reigning 
 in the previous year. Valisnieri saw the epizooty in Verona 
 and Mantua at this time, and attributed it, and the great losses 
 it occasioned, to the presence of enormous numbers of larv'ae of 
 the gad-fly {hots), which he generally found in the stomach. Dr 
 Gasneri describes the malady, and from his account we gather 
 that the inflammation extended to the serous coat of that organ, 
 and that the mucous membrane was attacked by ulceration of a 
 serious character; this morbid state of the stomach he thought 
 should be considered as the cause of the mortality.^ 
 
 A.D. 1 7 14. Owing to some local causes, the fish died in many! 
 lakes in Silesia; and in Alsace, cattle, fowls, hogs, geese, sheep,! 
 and horses perished,* though Kanold does not specify from what! 
 kind of malady. At Frankfort-on-the-Maine, horses and hogs 
 also died.^ In Dauphine and the country of Gex, in the begin- 
 ning of the summer, cattle were attacked by glossanthrax.^ In 
 many parts of Germany, dropsy or rot {poiirriture) had prevailed 
 amongst cows, sheep, and goats from the spring-time until the 
 autumn.'' Small-pox in sheep was general in many regions, and 
 Heusinger thinks it was this disease which appeared in Paris in this 
 and the following year; when so many sheep died, that an ordi- 
 
 1 Reflexions sur la Maladie du Gros Betail. Par la Socicte des Mcdecins de 
 Geneve, 171 5. Paris, 1745. 
 
 - Brngnone. Zucht der Pferde und Maulthiere. 
 
 » Reaumur. Memoires pour Servir i I'Histoire des Insects, p. 54^- 
 
 * Kanold. Jahreshist., pp. 1 19— 206. * H'i'l- i^- 2i5- 
 
 8 Reflexions de Mcdec. Gcnev. 1716, p. 251. ' Kanold. Op. cil., p. 177-
 
 2,0 8 History of Anwial Plagues. 
 
 nance was issued to kill all the pigeons and other birds which 
 might diffuse the contagion. The same disease was common in 
 Italy. ^ The Faculty of Genev^a, to whose invaluable Reflections we 
 owe so much, come to our aid in describing this disease as it 
 showed itself at Vernier, a short distance from Paris. ' In this 
 malady there appeared a great number of pustules over the whole 
 of the body, which, after being formed a certain number of days, 
 dried up, and left, when the scabs had fallen off, spots and cicatrices 
 on the skin, very similar to those produced on man after the small- 
 pox. One of the members of our Society had the good fortune 
 to have two of these sheep sent to him, and, on examining them, 
 he reported that the pustules on one of the animals had entirely dis- 
 appeared, and that there only remained those marks and cicatrices. 
 This sheep appeared lively and thriving. The other had yet the 
 scabs and scurf of the pustules adherent to the skin, but well 
 separated from each other, as in the distinct {discreta) small-pox 
 of man, and unequal in size. They appeared very marked about 
 the muzzle and under the belly, and they could be perceived bv 
 the touch on the rest of the body through the fleece. The 
 shepherd who brought them said, that, at the commencement of 
 the disease, the sheep were sick and very much prostrated; that 
 their eyes were bleared and tearful ; and that after some days 
 the pustules began to appear, and kept increasing for eight 
 or nine days, about which time they began to dry up. He 
 added, that they had only lost four or five out of a flock of one 
 hundred and twenty sheep. We have also been informed that 
 this malady is very common, and is well-known to the French 
 peasants under the name of claviliere. It has not been serious 
 this year, but there are times when it is very malignant.^ ^ 
 I Heusinger imagines that in this description we have the first 
 ■ most complete account of the malady; but my readers will find 
 I that Dr Fuller had distinctly made out the analogy between the 
 1 variola of man and the sheep in 1710 — 11, though his work was 
 not published until 1730. 
 
 In March of this year, canine ' distemper^ raged in all the 
 southern provinces of France as an epizooty, complicated with 
 
 1 Kanold. Op. cit., p. 177. - "^ Reflexions, &c., p. 130.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 209 
 
 gangrenous angina.^ The Cattle Plague not onlv vet rajred in 
 those countries in which it had been allowed to remain for so 
 many years, but it had also invaded those which had been 
 hitherto free from it. From Russia it penetrated Livonia ; ^ 
 from Holland, where, as already stated, it is calculated it killed 
 more than 200,000 cattle, it passed into Liege at the begin- 
 ning of this year ; ^ from Italy, where it was stamped out of Rome 
 in the month of April, after destroying nearly 30,000 head, it 
 attacked Savoy and Piedmont, where it also, according to Fanto- 
 nius, Professor of Medicine and Anatomy at Turin, slew 70,000. 
 It became spread over Switzerland, and entering France on 
 many sides, it was already in Lorraine and Champagne in the 
 month of March ; while, during the spring-time, it was in Dau- 
 phine, Lyonnois, Bourgogne, Nivernois, Berry, Blaisois, Beauce, 
 Orleans, and even in the Isle of France.* From the French au- 
 thorities who described the disease, we have but meagre and un- 
 satisfactory reports, and not at all equal to those of the Italian 
 physicians. The principal would appear to be Guillo, Drouin, 
 and Herment;'^ and it would seem that the terrible malignancy 
 of the plague, its excessive fatality, its extreme infectiousness, 
 and the utter impotency of all remedial measures adopted, 
 severely tested the skill of the physicians, and the fortitude of 
 the agriculturists of France at this time. 
 
 In the month of September, aerording to Kanold,^ the disease 
 was carried from Holland to England, where it had not been 
 seen for some centuries. But if we believe Mr Bates, it 
 was introduced into London two months earlier. This gen- 
 tleman was surgeon to George I., and was appointed to as- 
 certain the nature of the disease which had reached Islington, 
 and was spreading in the neighbourhood of London.' He states : 
 
 1 //. d^Arboval. Diet. Veter. art. Maladie du Chiens. Wirt/i. Op. cit., p. 215. 
 
 * Fischer. Liefl. Landwirtschaftsbuch, pp. 406 — 409. 
 
 ^ Kanold. Op. cit., p. 157. * Ibid. p. 204. Reflexions, &c., p. 5. 
 
 * The observations and opinions of these authorities will be found in the 'Reflex- 
 ions ' of the Medical Society of Geneva aheady alluded to. Some essays on this 
 subject are also to be seen in a volume entitled ' Jugement do la Faculle de Mede- 
 cine de Paris sur ks Mcmoires qui courent touchant la Mortalite dcs Bcstiaux.' 
 Paris, 1 714. 
 
 * Op. cit., p. 227. 
 
 ' To those who are curious in tiie meteorological phenomena manifested pre- 
 
 14
 
 2IO History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ' About the middle of July the distemper appeared at Ishngton, 
 and thereupon their Excellencies, the Lords Justices, having notice 
 of it, were pleased to command that I should examine into the 
 truth of the report of its being contagious ; and ordered the 
 
 vious to the breaking out of this epizootic disease, or to those who are yet believers in 
 the spotitaneous origin of this malady in Britain, I will take the liberty of transcrib- 
 ing the principal characters of the months which had elapsed before its outbreak 
 in 1 714. Dr Short says : ' We are now entered on a set of dry years, which con- 
 tinued to the end of 17 19 ; the last four were exceeding hot and dry, preceded this 
 year by an uncommon height of the barometer continuing many weeks together, 
 notwithstanding the greatest rains I ever remember. All January, the mercury 
 stood almost invariably at settled dry, commonly marked settled fair. As the 
 weather is mostly close when the mercury is highest, such was the state of this 
 month, the greatest part cold, but little frost. Wind sometimes S.W., but preva- 
 lently E. and N.E. On the 6th some flights of small snow ; the 1 8th, 25th, and 
 29th, small showers. . . . First half of February generally fair and mild like May ; 
 the 14th to the end, squally weather, with some white frosts, wind N. ; the 17th, 
 gooseberries in bloom ; the 19th, dreadful storm at N., and with this a very high 
 tide, overflowing all the Deans. The 15th, morning, wind S. W. blowing hard ; p.m. 
 squally, N.W. 3 hor. Morning 5, N.W.; p.m. 6J, N.W., or W.N.W., small 
 storm, then northerly from P.M. 5^ to 6|. A great number of ships in the road 
 sunk, shored, or driven from their anchors ; and houses stript. The mercury sunk 
 the most suddenly that afternoon that ever I observed, and rose as quickly 65 degrees 
 when the storm was over at 8 o'clock. . . . March, glorious days and nights from 
 the 1st to the 12th, yet hard frost in the morning, wind southerly ; then still warmer 
 west winds, and showery weather, with clear nights ; the 20th to the 31st, wind 
 northerly, yet sundry pleasant days. Grass grew so fast, that my grass-plot was 
 mown the 13th and the 31st ; the i6th, currants shot an inch long, yet the wind 
 southerly ; the 26th to the 31st, wind N.E. The leaves of the gooseberries were 
 blasted. I had observed the caterpillars on them in the depth of winter, and they now 
 appeared thick. . . . The beginning of April, the weather set in so cold with hail and 
 snow lying two inches thick, that on the 3rd it froze within-doors. This frost lasted 
 four or five days, the nights cloudless ; yet from the 9th to the 12th, iSth, and 17th, 
 warmer by the thermometer than it often is in May or June, especially the I2th. 
 Wind S. W. and southerly. The 19th to the 28th, wind N.E., dry weather, variable 
 winds and showers to the end, with some fogs. . . . The first days of May, warm as 
 those in April ; from the 4th to the 6th, wind N.W. with squally weather ; to the 
 24th, easterly winds, and mostly very dry, cold, and clear. Gooseberries and cur- 
 rants not all out of bloom ; the 19th, distant thunder, with hail and rain ; the 27th, 
 rained almost all day. The artichokes which were fruited in winter, were now no 
 bigger than large apples. . . . June began dry; the 1st to the 3rd, N.E, then west- 
 erly and stormy from the 6th to the loth ; the rest of the month N.E. and dry ; 
 not very hot yet. . . . July, currants began to ripen, and gooseberries next week. 
 Wind sometimes westerly, but chiefly at E. this month ; the 2nd, loth, and 20th, 
 remote thunder ; little rain before the 12th and 13th ; the latter half showery, and 
 a great deal the last weeks ; the 24th, new corn brought to the mills ; the 2nd, 
 numberless butterflies hanging about the gooseberry bushes, or rising from them ; 
 on the 7th, the air swarmed with them. Their wings were red, spotted with white ; 
 the spawn of the silk-worm caterpillar.' — Op. cit., vol. i. p. 470.
 
 History of A nimal Plagues. 1 1 1 
 
 Lord Harcourt, then Lord High Chancellor, to grant such au- 
 thority as would be proper to make the discovery. Accordinsily 
 Mr Milner, Mr Offley, Mr Richardson, and Mr Ward, four 
 justices of the peace for the county of Middlesex, were appointed 
 to make the necessary examinations. Pursuant to these orders, 
 we went to Islington, where Mr Ratclift' had lost 120 out of 
 200; Mr Rufford 62 out of 72; and Mr Pullen 38 out of 87. 
 They were very unwilling to own it, because so soon as it should 
 be known none would buy their milk ; but Mr Ratcliff, a man of 
 good judgment in cattle, after much persuasion, gave us the 
 following account, viz,, that they first refused their food, the 
 next day had huskish coughs, and voided excrements like clav; 
 their heads swelled, and sometimes their bodies. In a day or 
 two more there was a great discharge of mucous matter by the 
 nose, and their breaths smelled offensively. Lastly, a severe 
 purging (sometimes bloody), which terminated in death. That 
 some died in three days, and others in five or six, but the bulls 
 lived eight or ten. That during their whole illness, they refused 
 all manner of food, and were very hot. We then advised with 
 several of the cow-leeches, or doctors, who all agreed that it was 
 a murrain, or rather a plague ; and that the methods they had 
 tried for a cure had proved unsuccessful. This disease was so 
 surprising, that some of those men who used to look after them, 
 were afraid to go near them. 
 
 ' We then ordered some of the sick cows to be housed, and 
 several sorts of cattle to be kept with them, to see whether the 
 contagion would affect any other species. The next day I made 
 a verbal report to their Excellencies, of all the several opinions 
 and discourses which I have had about it, and left them debat- 
 ing what method to take ; at last I was called in, and ordered to 
 consider of it again the next day, and to deliver to them in writ- 
 ing what would be proper to be done. Accordingly I drew up, 
 and gave them, the following proposals. 
 
 * 1. That all such cows as are now in the possession of Mr 
 Ratcliff", Rufl'ord, and Fullcn be brought, killed, and biinif ; or, 
 at least, that the sick be burnt ; and the well kept and secured 
 on the grounds where they now are, that such of them as sicken 
 or die of this distemper may be burnt.
 
 212 Histoiy of A nimal Plagues. 
 
 ' 2. That the houses in which those sick cows have stood be 
 washed very clean, and then smoked by the burning of pitch tar 
 and wormwood, and be kept three months at least before any 
 other cows are put therein, 
 
 ' 3. That the fields where those sick cows have grazed be 
 kept two months before any other cows are suffered to stand or 
 graze thereon. 
 
 '4. That the persons looking after such as are ill should 
 have no communication with those that are well. 
 
 ' 5. That the same methods be observed if any other of the 
 cow-keepers should get this distemper among them ; and that 
 they be all summoned and told, that as soon as they perceive 
 any of their cows to refuse their meat, or have any other symp- 
 toms of this distemper, that they immediately separate them 
 from their others, and give notice to such persons as your Excel- 
 lencies shall appoint, that they may be burnt ; and the places 
 where they have stood or grazed to be ordered as before. 
 
 ' 6. That the cow-keepers be required to divide their cows 
 into small parcels, not more than ten or twelve in a field to- 
 gether; and that they be allowed such satisfaction for complying 
 with these proposals as your Excellencies shall think fit ; all 
 which is most humbly submitted, &c. 
 
 ^The next day their Excellencies consulted the four gentlemen 
 before-named, and gave them orders to comply with the preced- 
 ing proposals, and to allow forty shillings for every sick cow 
 which they burnt, that belonged to Mr RatclifF, Rufford, and 
 Pullen; but the free intercourse which both masters and servants 
 had had with each other's cows (before we were appointed) had 
 spread the contagion ; and the disease began soon to appear in 
 several other neighbouring places. 
 
 ' The gentlemen then summoned all the cow-keepers in the 
 county, and acquainted them with the above-named proposals 
 (to most of which they readily complied, as being visibly their 
 interest), and offered them forty shillings for every cow which 
 they burnt, that had not been sick above twenty-four hours ; but 
 for such as had been longer ill, or were dead, they would allow 
 them only the value of their skins and horns.^ 
 
 ^ In a book of poems published in 171 7, by John Morphew of London, refer-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 213 
 
 'Some of the cow-keepers appeared not content with this re- 
 gulation, and beheving that the disease would become general, 
 desio-ned to have sold their cows at some distant market; which 
 the o;entlemen having notice of, appointed several butchers to 
 watch near their grounds, and count their numbers every morn- 
 ing, with orders to follow such as they sent to any market, and 
 prevent their being sold, by telling the people what they were. 
 
 'Another great obstacle at the first, was the cow-keepers not 
 owning the disease till they had lost several cows ; for so soon as 
 it was known that any man had but one sick, none would buy 
 
 ence is made to this ' German Cattle Plague,' which, the poet asserts, came in with 
 the accession of the German dynasty into England, after the death of Queen Anne. 
 The poem is very satirical, and particularly dwells on the straits people were put to 
 in the matter of beef and milk. 
 
 ' As soon as Britain had sustain'd 
 That fatal loss which Heaven had gain'd, 
 And parties squabbled to a madness 
 About their sorrows and their gladness, 
 A plague unprophesy'd succeeded. 
 That only reacli'd the Horniheaded, 
 And like a fatal Rot or Murrain, 
 Turn'd all our bulls and cows to carrion. 
 
 ' The farriers now their skill employ'd, 
 But still the cows in number dy'd, 
 And with their horns and hides together 
 Were burnt, without reserve of leather., 
 
 ' Some cunning huxters, who had cows 
 Old, dry, and lean, not worth a souse, 
 Tho' sound in health, but scarce deserving 
 Of pasture, to prevent their starving. 
 These wisely knock'd 'em on the head 
 By night, when neighbours were in bed. 
 Next day assign'd their expiration 
 To this new fatal visitation : 
 So bore 'em to some distant pit 
 Or ditch, for such a purpose fit ; 
 There, to the terror of our isle. 
 Consumed 'em in their funeral pile. 
 Then like tnic hypocrites, put on 
 A mournful look, as if undone, 
 And claim'd'the sum of forty shilling 
 For every cow of Heaven's killing — 
 A gen'rous bounty, that destroy'd 
 More cattle than the plague annoy'd.'
 
 214 History of Animal Plagttes. 
 
 his milk ; and to those who kept many cows that loss was con- 
 siderable. 
 
 ' Nor was there ever wanting one or other who gave them 
 hopes of a cure. 
 
 'To obviate these three difficulties/ the gentlemen encouraged 
 them to hope for a brief (charitable collection)^ but assured them 
 that such only as complied with these directions should have any 
 benefit of it. Accordingly they ordered a daily account to be 
 taken of the conduct of each cow-keeper, and allowed or dis- 
 allowed their pretensions to this brief, as well as to the forty 
 shillings per cow, as they complied or disregarded these direc- 
 tions. 
 
 ' This had a pretty good effect ; but here in England, where 
 every man is at liberty to dispose of his cattle as he pleases, 
 nothing but making them sensible that it was each man's par- 
 ticular interest to comply with these methods could do ; this, 
 though true in fact, yet the reader will readily judge to be very 
 difficult among such a number ; but the gentlemen spared no 
 labour to accomplish it; for that purpose they summoned them 
 one or twice every week, urged all that could be said to induce 
 their compliance, and omitted no warrantable means to frustrate 
 their folly. I had orders from the beginning to assist those gen- 
 tlemen with my advice, which I did at most of their meetings; as 
 also to make a stricter inquiry into the disease by dissections, &c. 
 
 ' Accordingly I discoursed the cow-leeches about the customs 
 and diseases that cows were subject to, and consulted such books 
 as treated of them ; but concerning this disease could gain but 
 small assistance from either, 
 
 'I then made dissections of sixteen cows indifferent degrees 
 of infection, and found the putrefaction of their viscera to in- 
 crease in proportion to the time of their illness. 
 
 ' The first five that I opened had herded with those that were 
 ill, and the symptoms of this distemper were just become visible. 
 In these the gall-bladders were larger than usual, and filled with 
 bile of a natural taste and smell, but of a greener colour. Their 
 pancreas were shrivelled, some of the glands obstructed and 
 tumified. Many of the glands in their mesentery were twice or 
 thrice their natural bigness. Their lungs were a little inflamed.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 215 
 
 and their flesh felt hot. All other parts of their viscera appeared 
 as in a healthftd state. 
 
 'The next six that I opened had been ill about two days. In 
 them the livers were blacker than usual, and in two of them there 
 were several cysts filled with a petrified substance like chalk, 
 about the bigness of a pea. Their gall-bladders were about 
 three times their usual bigness, and filled with bile of a natural 
 taste and smell, but of a deep green colour. The glands in their 
 mesenteries were many of them distended to eight or ten times 
 their natural bigness, were very black; and in the pelvis of most 
 of those glands in two cows there was a yellow petrifaction of 
 the consistence of a sandy stone. Their intestines were the 
 colour of a snake, their inner coat excoriated by purging. Their 
 lungs were much inflamed, with several cysts containing a vellow 
 purulent matter, many of them as big as a nutmeg. Their flesh 
 was extremely hot, though very little altered in colour. 
 
 ' I have here only given you a general account of my dissec- 
 tions in the three different stages of the disease ; for as the differ- 
 ence was but small and the disease incurable, it could neither be 
 useful nor pleasant to the reader to have each particular dissec- 
 tion at larffe, thouo;h I have now the minutes bv me. But the 
 following cases being very extraordinary, I could not omit the 
 mention of them, viz. : in one of them the bile was petrified in 
 its vessels, and resembled a tree of coral, but of a dark yellow 
 colour and brittle substance. In another there were several in- 
 flammations on the edges of the liver, some as large as a half- 
 crown, cracked round the edges, and appearing separated from 
 the sound part like a pestilential carbuncle. In a third, the 
 liquor contained in the pericardium (for lubricating the heart in 
 its motions) appeared like the subsidings of aqua calcis ; and 
 had excoriated, and given as yellow a colour to tiic whole surface 
 of the heart and pericardium, as aqua calcis could possibly have 
 done. 
 
 * In giving my opinion of this distemper, I must beg leave to 
 premise that all cows have naturally a purgation by the anus for 
 five or six weeks in the spring, from (as the cow-keepers term 
 it) the firmness of the grass; during which time they are brisk 
 and lively, their milk becomes thinner and of a bluish colour,
 
 2i6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 sweeter to the taste^ and in greater plenty ; but the spring pre- 
 ceding this distemper was all over Europe so dry, that the like 
 has not been known in the memory of any one living; the con- 
 sequence of which was little grass, and that so dry and void of 
 that firmness which it has in other years, that I could not hear 
 of one cow-keeper who had observed his cows to have that 
 purgation in the same degree as usual, and very few who had ob- 
 served any at all. They all agreed that their cows had not given 
 above half so much milk that summer as they did in others ; 
 that some of them were almost dry ; that the milk they did give 
 was much thicker and yellower than in other years. It was 
 observed by the whole town that very little of the milk then sold 
 would boil without turning ; and it is a known truth, that the 
 weakest of the common purges you can give a cow entirely takes 
 away her milk ; from all which circumstances, I think it is 
 evident that the want of that natural purgation was the sole 
 cause of this disease, by producing those obstructions which 
 terminated in a putrefaction, and made this distemper con- 
 tagious. 
 
 ' During my daily conversation at that time with cow-keepers, 
 8cc., there occurred many other circumstances of less moment 
 to confirm me in this opinion; but as there was no one reason 
 to give me the least notion of any other cause, I shall not 
 trouble the reader with a useless detail of them. 
 
 ^ Cows are likewise subject to a purgation (though in a less 
 degree) from the same quality in the grass, about the latter end 
 of September, which is called the latter spring, and which, I 
 believe, contributed not a little to the preventing the increase of 
 this distemper ; for this purgation coming so soon after the dis- 
 ease appeared, it is not unreasonable to suppose that it freed such 
 cows as were not much injured from the ill effects of these 
 obstructions, occasioned by the want of their vernal evacuations. 
 
 ' Several physicians attempted the cure, and made many essays 
 for that purpose ; but the dissections convinced me of the im- 
 probability of their succeeding, with which I acquainted their 
 Excellencies. However, they having received the following re- 
 cipe and directions from some in Holland, said to have been used 
 there with good success, gave me orders to make trial of it. But
 
 Hisiory of Animal Plagices. iin 
 
 the effect was answerable to my expectation, for in very many 
 instances I was not sensible of the least benefit. 
 
 Herb. Aristoloch. Rotundas, 
 
 Veronicae, aa V\. viij. 
 
 Pulmonarise, 
 
 Hyssopi, 
 
 Scordij. aa tl].. 4. 
 Rad. Gentianae, 
 
 Angelicae, 
 
 Petasitidis, 
 
 Tormentillae, 
 
 CarlinEe, aa lb. ss. 
 Bacc. Lauri, 
 
 Juniperi, aa Jxij. Misce, fiat Pulv. 
 
 This powder is to be given in water, one ounce at a time, three 
 or four mornings successively ; then rest four days, and if the 
 disease continues, repeat the powders in warm water, as before. 
 
 ' I think there is no one method in practice but what was 
 tried on this occasion, though I cannot say that any of them 
 was attended with an appearance of success, except that of 
 bleeding plentifully, and giving great quantities of cooling and 
 diluting liquids. But by this method, the instances of success 
 were so few that they do not deserve any further mention. 
 
 ' Their Excellencies being informed that the feeding cows with 
 distillers' grains was a new custom, and was the cause of this 
 disease, gave me orders to examine into the truth of it; but 
 upon inquiry, I found it to have been the practice of several of 
 the cow-keepers above twenty years without the least appearance 
 of any inconvenience, and that some of those persons who had 
 suffered most had never given any. Nor is there any difference 
 between those of brewers and distillers, only that the latter are 
 the drier. 
 
 ' It was likewise said that the want of water was the cause of 
 this disease, for that the springs and places where people used 
 to water their cows were almost everywhere dry, and that many 
 were obliged to send them several miles for water. This might 
 produce diseases, but such only as they got by the fatigue of 
 being driven so far; for Mr Ratcliff, Mr Kufford, and Mr I'ullin,
 
 21 8 History of Animal Plagties. 
 
 the three persons where this disease first appeared, had the New 
 River water running through the very grounds where their cows 
 constantly grazed, and could drink at their pleasure, and so had 
 most of the cow-keepers at Islington. 
 
 ' There were at that time several other reports of the cause of 
 this disease, but none that had a show of reason. 
 
 ' About the latter end of September the disease increased, and 
 the numbers brought to be burnt were so great that it could not 
 be well executed; therefore it was judged proper only to bury 
 them fifteen or twenty feet deep, but first to make large incisions 
 in the most fleshy parts, and to cover them with quick-lime. 
 
 '^ At the same time, having notice that it was a custom with 
 the cow-keepers to send their calves, when a week old, to Rum- 
 ford, &c., to be sold ; and apprehending by this means that the 
 contagion might be carried into the country, I required all such 
 as had sick cows to bring their calves to be buried, to which they 
 readily consented, and were allowed from five to ten shillings 
 per calf. 
 
 ' In the beginning of October, being informed that some of 
 the cows in Norfolk, Sufl^blk, and Hertfordshire had got this dis- 
 ease, and apprehending that it would become general, I gave in 
 the following report to a committee of council : '^The distemper 
 among the cattle increasing, and beginning to appear in several 
 other counties, I thought it my duty to acquaint your lordships 
 with the hazard that may attend their not being duly buried. 
 It is the opinion of all authors in physic that treat of contagious 
 diseases, as well as of several of the physicians in town, that the 
 putrefaction of so many cows as there is reason to fear will die 
 of this distemper, may produce some contagious disease among 
 men, unless they are buried so deep that the infectious effluvia 
 cannot injure the air, which I am certain has very seldom been 
 complied with except in the counties of Middlesex, Essex, and 
 Surrey, the gentlemen employed being capable of acting in 
 those counties only. It is affirmed by several now living that 
 there was a mortality among the cattle a little before the 
 last great plague in the year 1665,* which was imputed to 
 
 ' Mr Bates evidently refers to the great destruction of cattle and sheep caused 
 by 'rot ' in 1663.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 219 
 
 the want of a due care in burying them. And your lord- 
 ships may know of what importance it was judged by the 
 King of Prussia, the States of Holland, and several other 
 Princes and States, bv the care they took to publish decrees and 
 placards commanding them to be buried upon pain of death or 
 other severe penalties; and I humbly conceive it would be neces- 
 sary not only to bury those which shall die, but that such as are 
 already dead may have the same care, as also that they be 
 buried nine or ten feet deep at least. All of which is most 
 humbly submitted. Sec.'' 
 
 ' Their lordships thought fit to defer all proceeding upon this 
 report till the distemper, becoming more general, should make 
 it necessary ; but I thank God that necessity never happened, 
 for within three weeks or a month after the giving in of that 
 report the following particulars concurred to put an end to the 
 disease. 
 
 'The cows began their latter purging, which contributed 
 much to prevent the disease from appearing in fresh places, and 
 the eow-keepers were convinced that the disease was incurable. 
 
 ' The knowledge of the disease was spread all over England, 
 so that none would buy a cow in the country ; and the gentle- 
 men prevented their being killed in town by having the markets 
 examined daily, and such meat condemned as appeared sus- 
 picious. 
 
 'They now divided their cows into small parcels, by which 
 they lost only that in which the disease happened ; whereas be- 
 fore that method, when one cow got this disease, if she had 
 herded with one, two, or three hundred (the contagion was such), 
 scarce one did escape. 
 
 ' Those who had no sick cows avoided all communication with 
 such as had. They likewise found that the keeping their cows 
 so long when ill had been the chief cause of their lo.ss ; they 
 therefore now brought them to be buried on the first appearance 
 of the disease, before the contagion could possibly have got to 
 any great height. 
 
 'These were the effects of the cow-keepers' dear-bought experi- 
 ence ; but it was the indefatigable care and diligence ot those 
 four gentlemen, who gave a daily attendance, botli early and late,
 
 220 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 that secured Great Britain from that terrible ravage, which was 
 made by this distemper in several parts of Europe. 
 
 ^ The severity of this disease in England did not last above 
 three months, though it was not entirely suppressed till about 
 Christmas, but in several other countries it continued two or 
 three years, and I am credibly assured that in Holland it now 
 rages with as much violence as ever ; and that they have lost in 
 cows, oxen, and bulls, above three hundred thousand, 
 
 ' The Providence of God has so disposed the matter of animal 
 bodies, as to render contagious diseases very seldom infectious 
 to different species ; but experience demonstrates, that contagions 
 may be communicated to the same species by touching the wool- 
 len, linen, 8cc., to which the infectious effluvia of the disease had 
 adhered, though the two bodies should be yet a very great dis- 
 tance ; and I verily believe, that more hundreds died from the 
 infection, which was carried by the intercourse that the cow- 
 keepers had with each other, than single ones by the original 
 putrefaction. 
 
 ^The nature of contagious diseases are but little understood, 
 and it would neither be agreeable to my design nor useful to 
 the public to say more of this than what was evident; but I have 
 been particularly careful not to omit anything material, either 
 for describing the disease or manifesting the methods that were 
 taken for suppressing it, because it is more than probable that 
 the same care would be equally successful in any other species 
 of cattle. 
 
 'The number of bulls and cows lost by this disease, in the 
 counties of Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey, were five thousand 
 four hundred and eighteen; and of calves, four hundred and 
 thirty-nine, and the money insured for them at forty or ten 
 shillings per cow, &c., was the royal bounty of his Majesty from 
 his own civil list, and though neither the four gentlemen nor I 
 made any demand for a reward, or for expenses, yet it amounted 
 to ,^6674 i^. xd. But the entire loss to the cow-keepers, as deliver- 
 ed in upon oath, was ,^24,500 (exclusive of the ^€^6674 15. id.), 
 though computed but at six pounds per cow, which, at a medium, 
 was not more than their prime cost, the dearness of keeping them 
 near London necessitating the cow-keepers to buy the very best.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 221 
 
 'His Majesty was further pleased, on the solicitation of the 
 four gentlemen, to grant a brief for the .^24,500; but the many 
 false reports that were then industriously propagated to lessen 
 the value of these poor men's losses so frustrated that charity, 
 that the entire sum collected (the charges of collecting being first 
 paid) was but ,^6278 2s. 6d., which on a dividend amounted 
 to five shillings and three halfpence in the pound, computing 
 their loss as above, at six pounds per cow ; though if we consider 
 their contracts with brewers for grains, their rent of grounds, 
 which lay useless, servants' wages, 8cc., their real losses may (by 
 a modest computation) be allowed to be ten pounds for every 
 cow that died.' ^ 
 
 Some observations on this outbreak in London and its 
 vicinity were made by Mr Bradley,^ in a treatise on the epidemic 
 plague at Marseilles. He imagined the bovine malady was due 
 to insects. Dr I^obb^ also gives it a brief notice, and Dr Short* 
 offers an abstract of Bates's account, and for 1715 adds: 'The 
 disease of the black cattle, that was so fatal last year near Lon- 
 don, reached Essex in January, and did great mischief.' This 
 may be an error, as Mr Bates says the pest was entirely sup- 
 pressed at Christmas, 17 14. 
 
 Every effc)rt appears to have been made not only by the go- 
 vernment, but also by those intrusted with carrying out its orders, 
 to extinguish the disease. One of the minutes extracted from the 
 Privy Council Register, and dated at the Court of St James's, 
 22nd Nov., 1 7 14, refers to the memorial of Thomas Bates, Sur- 
 geon, touching the mortality of cattle, and which was referred to 
 a committee. ' Upon reading this day at the Board a memorial 
 of Thomas Bates, Surgeon, touching the mortality among cattle, 
 and representing how necessary it is that such cattle as die thereof 
 be buried deep, to prevent any infection in the air, which if 
 
 • A Brief Account of the Contagious Disease which raged among the Milch Cows 
 near London in the year 1714, and of the Methods that were taken for Suppressing 
 it. Communicated to the Royal Society by Thoirtas Bates, Esq., Surgeon to his 
 Majesty's household and R.S.S. Philosophical Transactions, N. 538, p. 872. 
 
 2 Richard Bradley, F-R.S. The Plague at Marseilles considered : with Re- 
 marks upon the Plague in General, &c., 172 1. 
 
 3 T. Lobb, M.D. Letters relating to the Plague and Contagious Distempers, 
 
 1745. * ^' ^'^°'''- *^^I'- '^''•' ^"'' "■ ''''■ '"• ''*■
 
 2 22 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 neglected may affect human bodies_, it is ordered by his Majesty 
 in Council, that the matter thereof be, and it is hereby, referred 
 to a committee of the whole Council to consider the same, and to 
 report to his Majesty what their lordships conceive fit to be done 
 therein/ 
 
 And at the same Court, on the 6th December, 17 14, there is 
 an ordinance enjoining ' Justices of the Peace to keep account 
 of the cattle that shall die of the infection/ 
 
 I cannot discover whither the patriot and man of sound sense, 
 Dr Bates, who certainly deserved well of his country in this great 
 emergency, had received any intimation of Lancisi^s valuable 
 recommendations when the Roman States were suffering from 
 this fearful visitation, as he nowhere mentions the Italian's name. 
 If he had not acted on the Roman physician's prescription, he 
 certainly deserves all the more credit for profound acumen in 
 discovering at once the wonderfully contagious nature of the 
 malady — the undoubted agency in its diffusion, and the hopeless- 
 ness of all remedies save the one, as well as a promptness of de- 
 cision which saved Britain from a great peril. And no less credit 
 is due to the 'four gentlemen ' who, instead of denouncing him 
 as ' ignorant and barbarous,' successfully opposing his measures, 
 patronizing every cow-leech, urging ' several physicians' to at- 
 tempt ' the cure ' or wasting precious time with ' one or other 
 who gave them hopes of a cure,' personally carried out his sug- 
 gestions, nor allowed the visionary success of the Hollanders to 
 interfere with the only feasible way of promptly quelling a dire 
 contagion. The conduct of Britain was held up to universal 
 admiration, as the first nation which had shown sufficient energy 
 and resolution to cope with the pestilence then ruining the States 
 of Europe. Professor Fantonius, writing to Lancisi in 17 16 re- 
 garding the Cattle Plague, says: ' In former years, in a province 
 of the British Isles, we heard that a deadly plague had sprung up 
 suddenly among cattle, which destroyed them very quickly, and 
 truly by no other cause than a recent contagion conveyed by 
 suspected oxen. They expelled the disease by no other artifice 
 than the slaughter of infected and suspicious cattle.' The ap- 
 probation of the Professor at the manner in which the disease 
 was got rid of, is conveyed in very strong terms, and he expresses
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 223 
 
 himself to the effect that the English are (or rather, were) an 
 energetic and vigilant people {gen^ i'/ij"i/ac5^rf/iMa), who exhibit- 
 ed wonderful couraoe and devotion durins; the severe ordeal. 
 Since that time this example of wisdom and energy has been 
 frequently alluded to, and nations who are always threatened 
 with this plague have on many occasions preserved themselves 
 from its ravages, by acting as suggested by Dr Bates. In a 
 recent French publication, the adoption and enforcement of these 
 measures is alluded to as follows: ^The disease having passed 
 into England in 17 14, the English government saw no other 
 t means of arresting its course arid saving the great number of 
 animals which were menaced by it, than immolating all those 
 that were infected, and following the advice which Lancisi had 
 given to his country. This sacrifice was about six thousand, and 
 the contagion was destroyed in less than three months ; while 
 Holland, which obstinately and uselessly sought for remedies to 
 cure it, had the misfortune to endure its ravages for three years. 
 The English are, then, as we perceive, the first people of Europe 
 who have given us an example of such conduct.' ^ 
 
 Paulet, with great truth and common sense, observes of this 
 emergency, — ' Les Anglois sont done, comme on voit, le peuple 
 d'Europe qui a donne le premier I'exemple d'une pareille con- 
 duite; et en effet, lorsque I'incurabilite d'une maladie scmblable 
 est bien constatee par des experiences multipliees, c'est pcrdre 
 un temps precieux que de chercher d'autre moyen d'en arreter 
 le cours. Outre les raisons politiques qui deciderent le gouverne- 
 ment Anglois a prendre ce parti, comme le plus prompt et le 
 plus sur, il y en avoit d'autres bien capables de I'y determiner : 
 d'une part, la certitude physique ou I'on etoit que le levain dc 
 la maladie avoit ete apporte des pays infectes ; et de I'autre, 
 I'exemple des mauvais succ(^s dans lesdifferentes tentatives miscs 
 en usage par les autres pcuples d'Europe. L'experiencc a appris 
 depuis, que le massacre des animaux pestiferes, dans certains cas 
 est I'unique moyen de faire cesser cnti^rement la contagion.' ^ 
 
 » 2 
 
 ' Dictionnaire Usuel de Chirurjrie et de Mcdecine Vctcrinairc, p. 362. Paris, 
 1859. 
 
 2 Paulet. Op. cit. ."For a long period , no irruption of any malady from al)road 
 had been noted in this country, particularly of the nature of ' Cattle riaj^'uc' The
 
 224 
 
 History of A^iimal Plagues. 
 
 It has been computed that, from 17 ii to 1714, no fewer 
 that 1,500,000 cattle died of the Cattle Plague in Western Eu- 
 rope. How many sheep and other ruminants perished from this 
 affection, we have no means of ascertaining, though it is a fact 
 that they suffered extensively. 
 
 only serious affection among cattle of previous years appears to have been the 
 malignant carbuncle, splenic apoplexy, or anthrax.
 
 225 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1715 TO 1 745. 
 
 A.D. 17 15. In GermanVj France, and Italy, the weather 
 was damp and unhealthy for mankind. Lanzoni, writing from 
 Ferrara, says : ' After the plague in oxen in the preceding years, 
 and the copious rains which so much damaged the soil, we saw 
 the whole ground at Ferrara vitiated by stagnant water, so that 
 the seeds of the future harvest were for the most part spoilt; 
 whence the scantiness and high price of provisions in the year 
 1 7 15. A loss of health consequently ensued. In the beginning 
 of the month of March, a large quantity of toads and frogs were 
 observed ; and in the middle of spring swarms of midges, worms, 
 snakes, flics, butterflies, locusts, and caterpillars, from which 
 many people predicted disease to mankind. Hitherto the month 
 of May had been intolerably hot; soon, however, the air was 
 misty and moist. June succeeded with great heat, which 
 
 originated many fevers Many attribute the cause of the 
 
 fevers to the wine, which, on account of the inclemency of the 
 season, had been made from unripe grapes, and had for that 
 reason produced impurities and excited fevers. Not a few 
 attributed the calamity to the effect of the unburicd bodies of 
 oxen killed by the plague in the preceding year, and also 
 from those buried. For, they said, particles, offensive aiul in- 
 jurious, came up through the pores of the earth from the corruj)t 
 carcases, and infected living bodies. Some thought that the in- 
 
 15
 
 226 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ternal cause of these fevers was viscid and tenacious humours, 
 hardly able to be separated ; but that the external cause was in 
 the impurity of the land from the copious showers and over- 
 flowing of the rivers, the whole country appearing flooded, 
 whence the herbage became noxious and injurious. From this 
 cause, also, diseases in animals, destruction to trees, and blight in 
 corn ensued; for nitro-sulphureous particles continually rose and 
 destroyed all growing fruits by burning them up.'^ 
 
 In Spain and Portugal a great drought prevailed, which 
 proved very destructive to the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 
 Kanold writes : ' I am informed that in Portugal, in consequence 
 of the long winter, which was very severe, and the continued 
 dry east wind, which lasted until the month of February, as well 
 as from the scarcity of water and grass, a large number of sheep 
 and lambs died. The drought was so great in the provinces of 
 Alemtejo and Algarve, in Spain, that not only the best springs 
 were dried up (a circumstance which had not occurred for many 
 years), but in many places in the same country, the water for 
 the daily necessities of men and cattle was sold by measure, so 
 that many villages in La Mancha were totally abandoned by 
 their inhabitants.^ ^ 
 
 The diseases of the lower animals were very prevalent in 
 every country, and more especially in those places where the 
 Cattle Plague had been allowed to spread by endeavouring to 
 treat it medicinally. The chief maladies, however, according 
 to Kanold, were due to the morbid constitution of the atmo- 
 sphere. In Silesia, for example, he describes a disease which 
 broke out there. ' The cattle suffered most from purging, but 
 they also at the same time slavered much, and a foul mucus 
 discharge from nose and eyes was noticed. Languor, loss 
 of appetite, emaciation, and loss of milk, were the usual symp- 
 toms. Pregnant cattle aborted, but not for some time; often 
 not for from eight to ten weeks, and those which did so died 
 of the disease. As a rule, death did not take place quickly, 
 but the animals lingered on frequently for several weeks. 
 Nevertheless, in consequence of the disease being contagious, 
 
 1 Ephem. Nat. Cur. loc. cit., p. 12. - Kanold. Jahreshistorie, p. 253.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 227 
 
 many died in a short time. On opening the dead bodies, the 
 stomach and other viscera were found diseased, mostly from 
 chronic corruption ; the heart was wasted, the kings full of 
 ulcers, and the omasum was loaded with matters as hard as a 
 stone ; the gall-bladder was a quarter of an ell long, and full of 
 bile; particularly, in all, the liver was observed to be full of 
 hydatids {egeln). Externally, however, it appeared healthy, 
 though internally it had many large cavities enclosed by callous 
 walls, and containing a clear yellow ichor; but in these were 
 no hydatids, they being only found in the substance of that 
 organ/ ^ 
 
 A disease amongst horses prevailed in many countries, 
 especially in Montferrat and Piedmont, in Italy; also in Sicily, 
 in the Morea, and in Pomerania.^ Many hogs died in the coun- 
 try around Cologne. In the same country, and also in the 
 meridional provinces of France, an epizooty of gastro-hron- 
 chitis (or ' distemper^) amongst dogs.^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague had been subdued in the North of Europe ; 
 it continued to rage, however, in Holland, in the north-east of 
 Germany, in some of the Swiss cantons, in Milan, Piedmont, 
 and Lucca, in Italy, and in some districts of France. 
 
 On the 24th of September, the volcano of Taal, in Manilla, 
 caused much devastation by an eruption. The waters of the 
 lake in which it stands were so impregnated with bituminous 
 matter, that all the fish died and were thrown on the shore, where 
 they gave out an insupportable odour for a long time.* 
 
 A.D. 1 7 16. The winter of this year was very severe through- 
 out Europe, and the summer was cold. During the winter the 
 Cattle Plague disappeared in Italy, and only the cold and some 
 less serious maladies caused losses in animals at Vercelli and in 
 the kingdom of Naples. In France, the bovine pest was dying 
 out ; but in Holland, Saxony, Thuringia, and in the whole of 
 Lower Germany — above all, in Westphalia, Hanover, and Bran- 
 denburg, it yet continued to do immense damage. 
 
 ' In England, in January, the Thames was frozen many miles, 
 
 > Kauold. Op. cit., p. 261. ■ Ibid. pp. 252, 25S. 
 
 •* Ibid. lireslauer Sainmlung, 17 19. 
 
 * Haussmann. Voyage en Chine, &c., vol. ii. p-,249.
 
 22 8 History of Ajiimal Plagues. 
 
 whole streets of booths were erected, coaches driven, sports and 
 diversions were used above the bridge. Thermometers lower 
 than on December 30, 1708. Spain suffered greatly by it. Wild 
 beasts, forced out of the wood, made strange ravage. Most 
 goldfinches, beside many other small birds, were killed by it.'^ 
 Rutty, of Dublin, writes : ' A general Rot among the sheep, as 
 I am well assured, did also prevail here, a.d, 17 16, after the 
 great frost of 1 7 15-16, and which, indeed, is said to have been 
 more universal than this (of 1752), for that destroyed the sheep 
 even upon the best lands.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1 71 7. This year was generally cold, especially in the 
 month of February. The spring was cold and damp, the summer 
 warm, with heavy rains, but the autumn was mild and agreeable. 
 An eruption of Vesuvius began in June and lasted until the next 
 year. In the Roman States an invasion of locusts did much 
 harm. Friesland was inundated, and half the province of Gro- 
 ningen destroyed, while all the Lower Elbe was under water. 
 Plague in mankind at Marseilles and in Aleppo. Ergotism very 
 prevalent, as well as epidemic jaundice. In Silesia, there was great 
 mortality amongst bees and carp, and in Hungary an epizooty 
 amongst geese and turkeys. ' From June to July, there appeared 
 a severe epizooty amongst turkeys and geese, of which a large 
 number died in a short time under the following circumstances. 
 For some days it was observed that they sat moping, without 
 any appetite, or inclination to eat, and at last became quite 
 giddy, staggered, and suddenly fell dead. In numbers of them 
 were discovered, under the feathers, suppurating tumours or 
 pustules, and dry scabbed eminences, and many believed that 
 this was a species of variola or small-pox, but how it originated 
 could not be discovered. Some thought it arose from the fact 
 of the dead diseased cattle having been improperly buried, and 
 that the geese, having eaten of the grass around their graves, 
 were consequently attacked by a similar disease in the throat. 
 To the same effect we hear from Prussia, and also Branden- 
 burg, that not only the herbage, but the ponds were poisoned 
 by a noxious mist or vapour, so that the surface of the water 
 
 1 T. Short. Op. cil., vol. ii. p. 18. 2 j^nf/y^ Qp. cit.
 
 Histo7'y of Anivial Plagues. 229 
 
 appeared quite blue; and before this poisonous clement could 
 be dissipated, foals, calves, and geese which drank of the water 
 were killed by it. Even the fish in these waters died, and were 
 cast upon the banks. Crows, magpies, and ravens, which had 
 fed upon the fish, were often found dead.' ^ 
 
 Kanold describes an epizooty which broke out among the 
 army horses in Finland and Ingermanland (Ingria), and de- 
 stroyed great numbers. From the fatigue and hardship to which 
 they had been exposed during the past year, it is probable that 
 the maladv was o-landers in an acute form.^ 
 
 In England ' the weather was clear and air healthy all 
 October, but a fatal month to oxen and swine.^ ^ 
 
 The Cattle Plasfue ceased its ravao;es in this vear as a general 
 epizooty, its cruel effects being only displayed here and there at 
 irregular intervals. It may be said to have terminated its devast- 
 ating career in Hungary, Prussia, Silesia,* and Bavaria.^ Lan- 
 zoni, writing from Ferrara, says: 'The gifts bestowed by Ceres, 
 Bacchus, and Pomona in this year were many, and there was 
 but little disease amongst men ; but this was not so to pigs and 
 cows, for Death's scythe was busy on them. Wherefore fear 
 took possession of the people in the provinces, lest the contagious 
 epidemy of the vear 17 13 should reappear in the bovine race, 
 and the very thoughts of such a visitation excited them to 
 tears.' " 
 
 A.D. 1718. A cold winter, but a hot summer, with great 
 drought. A comet was visible this vear. At Wismar, in the 
 grand-duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on the Baltic, a deadly 
 epidemic fever (enteritic) appeared, and at the same time an 
 epizooty of geese and fowls. Again Kanold describes it : 
 ' This spring the increase of the feathered tribe was very 
 great; but this good fortune was much hindered here and 
 there by a disease which appeared among the fowls and geese, 
 and which began chiefly in the month of June. It was a sick- 
 
 ' Breslauer Sammlung, vol. i. p. 50. 
 
 2 Kanold. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 43. ' T. Short. Op. cit., p. 20. 
 
 < Hoffmann. Consilium dc Lue Bourn. Ej. Cons. Mai. 1721. V(j1. i. i). 115. 
 
 * Kanold. Breslauer .Sammlung, vols. i. p. 46 ; iii. pp. 535> 799- 
 
 ' Ephcm. Nat. Cur., cent. vii. and viii. Ajjpendix, p. 20.
 
 230 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ness having, for a prominent symptom, a swelling of the head. 
 This occurred principally in young fowls. When so affected 
 they made a noise something like a thrush, and were so blinded 
 that they could not find their way to their food. They then 
 became emaciated and died; so that large numbers perished. 
 Geese, and especially the goslings, were most affected, and from 
 this month until September, frequently died in large numbers. 
 The principal symptoms of the disease consisted in the geese 
 becoming weary and languid, their feathers stood on end, and 
 they became poor, so that they seemed to stand on longer legs. 
 The crop swelled, though empty, — because nothing was eaten, 
 and they sank through debility. This malady did not affect 
 the ducks; at least not so much as the geese.^^ This would 
 appear to have been an anthracoid affection. 
 
 The same epizooty broke out in Silesia, ai>d in the autumn 
 nearly all animals were affected, pigeons, even, having symptoms 
 of a variolous disease. Horses seem particularly to have suffered. 
 * The horse disease {pferd-staupe) raged in Militschischen 
 (Silesia) . At Zessel there is scarcely a horse that is not affected. 
 At Grossberschiitz several horses have already died. This malady 
 consists in a disease of the tongue, which becomes ulcerated or 
 eaten away, so that the animals cannot eat. A good remedy 
 for this disease consisted in washing the tongue assiduously with 
 sage and rue boiled in vinegar, (Evidently glossanthrax.) 
 
 ^The sheep, in many places, already in this month began to 
 cough badly. From Trebnitzschen we hear that the swine in 
 the oak forests had, in the end of October, a special malady, from 
 which they frequently died. The acorns, which were generally 
 very maggoty, and a tenth part of which were worth nothing, 
 had received the blame for the production of this mortality. 
 From Medziborschen we also hear, that, from July, a disease 
 appeared among the swine there. Its symptoms were a tumour 
 on the throat, which threatened suffocation. When the tumours 
 were cut into in time, many were saved. To this we may 
 add, that, in October, the pigeons were seriously affected with 
 symptoms of small-pox [hlattern].'^ 
 
 ^ Kanold. Breslauer Sammlung, vol. iv. p. 11 75. 
 ^ Breslauer Sammlung, vol. vi. p. 171 1.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 231 
 
 A.D. 1 7 19. This year an aurora borealis was observed, which 
 was calculated to be no more than thirty-eight miles from the 
 earth. An epizooty of variola ovina in the Venetian States/ as well 
 as in Bohemia. In the latter country it is thus announced : 
 ' In Reichstadtj there has appeared for the last two months, a 
 disease resembling the small-pox of sheep {scliafblattern). In 
 Brzesniowitz, the geese suffered from a disease. The livers and 
 gall-bladders became so enlarged that at last they were ruptured, 
 and the creatures died. The skin of the body was yellow. In 
 addition to this, we may relate that a plague among certain 
 vermin has been noticed at Zurich ; the wasps and lizards 
 (salamanders) died in large numbers.' ^ 
 
 A great mortality prevailed among the silkworms in Italy.' 
 
 Dogs were attacked with rabies in different countries, par- 
 ticularly in Silesia and France, from this time until 1721.'' 
 
 A.D. 1720. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are mentioned 
 in this year. A deadly epidemy raged in various parts of France, 
 but especially in Provence, and killed an immense number of 
 people. Miliary fever prevailed in the Lower Seine. From 1719 
 to 1721, strange irruptions of mice are recorded. Especially was 
 this remarkable event observed in Transylvania, and it is thus 
 described : ' In the midst of so many phases of the Transylvanian 
 epidemy, and after the memorable drought of 1719 had burnt 
 up the earth with heat mildew rendered the crops use- 
 less, and an incredible number of mice appeared. The troubled 
 people beheld them coming from the east, and successively occu- 
 pying the country, one swarm after another. There was much 
 difference in their size and colour ; most of them were like the 
 domestic mouse, some of them resembled moles or the lesser cat- 
 kind {catorum mitiorum) ; and which you would say equalled in 
 size the alpestres mures. From the month of May until late in 
 the autumn, they spread through almost the whole province to- 
 wards the west, perforating the earth on all sides witii contigu- 
 ous holes like those of a sieve. At first they ate only the tender 
 grass, then the green corn, and lastly they consumed the grain. 
 Strange to relate, towards the close of the autumn, and as it in- 
 
 ' Bollaiii. Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 134. " l?rcslauer Samml., vol. x. p. 4G0. 
 
 ■* Ibid. vol. viii. p. 680. ' IVirth. Op. cit., p. 236.
 
 232, History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 dowed with a providential care, having excavated a wonderful 
 series of subterranean passages in their own style of natural 
 architecture^ they stored up not only good corn as provision for 
 the future, but also choice berries, grapes, and whatever else 
 served as human food. They carried and collected all these into 
 distinct conjpartments with admirable perseverance. Whether, 
 however, it was owinsf to the damage done to the corn and the 
 vines, or to the effects of the impoverished herbage, or, on the 
 other hand, to the presence of some hidden infection, there was 
 something obviously hostile not only to the breeding of cattle, 
 but also here and there to pregnant mares, which aborted. 
 Whilst it was hoped that the frosts of winter, and the snow and 
 floods, would suffocate and destroy these mice, their presence 
 hindered the anxious peasant from sowing new seed. It was 
 also fondly believed that as an east wind had brought them, so a 
 wind from an opposite quarter would drive them away. When, 
 however, an irregular winter, with unusual tempests, set in, and 
 this was followed by a very late and cold spring, these multitudes 
 of mice withdrew themselves into the towns ; so that there was 
 no work done by the inhabitants, who were banished from their 
 dwellings by their ungrateful guests. Things had arrived at 
 this pass, when there appeared, by a wonderful interposition of 
 nature, a great army of weasels, by which these mice were all 
 slain in an incredibly short space of time, and their dead bodies 
 lay heaped up in the fields.^ ^ 
 
 At the same time, an epizooty of glossanthrax in horses 
 and cattle seems to have been very severe in Poland, Prussia, 
 and Courland.^ Small-pox of sheep in Saxony.^ Scheuchzer, 
 speaking of the plague in man in Provence, writes : ' We are 
 further to notice the hot summers of 1718-19, which brought 
 the grapes and other fruits in Helvetia to such perfection before 
 the usual time, and, moreover, that the summer of 17 18 caused 
 in October and November a variety of rheumatic fevers and pleu- 
 risies, as well as diarrhoeas and dysenteries. In June and July, 
 the destructive contagion among cattle raged in Piindten and 
 
 1 Sa?7i. Koliser. Ephem. Nat. Curios., cent. ix. x. 
 
 * Fischer. Liefland. Landwirthschaftsb., p. 410. 
 
 ' Breslauer Samml., vol. xiii. p. 622.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 233 
 
 the territory of Sax. Then came the very mild winter in 1718-19, 
 and an irregular spring, in which the vegetation was now acceler- 
 ated, now retarded, as the damp increased or diminished; and 
 thereupon came to us all kinds of fevers, small-pox eruptions, 
 dysentery, rebellious coughs, and diseases of a gouty character. 
 In March, affections of the lungs; in April, fevers and small-pox; 
 in Mav, tertiary fevers; in August, eruptive fevers on the skin, 
 as if one had used cupping glasses; and dysentery. The cattle 
 disease in Piindten, Servia, Wallachia, Bulgaria. The following 
 winter was again mild. In January, lung diseases, fluxes, and 
 affections of the limbs ; in February, dangerous small-pox among 
 children; in March, violent fevers, and inflammation of the 
 throat; in April, agues, ophthalmia, and spasmodic diseases. 
 In May and June, when the epidemy in Marseilles broke out, 
 tertiary duplices reigned. In September, all along the Rhine 
 there were extraordinary, and, in some cases, very bad fevers. 
 The whole summer was more than usually wet; so that it was 
 no wonder that people became weak and relaxed. We might 
 add to these causes the influence of several meteors, and may 
 draw special attention to a large fiery ball or comet, which 
 stood about 14 German miles above the earth, and was seen on 
 the 22nd February, 1719, at seven o'clock in the evening, be- 
 tween Corfu and England, by nearly the whole of Europe. This 
 possibly diffused sulphureous and poisonous gases into our at- 
 mosphere. We could ourselves detect the presence of a noisome 
 exhalation of this kind, of various luminosities, and other phe- 
 nomena seen in our own country at that time. We must 
 assuredly not forget to mention that swarm of locusts which 
 devastated Provence and Languedoc in 1719.^ ^ 
 
 An epidemy in Peru. It commenced in 1719, at Buenos 
 Ayres, and extended to Central Peru. It appears to have been 
 a very deadly form of typhus, and was said to be highly contagi- 
 ous ; the lower animals were affected. ' It was observed that the 
 greater number of the llamas and donkeys employed in carrymg 
 the dead bodies to their graves were affected with the emission ol 
 blood from their mouths.' This disease, whidi was designated 
 
 ' /. /. Scheuchzer. Beschrcibung dcr rrovcncalischcn von A (Astruc). 
 
 Zurich, 1721.
 
 234 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 by some a '^ malignant catarrh/ only lasted a month. It was 
 preceded by an earthquake and an eclipse of the sun.^ 
 
 A.D. 1721. The winter mild, but the spring-time cold and 
 damp, and the remainder of the year wet. Locusts in France 
 and the whole of Italy. Epidemic ergotism in Silesia during this 
 and the next year, and scarlatina in man at St Petersburg, Cour- 
 land, and Lithuania. So notorious was it that diseased grain pro- 
 duced formidable diseases in the lower animals, that while the 
 epidemy continued at Silesia, the King of Prussia issued an edict 
 forbidding the use of rye tainted by the ergot, because it seriously 
 effected horses and pigs} A curious circumstance noted at this 
 
 ^ Transactions of the Epidemiological Soc, vol. ii. 
 
 - Hecker. The uncertainty pertaining to the nature of the epizootics of the Mid- 
 dle Ages, leaves us in doubt as to whether some of them might not belong to that 
 class which have a common origin with many of the epidemics of mankind. The 
 ignis sacer, ay-sura, clades sen pestis ig>iiaria, ignis Sancti Antoiii, Saiidi RIai-tialis, 
 BeatcB Virginis, ignis invisibilis, scu i>ifernalis, &c., would all seem to be employed 
 to denote the same affection, and which we have reason to believe was ergotism. It 
 is only by chance, as it were, that wide-spread and fatal diseases among the lower 
 animals are mentioned as occurring coincidently with these obscurely-named epi- 
 demics, and when we read that the causes of their outbreak were unfavourable 
 weather, which brought about a diseased condition of the crops and pastures, we 
 are only partially enlightened as to the nature of the affection. 
 
 The scorbutus of the 15 th and 1 6th centuries has been supposed, with much reason, 
 I think, to have been ergotism, and up to this period it appears to have been de- 
 veloped in a gangrenous form. At this time, however, it changed to the con- 
 vulsive type, which it has chiefly maintained to the present. A curious feature in 
 this disease is shown as it appears in the South and North of Europe. In the 
 South, the gangrenous form is the rule ; in the North, the convulsive form is par- 
 ticularly marked, and very rarely the dry gangrene ; while a few of the epidemics 
 present both characters. The same peculiarity is observable in the phenomena of 
 ergotism in the lower animals during the existence of an epidemy, and it has also 
 been shown to exist by experimentation ; the only exception would appear to be in 
 the case of gallinaceous birds, in which gangrene of the crest or comb is the most 
 constant phenomenon. It is not until the 17th and i8th centuries, that we can with 
 certainty find authors describing ergotism in the epizootic form in animals, and 
 from that time till now observers have been numerous. 
 
 It may be mentioned, however, that Traube, who has described the epidemy 
 of 1770, in Hesse and Hanover, declares that no ergotism existed amongst the lower 
 animals, with the exception of a pig, which he saw affected with symptomatic convul- 
 sions. Horses ate the diseased rye with impunity, and cattle fed on the rye flour with- 
 out inconvenience, tliough not without repugnance. Dogs and sheep, also, escaped 
 save in the little village of Lohe, where seven of the latter died in convulsions. 
 These creatures had pastured in a rye-field after a'harvest made in.very dry weather, 
 when much grain was shaken out of the ear. He did not discover a single instance 
 of abortion ; but in the following spring, the people in the villages where the dis-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 235 
 
 time, is the noise made by the storks in Silesia. ' On the 23rd 
 of April came the storks in a large swarm from south to north 
 over the city of Brcslau ; this the superstitious considered as 
 an omen, and prophesied the arrival of strange people. From 
 Luzin it was said the storks at this time had thrown everybody 
 into astonishment, for in April, after their arrival, large numbers 
 of them mioht be seen in rows tooether, so that at a distance 
 they were taken for a crowd of people; some estimated these 
 groups at 400, and noticed that they formed a circle and pecked 
 themselves. From Rawicz : On the 12th April came a large 
 number of storks in the morning, flying very high .... From 
 Luzin they write in May, that there was much talk of the storks, 
 in consequence of their pecking themselves so constantly, and 
 when they lay eggs, they afterwards break them and go away, but 
 come occasionally back again, and bite themselves very much.' ^ 
 
 In the same year, and the same country, rabies in the dog 
 seems to have been wonderfully frequent.^ 
 
 Another strange phenomenon was the generally laborious 
 parturitions of the domestic animals at this period : ' the sheep 
 in many places lambed with great difficulty, so that the shep- 
 herds were obliged to use force to deliver them.' ' Among the 
 cattle one hears of nothing particular beyond the fact that the 
 breeding cows and ewes brought forth their young with great 
 difficulty, so that force was obliged to be used to assist them. 
 At Strelitz three fine young cows died from this laborious parturi- 
 tion. They strained so violently that all their internal organs were 
 protruded. Such cows, however, might be saved, were these organs 
 bathed with warm water, gently returned, the labia of the vagina 
 sewn together, and the animals slung up with their hind quarters 
 elevated. This procedure is always necessary when such accidents 
 
 ease had been most prevalent, complained of the scarcity of chickens, the hens lay- 
 ing but little and not hatching. Nothing like this occurred in the localities where 
 there had been no ergotism. Two fowls were sent to him presenting spasmodic 
 symptoms; when placed on their feet they fell on their sides, struggled with their 
 limbs, and tlieir heads hung helplessly down. When they sjiasmodically struggled 
 to get up, their phalanges were violently contracted. TJiey di(.-d in about four 
 weeks, and with severe spasmodic attacks. — Geschichte der Kriebelkrankheit, 1 7S2, 
 
 PP- 13. '5- 
 
 1 Breslauer Samml., vol. xvi. p. 436, 556. ''■ Ibid. vol. xv. p. 166.
 
 1^6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 occur.' ^ Cattle Plague was very destructive in Schonen, 
 Sweden, in this and the followino; year.^ 
 
 A.D. 1722. Plague in man at Vienna^ Hungary, and in the 
 East. Dysentery in Upper Saxony, and epidemic pestilence at 
 Granada. In the Venetian States, a singular epizooty appeared. 
 'In the year 1722, a thanksgiving was offered in the church of 
 San Belli^o — a commune now united to the district of Len- 
 dinara, in the province of Rovigo — because of an unknown 
 epizootic disease which attacked every sort of quadruped, but 
 especially cattle and sheep. It manifested itself in the animals 
 by making them jump, and by rigors all over the body.'' 
 
 There was a great destruction amongst the fishes in the lake 
 of Constance, caused, it is conjectured, by the excessively high 
 temperature in the month of March, and subsequent extreme 
 cold in April. When the dead bodies were examined, it was 
 found that the swimming or air-bladders were extremely dis- 
 tended, and that reddish pustules were formed on all the viscera.* 
 
 Canine rabies was frequent in Silesia and Hungary, and 
 many geese died.^ 
 
 A.D. 1723-4. The winter of 1723 was cold, the summer 
 damp. The year 1724 was hot, and fruits and wine were 
 abundant. In Iceland, there were volcanic eruptions which lasted 
 till 1730. Earthquake at Lisbon. Palermo nearly destroyed 
 by an earthquake. Yellow fever in mankind in Spain and Lis- 
 bon. Miliary fever at Frankfort on the Maine. The pestilence 
 in Spain was attributed to the use of fruit and snow water. 
 Epidemic catarrh amongst children in the principality of the 
 Asturias. In 1724, a deadly epizooty of ovine small-pox in the 
 Venetian States, lasting from August to December.^ 
 
 In this year, M. Astruc, when treating on the plague in man, 
 casually mentions the prevalence of sheep small-pox in France, 
 and declares that not only is the disease highly contagious when 
 propagated from sheep to sheep, but that it can be transmitted 
 to other animals. He cites as a fact, that wild rabbits, coming 
 to eat the herbage on the pastures of infected flocks during the 
 
 1 Bresl. Samml., vol. xv. pp. 163, 262. "^ Ileitsinger. Op. cit., p. 202. 
 
 3 Bottani. Op. cit., vol. v. p. 94. * Didier. Traite de la Peste, p. 540. 
 
 5 Breslauer Samml., vol. xxii. p. 646. ^ Bottani. Op. cit., vol. v. p. 137.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 237 
 
 night, are seized with the disease, and whole warrens were thus 
 destroyed. These diseased rabbits, he says, were often the cause 
 of the infection being carried to other flocks, by their frequent- 
 ing the pastures of the healthy sheep after they had been on 
 those of the tainted. The shepherds of Languedoc, but espe- 
 cially those of Cevennes, were so well aware of this, that they 
 took every precaution against the entrance of these creatures to 
 their grazing grounds. Ferrets and firearms were employed to 
 destroy them, and the herbage on which these creatures or dis- 
 eased sheep had been grazing, was burnt; the pens were purified, 
 and the healthy flocks were sent to pasture elsewhere. M. Astruc 
 adds to the symptoms already known, those of debility, drowsi- 
 ness, and sometimes vertigo, diarrhoea, and dysentery ; smallness 
 of the pulse, and subsequent eruption of pustules of different 
 forms. These observations were made in Languedoc, where the 
 disease is not unfrequent, notwithstanding the natural salubrity 
 of this province of France, and the favourable qualities of the 
 w^ater and herbage. It was a constant and familiar observation, 
 though no cause could be assigned for the outbreak of the dis- 
 ease, and which was patent to all who had charge of sheep, that 
 when an infected flock had been in a pasture, those flocks which 
 succeeded them became affected. This was more particularly 
 noticed at Cevennes. In the mountainous part of this Canton 
 there were some excellent pastures, where all the flocks of the 
 neighbourhood met. In travelling to this locality, the shepherds 
 were particularly attentive to everything that transpired, and if 
 they became aware that an infected flock had passed before them^ 
 they immediately stopped and remained where they were until 
 the next day. Their object in doing this was founded on the 
 belief, that it was necessary to allow one night to elapse, in order 
 that the cold, combined with the dew that fell, might destroy the 
 pestilential particles which were capable of comnuniicating the 
 malady. Such was the general opinion in this part of the coun- 
 try at this time.^ 
 
 Sheep died in immense numbers from 1723 to 1724, from the 
 disease termed ' rot,' in Silesia, Poland, and Prussia. The Cattle 
 
 ' Af. Aslrtic. Dissertation sur la Contagion de la rcstc, chap. vi. Tou- 
 louse, 1724.
 
 2,38 History of Anbnal Plagtces. 
 
 Plague, which had never been quite extinguished on the Polish 
 frontiers, made great havoc, in 1734, in Thuringia, Saxony, and 
 Magdeburg. At Karaschtz, in Silesia, there was an extraor- 
 dinary disease amongst mice. 'In the month of" April appeared 
 an epizooty among mice, which caused them to issue from their 
 holes and recesses in great numbers, and to seek the society of 
 mankind. They came forth staggering, and soon swelled up and 
 died ; so that they were found lying in heaps on the granary floors 
 and in chambers, and as neither cats nor pigs would eat them, they 
 were obliged to be buried.-' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1725. Exceedingly wet and damp, and the following 
 winter cold and long. 'Was a year of blight, the like of which 
 has never before been heard of in Eng-land.^ ^ Malignant fevers 
 prevailed in mankind all over Europe and America. Inocula- 
 tion was practised on criminals as an experiment. Moles were 
 observed to be curiously frequent in man.^ The rabies of dogs 
 still continued in Silesia, and it was also discovered to affect 
 wolves. An observer of this fact says, ' The principal reason for 
 this appears to be in the atmosphere and the weather, as well 
 as in the constitution of the animal. Such madness seems to 
 be quite common in some other places.' * 
 
 An exceedingly violent form of ' grease ' in horses [impetigo 
 erysipelatodes) broke out at Ratisbon, and involved the structures 
 of the feet, as well as the skin, in putridity. ' This disease, w^ithin 
 two months, attacked more than four hundred horses. The first 
 symptoms were tubercles in the pasterns, which in a few days 
 suppurated, and after a time large pieces sloughed out; so that 
 the poor horses were much harassed, and many could not lie 
 down for fourteen days. It was pitiable to see them try to walk 
 from one side of the stable to the other : they stood full of fever 
 and pain, ate little, fell off in flesh; the hind feet were generally 
 swollen, seemed corroded, and stank abominably. From the 
 fore feet whole pieces usually fell out, and the wounds remaining 
 healed but slowly/ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1726. An exceedingly dry and hot year. Honey-dew and 
 
 1 Breslauer Samml., vol. xxviii. p. 398. ^ FulTs Husbandry. 
 
 ^ Breslauer Samml., vol. xxxiii. p. 90. * Ibid. vol. xxxiv. p. 635. 
 
 ^ Ibid. vol. xxxi. p. 261.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 239 
 
 rust were very abundant on the crops and forage, and this has 
 been regarded as the cause of the ffreat mortahty amonsxst cattle 
 
 o eye 
 
 which was observed during the summer, especially in June and 
 July, in Poland, Silesia, and Saxony. Indeed, the whole of Ger- 
 many seems to have been ravaged by this disease, which, from 
 the accounts of various authors, was carbuncular fever. Not 
 only did cattle suffer, but the deer tribe also died in numbers, and 
 fish perished in the ponds and lakes.^ 
 
 In Silesia and Lusatia, complaints continued to be made of 
 madness in dogs." Sheep small-pox very destructive in Eichsfeld 
 and Thuringia.'' Wirth says : ' In the winter of 1726-27, epi- 
 zootic pleuro-pneumonia (bovine) spread everywhere in Switzer- 
 land, and to the neighbouring countries/* An epizocity amongst 
 fowls in Courland. The description Is imperfect. 'An unfore- 
 seen epizooty broke out amongst fowls, so that they wasted away 
 in flesh, would not eat, and when their feathers were parted, their 
 bodies were found to be covered with lice. At last an uncom- 
 mon crrowth or carcinoma appeared between the legs near the 
 anus In this manner a vast number of fowls dicd.^ 
 
 A. D. 1727-28. Ruttywrites : ' In November, in Staffordshire 
 and Shropshire, their horses were suddenly seized with cough 
 and weakness, disabling them from labour.' 'The spring vari- 
 able; summer variable, inclined to fair and dry; autumn wet; 
 winter mild and open. In December, both in Dublin and the 
 remote parts of the kingdom, the horses were seized with a 
 cough and shortness of breath, and sometimes sore-throat; 
 some bled at the nose. A large discharge of thick phlegm 
 from the nose, long continuing, was salutiferous. Some died 
 in the streets, partly through the carelessness of their masters 
 exercising them abroad, even during this disorder, partly through 
 neglect of bleeding and purging, and partly from improper medi- 
 cines. December 25th. The horses growing better ; coughing 
 and sore-throat seized mankind in Dublin.'" 
 
 A.D. 1729. From 1727 till this year, the weather was remark- 
 
 ' Brcslauer Sammlung, vol. xxxvi. p. 690 ; xxxvii. p. 54. 
 2 Ibid. vol. XXXV. pp. 56,«I77, 325. •' Ibid. vol. xxxvii. p. 57. 
 
 * IVirih. Op. cit., p. 298. * Brcslauer Samml, vol. xxxvi. p. 556. 
 
 9 Rutty. Op. cit.
 
 240 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 able for great humidity throughout Europe, especially in the spring- 
 time. In Italy it was particularly wet from September, 1728, till 
 May, 1729, and the wine in the casks, it was remarked, began to 
 ferment a second time and changed colour. Much injury done 
 by the frost in Scotland, multitudes of cattle being buried in the 
 snow.^ About this time an epidemic catarrhal fever was spread- 
 ing, and which travelled through Europe from east to west.^ It 
 was what is known in our day as '■ influenza,' and was epidemic in 
 Spain, where it was named by Pedro de Rotundis, ^un catarro 
 sufocativo.^ It must be remembered that Rutty says the 
 epidemy was in Britain in December, 1728, and that horses 
 had coughs and colds some months previously. In this year, 
 its symptoms and progress were noted by Leow, who gives 
 us a description of the diseases prevalent amongst the lower 
 animals at the same time. ' . . . . but also on account of 
 this pestilence, which spread among the herds in all directions, 
 in Italy, the Palatinate, Austria, Pannonia, Wallachia, Podolia, 
 Volhynia, and Poland, innumerable putrid miasmata were dif- 
 fused through the air, and thereby infected these and other 
 places with the contagion. For although some asserted, and 
 hence maintained, that unless they arrived at the source of 
 the contagion on its first appearance, yet it was only plain, on 
 the other hand, that a pestilence of horses must pass to horses, 
 that of cows to cows, and of swine to the whole race of swine 
 .... and in our time, the plague of herds, as in Hungary and 
 Austria, in the months of October and November, 1729 (the influ- 
 enza months), became a catarrhal fev^er, beginning with a disorder 
 of the head, and within four days, either haemorrhage from the 
 nostrils or per alvum would set in, and terminate in stercoraceous 
 vomiting. At the same time, a disease of a purulent nature, fol- 
 lowed by gangrene, showed itself in wild boars. Nor is there 
 any reason to doubt that the contagion lingered in mankind 
 through famine.'^ It was believed that the flesh of the diseased 
 swine had conveyed the malady to the human species, and that 
 the emanations from their bodies still further tended to spread 
 the disorder. The epizooty among the herds in the above-men- 
 
 ' Philosophical Magazine, 1820. ^ Gluge. Influenza, p. 73. 
 
 3 F. Leow. Historia Febris Catarrhalis, 1729.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 241 
 
 tioned places destroyed immense numbers. Hahn speaks of a 
 contemporaneous epizooty, when describing the influenza.^ 
 Wirth says the disease amongst the cattle was Rinderpest; no 
 doubt a correct opinion. - 
 
 A.D. 1730, A very wet year, so that the Thames inundated 
 Westminster, Eruptions of Vesuvius, volcaniceruptions in Iceland 
 and the Canary Islands, and an earthquake which nearly destroyed 
 the whole of Chili. In Lancerote, one of the Canary Islands, 
 the atmosphere, according to Von Buch, was so tainted by de- 
 leterious emanations during a volcanic eruption, that all the 
 cattle were killed. ' Dead fish floated on the waters in indescrib- 
 able multitudes, or were thrown dying on the shore. The cattle 
 throughout the country fell lifeless to the ground, suffocated by 
 putrid vapours, which condensed and fell down in drops/ ^ A 
 formidable epidemic disease commenced at Cadiz, named the 
 black vomit {^ el vom'ito negro'); it was supposed to have been 
 brought thence from South America, and extending over the con- 
 tinent, continued its ravages until 1738, when a murderous dy- 
 sentery invaded the coast of Malaga and Seville, and, indeed, all 
 the sea-board of Andalusia. During the prevalence of this pes- 
 tilence animals were first affected, especially those that were 
 domesticated ; birds which fed on grains also suffered severely, 
 such as poultry, pigeons, &c. Numerous insects, called by the 
 Spaniards ' largostus,^ were generated previous to the breaking 
 out of this epidemic disease.* 
 
 During the years 1726-7, the Cattle Plague still prevailed 
 in Russia, Livonia, and Courland. In the year 1728, it con- 
 trived to extend itself beyond these countries by being in- 
 troduced into the March of Brandenburg;^ and in 1729 it was 
 spread over that country and Austria," where it continued until 
 1730, when it appeared in Saxony.'' In Frankfort-on-the-Odcr, 
 it was observed and described; and in this year, also, it was 
 
 * Hahn. Buechner, Miscell. 1729, p. 765. ^ Wirth. Op. cit., p. 1S4. 
 ' Sir C. Lyell. Principles of Geolot^y, p. 437. 
 
 * Dr Bascome. A History of Epidemic Pestilences. London, 1851. 
 ' Loritiser. Rinderpest, p. 18. 
 
 ' Gohl. Von den in der Mittclmark, 1729-31, grassirenden Vicliscuclien. 
 Leipsic, 1741. 
 
 '' Bonier. Inst. Medic. Legalis, p. 124. 
 
 16
 
 2,42 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 pursuing its truly desolating; course over Istria, Friuli, and the 
 Venetian States.^ This is undoubtedly the disease mentioned by 
 Leow for the last vear. 
 
 The most notable authorities who have treated of this inva- 
 sion are the two physicians, Andrea Goelicke ^ and Jean Bruck- 
 ner/ who studied it at Frankfort. In the preface to the work 
 of the first of these celebrities, its previous inroad is alluded 
 to ; after which he gives the following account of the plague : 
 On the 38th September, 1730, two diseased animals were opened, 
 one just slain, and the other recently dead ; and on the 7th 
 December, he opened two other large-sized beasts, one that had 
 been ill for some days from the malady, and was killed, and 
 another that had died. From the examination of these cases, it 
 was ascertained that the disease was localized in the intestines, 
 which were found black and sphacelous. Other people had as- 
 sured the writer, that instead of bile in the intestines, they con- 
 tained bloodv matters. 
 
 In the cow that was killed, black blood flowed from the 
 wound. A large quantity of yellow serosity was found in the cavity 
 of the abdomen, and but little alteration was noted in some of 
 the viscera ; the gall-bladder was three or four times its natural 
 size, and filled with a green bile of a most disgusting odour. The 
 small intestines were slightly inflamed, and the lining membrane 
 covered with this bile; the reticulum (?) contained much food, 
 which looked as if baked. On the tongue were observed many 
 pustules containing an ichorous and fetid humour. The stench 
 was insupportable, and almost forbade an examination. 
 
 In an ox which had died of the malady, the small intestines 
 were gangrenous; they contained a quantity of a substance simi- 
 lar to hog-wash or broken-up flesh. With the exception of a 
 little softness, perhaps, the other viscera were healthy; though the 
 gall-bladder was of great size, full of yellow bile, and there was a 
 great quantity of disagreeable matters around the mouth and the 
 nostrils. According to the accounts of those who took care of 
 
 1 Bottani. Op. cit.^ p. 147. 
 
 ^ A. O. Goelicke. Med. de Lue Contagiosa Bovilium genus depopulante. 
 Francof. 1730. 
 
 ^ Haller. Dissertations, vol. v. p. 713.
 
 History of Aniinal Plagues. 243 
 
 the animals, the disease began by a general horripilation and 
 diilness, with low hanging head and drooping ears, succeeded by 
 a corresponding febrile heat. Thirst was very great; the excre- 
 ments of the two first days were hard, but on the third day a 
 violent diarrhoea set in, which was so intense, that at each step 
 the animal expelled matters similar to the washings of flesh, and 
 everything extruded in this way had a most fetid odour; so fetid, 
 indeed, that healthy animals testified by their bellowings how 
 disagreeable thev were. The eyes became inflamed and nearly 
 closed ; the mouth and nostrils exhaled a repulsive smell ; the 
 tongue began to be excoriated, and rumination was entirely sus- 
 pended. Some breathed as if in pain ; others were tranquil, 
 though the respirations were quickened ; all had the flanks 
 drawn upwards ; deglutition was nearly impossible. Some died 
 on the fourth day; others survived till the seventh day. Milch- 
 cows yielded no milk, and those which were in calf aborted. The 
 young cattle, the bulls, and all fat stock were more quickly af- 
 fected by the contagion, and died more rapidly than the lean, the 
 old, or the hard-worked beasts. The cows which aborted for the 
 most part escaped ; a circumstance which induced the cow-- 
 leeches to give medicines to produce this effect, and thus to save 
 these creatures. The belief was a fixed one, that the disease was 
 propagated by the cattle of other countries. Reviewing the dif- 
 ferent descriptions given by Lanzoni, Lancisi, and Ramazzini, 
 the Doctor then passes on to his own observations. 
 
 Going over all the phenomena which had been noticed, they 
 are attempted to be analyzed and explained ; and from them is 
 deduced the proof, that the disease is due to a miasma of a most 
 subtle and contagious nature, which penetrates by the nose and 
 the mouth, and is spread all over the body with the speed of 
 lightning. The blood, it was remarked, had a lesser tendency 
 to remain fluid than to coagulate ; and cattle when diseased and 
 killed by the butcher, bled very little; thus was the blood in the 
 same condition as in malignant fevers. Reasons are given for 
 naming the disease 'a fever, of a malignant and inflammatory 
 kind,^ after the example of Ramazzini. This fever is most acute, 
 and animals promptly die; some were even noticed to perish sud- 
 denly, as if struck by a thunder-bolt.
 
 2,44 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 It was wonderfully contagious, and did not exercise its ravages 
 all at once, but successively, invading kingdom after kingdom. 
 
 It was transmitted in different ways; sometimes one ox gave 
 it to another; at other times the clothes of men carried the pesti- 
 lential miasma; and if healthy animals breathed the odour from 
 the fetid dejections of those which were diseased, they became 
 affected. Those people who kept their cattle shut up and per- 
 fectly isolated, preserved them from the contagion. The proofs 
 were convincing that this ferment or contagion altered, in a re- 
 markably brief space of time, the solids and fluids to such a 
 degree that they became a mass of corruption. 
 
 It was useless labour to attempt to discover the cause of the 
 malady in the malignity of the stars, the corruption of the air, 
 inundations, wars, or other similar calamities. It is asked what 
 kind of malady the stars were likely to produce, and why man- 
 kind, who lived under the same unpropitious influences, escaped 
 with no damaire. Ramazzini lauo;hed at these absurdities, and 
 with reason ; for having in his youth read the essays of Pic and 
 Mirandole, exposing the astrologers, he never afterwards troubled 
 himself to form his opinions on their studies. Those who main- 
 tained that this disease was due to other sources, had a difficult 
 problem to resolve ; and it was not easy to reconcile the different 
 phenomena observed, with the causes assigned by the majority of 
 the physiologists. For example, how was it that the malignity 
 of the air and unhealthy pastures only afiected the bovine species, 
 and spared all the other animals living under the same sky 
 breathing the same air, and living in the same pastures ? Or 
 how did an unhealthy dew, which affected immense pasturages, 
 only give the plague to one ox, which communicated it to all 
 the others it came in contact with ? Solve, who can, these ques- 
 tions ! These so-named causes being known, we cannot hazard a 
 doubt but that they will produce general diseases amongst many 
 kinds of animals. And it has been sufficiently proved already that 
 this disease of cattle came by contagion. In the face of all the 
 various hyjjotheses, there was the positive fact of the existence of 
 a miasm or contagious ferment, which was capable of corrupting 
 the humours, and of giving rise to the same malady in other 
 cattle by communication. Those who attributed it to a para-
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 245 
 
 side corruption of the blood, only sought to revive the absurd 
 hypothesis of Kircher, which had been for a long time abolished. 
 At all times the disease was exhibited with but little variation of 
 symptoms, and it was indeed a real pest of cattle. With regard 
 to treatment, the most celebrated physicians who have thoroughly 
 known the nature of the disease, have freely confessed that to 
 this day there is no specific or certain means of cure. God only 
 knows, and we have too often seen, that numberless hurtful 
 modes of treatment have been resorted to. Add to this, that the 
 method employed for diminishing or driving away the disease is 
 entirely empirical, and founded on no sound indication; although 
 common sense demands for the cure of animals, as well as for 
 man, that the principles of medicine shall be equally followed 
 out. But all the difficulties experienced in human medicine are 
 greatly augmented by the difference in organization of ruminant 
 animals, when compared with that of man, or even of other crea- 
 tures. Although these difficulties appear very great, yet it is to 
 be hoped that a system of treatment may be established on a 
 more certain and a more reasonable basis, than that pursued 
 by the empirics. 
 
 The symptoms observed show that the animals take the dis- 
 ease by the mouth and the nostrils, and very rarely by the skin. 
 For these reasons, two great indications must be followed out. 
 The first is, that the pestilential poison admitted into the mass 
 of the humours ought to be thrown out as speedily as possible. The 
 second is, that it ought to be expelled with the greatest prompti- 
 tude by the salivary glands before it has had time to commit 
 great ravages. In the first case, benzoic and alexipharmic reme- 
 dies should be employed ; and in the second, medicines which 
 induce salivation. Much has been said for and against bleeding. 
 Ilamazzini, in condemning it as dangerous in all epidemics, yet 
 believes it useful and salutary in this epizooty of cattle, for the 
 reason that, as at present, he recognized the inflammatory nature 
 of the disease, inasmuch as the poison is one of those which have 
 power to coagulate the mass of the blood. Bleeding, however, 
 is not sanctioned by experience; and it is wiser to agree with 
 Lancisi, who regarded it as a very dangerous mode of cure. 
 
 The disease is accompanied very often by diarrhoea, of which
 
 2,46 Histo7y of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the effects are as deadly as the poison itself. Purgatives, above 
 all those of a drastic kind, augment the disease ; neither is it al- 
 together safe to prescribe aloes and the other purgatives. Ano- 
 dyne injections, composed of emollient herbs boiled in milk, are 
 the best agents for acting on the bowels. The first indication, 
 which is to expel the poison, is fulfilled by using alexipharmics 
 not too heating, but temperate ; such as the pimpernell, angelica, 
 germandria, &c. Many have committed a great error in ex- 
 posing the diseased animals to the cold, and the wind and rain, 
 when they have been separated from those in health ; instead of 
 keeping them in well-closed comfortable stables, covering them 
 with sacks of straw and of hay, in order to assist them in ex- 
 pelling the poison. 
 
 Setons in the necks of the animals were useful, but blisters 
 were injurious. The most preferable treatment was to cauterize 
 the skin with a hot iron, and thus to form artificial ulcers by 
 which the materies morbi might escape. 
 
 It could not be understood why some practitioners should 
 employ febrifuge medicines, such as quinine, in quelling the 
 malady. This remedy had doubtless been maintained by Ramaz- 
 zini, in an elegantly-written discourse which he had delivered 
 in the University of Pavia on the diseases of cattle, to be the 
 most efficacious. Yet it was necessary to avow, that in continued 
 inflammatory fevers of the kind to which this epizooty undoubt- 
 edly belonged, this remedy did not shorten their duration. But 
 it was still a most useful medicine, and its beneficial action was 
 always the more prompt in large doses. The giving vermifuge 
 medicines, in accordance with the hypothesis of Kircher's living 
 corruption, was very wrong; and much more blamable were those 
 who recommended sympathetic remedies, — preservative as well as 
 curative. These consisted in taking a diseased animal, digging 
 a deep pit, throwing it in and then covering it up, with the 
 notion that by this means the disease, then spreading abroad, 
 soon loses its virulency and ceases, — a custom too absurd and 
 superstitious to demand a moment's consideration. Daily ex- 
 perience proves the utter inefficacy of medicines to cure the 
 disease, and we ought to put no faith in them as preservative 
 agents. Assuredly the best results will be obtained from extreme
 
 Histo7'y of Animal Plagues. 247 
 
 vigilance in observing and enforcing sanitary laws, the effect 
 of which will be far more enduring and profitable than preserva- 
 tive remedies. Columella's injunctions should never be neglected 
 — separate the healthy from the unhealthy. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary that all communication should be 
 interdicted. No straw, hay, sacks, or other articles should be 
 carried from the infected regions ; the veterinary surgeons, at- 
 tendants, dogs, and ev^erybody and everything capable of trans- 
 porting the virus, should be kept away from the healthy cattle. 
 Lancisi was not slow to aver, that the most certain way to 
 suppress the contagion was to break off' all communication, 
 direct or indirect, with the infected. We know with what 
 negligence the edicts of kings and princes are treated in all 
 that concerns salubrity and the watching of roads. Those 
 who infringe these edicts ought to be severely punished, as 
 well as those who do not bury deep enough the bodies of those 
 beasts which hav^e perished. Dogs and wolves may, in these 
 instances, disinter the carcases and scatter abroad the corrup- 
 tion; thus occasioning malignant epidemic fevers. 
 
 When the animals begin to recover, they ought always to 
 be left for eight days in their stables, and their diet should be 
 very light and plentifully diluted with water. The air should 
 be purified by preparations of incense, laurel, hyssop, and juniper 
 leaves. The walls of the stables should be thoroughly cleansed, 
 and the bodies of the animals should also be well washed with 
 vinegar before allowing them to rejoin their companions at 
 pasture. Time may enable us to discover more efficacious 
 means than those which we have proposed to avert this con- 
 tajrion of cattle, and which has for so lono; a time rava<red nearly 
 the whole of Europe. 
 
 A.D. 1731-2. The winter of 1730-1 was cold and dry, the 
 summer hot and dry. In March, a severe shock of an earth- 
 quake, and in July another in China. In 1732 the winter was 
 mild, the spring wet, and the summer hot and damp. Pestilen 
 tial fever killed 1500 persons in one week, in London, during the 
 month of April. Droughts were prevalent, and during these 
 years the Arciia Vhworrktca, a particular kind of moth, was so 
 numerous in f'rance that people were alarmed. The oaks, elms,
 
 248 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and whitethorn hedges seemed as if they had been scorched by 
 some burning wind. The fruit trees were also destroyed by 
 them, and all the fruit devoured. To such an extent did they 
 ravage everything, that parliament issued an edict compelling 
 people to destroy them ; but this measure would have been in- 
 effectual, had not some cold rains so cleared them away that 
 scarcely one could be seen.^ 
 
 In February and March ' strangles ' {morhus anginosus) was 
 very frequent amongst horses in England, and killed a good 
 number.^ 
 
 One of the most remarkable epizootics of glossanthrax [chan- 
 cre volant, Jliegender Zungenkrehs) on record occurred in these 
 years. It reigned in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, 
 and was believed to be caused by the immense quantities of cater- 
 pillars which were observed everywhere. Scheuchzer^ puts this 
 opinion on record, and very ably describes the disease. ^This 
 consideration leads us to the caterpillars, which, it was observed, 
 in the past year, had in immense numbers spread themselves in 
 the woods and over the trees, to the great injury of the same : 
 their nests remained upon the trees and hedges throughout the 
 whole winter. It was here and there thought that the blight 
 which fell in 1730-31, and the subsequent continual swarms of 
 insects, had most to do with the production of this disease. In 
 the Canton of Berne, they also attributed the origin of the 
 malady to caterpillars, and a circumstance arose which seemed 
 to support this opinion. A man happened to dry his shirt, 
 which was damp with perspiration, over a fire in which wood 
 covered with caterpillars' nests was burning. Afterwards he put 
 this garment on, but soon became swollen and died. Asa further 
 experiment, a dog was wrapped in a similar cloth, and this crea- 
 ture also died. But it appears probable to us that the disease 
 had made its appearance in the autumn of the previous year, 
 and the following remarkable circumstance is worthy the notice 
 of those who take the field against the caterpillars. In 1731, in 
 the neighbourhood of Riiti, in Lower Andelfingen, in the cow 
 
 ^ Reaumur. Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 122. 
 
 ^ Huxham. Obsci"vations on the Air and Epidemical Diseases. London, 1758. 
 
 2 Schcuchzer. Fliegender Zungenkrebs, eine Vieliseuche, &c. Ziirich, 1732.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 249 
 
 pastures, everything groaned under the visitation of these insects, 
 which fell from the trees and covered the country around; but 
 not a single one of these cattle were attacked by the plague . . . 
 ' Further, there is a circumstance which not unusually accom- 
 panies this disease, and which makes it more difficult to under- 
 stand. All the intelligence we can gather, tells us that the con- 
 tagion travels from place to place. From day to day it traverses 
 a distance of from three, four, or more hours (the German hour 
 or stiind is reckoned about two miles), and reveals its presence by 
 a peculiar murmuring sound, or a thick stinking mist. This 
 curious circumstance is verified by tidings from several places, 
 which would lead to the belief that the attack was made after a 
 warning or signal of such a nature. I was assured by people, 
 who were certainly terror-stricken and may have exaggerated, 
 that a strong north-west wind blew over the whole country 
 on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, loth, nth, 13th, and 14th of March, and 
 that on the latter day the disease attacked the cattle at Meris- 
 hausen and Neuhausen, in the Canton of Scaffhauscn; also that 
 the disturbance in the air was perceived at Niederweningen, in the 
 village of Wiirenlungen, in Baden.' A long account is given of 
 the various places where the peculiar noises in the atmosphere 
 were heard, sometimes as a loud noise, at others as if caused by 
 a flight of birds or bees; as soon as this sound was remarked the 
 disease broke out. A dark cloud was noticed in some places, 
 but a great amount of fable and superstition is mixed up with 
 the whole description. The symptoms were well marked. 
 Scheuchzer has the following : ' Where only a few small red, 
 white, yellowish, or black-coloured vesicles are observed on the 
 tongue, the animal should not lie immediately slaughtered, but 
 should have the organ washed with detergent lotions. At a later 
 stage of the malady, white, yellow-white, reddish-yellow, and 
 yellowish-black vesicles of the size of peas or beans, and which 
 have the appearance of pustules growing deep in the tongue and 
 projecting from it, are apparent; these contain, beneath a dense 
 skin or envelope, a thick, viscous poisonous matter, which dis- 
 tends them. Occasionally, there were large yellow bladders filled 
 with fluid material, and which, when allowed to remain, ate deeper 
 into the tongue; but when these cysts were opened, the yellow
 
 250 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 acrid liquid escaped. In some cattle, white, yellow, and black 
 fissures appeared towards the root of the tongue, and here and 
 there little hairs were observed growing in them (these were 
 probably portions of hay or other matters, which often lodge in 
 wounds of the tongue, especially in the horse). All the cattle 
 had the disease confined to the tongue, but horses had these 
 vesicles form upon their sheaths as well as on their tongues^ and 
 the mares about their sexual organs ; not unfrequently they also 
 showed themselves under the mane, and towards the rectum. 
 It was remarked that cattle, which one^^ day would have the dis- 
 ease on the upper part of the tongue, had it the next day on the 
 under surface, and that there it was far more active in its erosive 
 effects. In one case at Dielstorff, the cow's tongue was covered 
 with vesicles or small-pox {kinder -hlattern), and after the scraping 
 operation, it was black and dead-looking, but even this animal 
 recovered. It was generally observed, that where the disease was 
 neglected or improperly treated, in a very few hours it assumed the 
 characters of malignant carbuncle. As a testimony to the viru- 
 lence of the malady, it may be mentioned that in those cases 
 death took place in twenty-four hours, but not before the tongue 
 had sloughed out. Otherwise it was noticed, strange to say, 
 that the infected beast did not lose its appetite, but did its work, 
 and performed all its ordinary functions — a circumstance which 
 distinguishes this from all other cattle plagues.' ^ The rate of 
 travel of the contagion, the villages and towns attacked, and the 
 various kinds of animals affected, were all carefully noted. The 
 most striking feature of the epizooty was its uniform rate of ad- 
 vance, which could be calculated beforehand with certainty. In 
 Switzerland, it is mentioned as follows — 'The winter of 1733 was 
 very mild, and the spring was early in the spring, a sick- 
 ness among the cattle showed itself with vesicles on the tongues, 
 and which, if not immediately opened by means of a silver instru- 
 ment, and cleansed, then these organs became so corroded or 
 eaten away, that the animals died in twenty-four hours. This 
 disease passed through Wurtemberg, Suabia, Switzerland, and 
 into Italy, remaining but three or four days in one place. But 
 
 ^ Scheuchzer. Op. cit , p. 30.
 
 History of Animal Plagues, 251 
 
 few therefore died, and these only the animals whieh were neg- 
 lected.'^ Trunipy writes: 'In the spring of this year, there 
 came from Suabia into Switzerland a deadly disease, which was 
 called the 'flying cancer' [Jiiegende krehs — glossanthrax). It was 
 a malady characterized by bladders on the tongue. If the cattle 
 were left without medical aid and attention, these bladders soon 
 became red, then black, the tongue fell off, and the cattle perished. 
 With us a few died, but the measures taken to cure it were very 
 prompt. The disease was transmissible to mankind ; as a con- 
 sequence, the butchers' shops were closed, and the milk of in- 
 fected animals was thrown away. As the affection disappeared 
 from this and the neighbouring localities about the end of April, 
 all the strictly guarded passes were open again, and free inter- 
 course allowed.'^ 
 
 With regard to the progress of the disease, we find that in 
 the spring of '31 it was observed in Dauphine, Haut-Faucigny, 
 Auver2;ne, and Bourbonnais, and in the neighbourhood of 
 Moulins and Gannat it prevailed in April.^ Textor says : ' To- 
 wards the end of April, 1731, this disease appeared, among other 
 places, in Strasbourg, in the district of Gannat, belonging to the 
 generalite von Moulin. Two repeatedly printed decrees were 
 published and sent the same year to all the village officials in Al- 
 sace. . . . This disease is supposed to have originated in Germany 
 in the year 1682, and thence spread itself through the Nether- 
 lands; but in the month of April, 1731, it again appeared in the 
 district of Gannat, and from that place it extended to the Ne- 
 therlands (through various Rhine districts) ; so that the malady 
 travelled from south to north at the rate of four miles a-day, 
 over a strip of country about forty miles in width, generally re- 
 maining from two to three weeks in one locality, but sometimes 
 entirely avoiding;; certain villajres.'^ On the 22nd of June, the 
 Municipal Council of Geneva published its preservative and cura- 
 
 * IValser. Appenzellcr Chronic, p. 531. 
 
 ' Triimpy. Glarner Chronic, p. 531. 
 
 3 Observations sur une Maladie qui aUatjuc les Betes i comes, &c. Mercurc, 
 Histor. et Politic. January, 1732. 
 
 ^ Textor. Versuch wic die Yicliscuchen wohl crkannl, &c., wculcn kunncii. 
 Tiibingen, 1767.
 
 252 Histoi'y of Animal Plagues. 
 
 tive measures. The malady had then extended from France to 
 the banks of the Rhine, and was observ^ed at Frankfort and in 
 the duchy of Nassau in the month of January, '32. On the 4th 
 of February it was at Wallsdorf, in the country of Idstein and 
 Nassau; and on the 5th was in the baihwicks of Limburg and 
 Wehen of that duchy. ^ At the same time it was extending in 
 the north of France, and indeed had become general over the 
 whole kingdom, where it was named maladie de la langiie, vessie 
 a la langue, mal de langue, charhon, chancre volant, &c. At Lan- 
 guedoc, in the south, Sauvages noticed it : ' This plague, which 
 came through France, attacked and slew horses, oxen, and mules, 
 as well as men, atNemausi (Nismes), in 1732, Its symptoms were 
 a carbuncle at the root of the tongue, so that the whole organ was 
 gradually eaten out in a few days. The attacked quickly suc- 
 cumbed, because, besides fever and want of strength, there was 
 complete prostration of functions.-'^ This celebrated author was, 
 I think, the first to give it the name of ' glossanthrax.' 
 
 In the ^ Maison Rustique' will be found various records of 
 this visitation in France. Its manifestations were similar to 
 those of the epizooty of 1682; consisting, first, in the appearance 
 of a vesicle on the tongue, occupying sometimes its base, some- 
 times the upper part, and at other times the sides of this organ. 
 This vesicle was primarily of a white colour, then it became red, 
 and in a very short time it assumed a livid or black hue. Then 
 it began to increase considerably in size, burst, and became an 
 ulcer of a chancrous character, which penetrated the whole 
 substance of the tongue, and caused the death of the animal. 
 So prompt was the course of the malady, that sometimes in less 
 than twenty-four hours from its commencement it had passed 
 through all its stages. There was no external sign to announce 
 its existence when an animal was first attacked ; nothing but an 
 inspection of the tongue could reveal its presence; and the most 
 astonishing feature of the disease was, that the creature could eat, 
 drink, and perform all its ordinary functions, until the tongue 
 
 fell to pieces. It was remarked in 1731, that horses withstood 
 the epizooty better than horned cattle. Its origin was attributed 
 
 ^ Franqne. Op. cit., p. 122. 
 - Sauvages. Nosolog. Methodica, ed. Daniel., torn ii. p. 249.
 
 History of Animal Plagices. 253 
 
 in 1731, to the dryness of that year, which compelled the herb- 
 ivorous animals to eat the leaves of trees, and these were covered 
 with caterpillars. The disease was very contagious, and was com- 
 municated not only by the immediate contact of the humour exud- 
 ing from the sore, but ev^en by the instruments employed to dress 
 the ulcers. The most successful method of treating the malady 
 was to scrape, with any silver instrument, the vesicle as soon as it 
 appeared, and then wash the tongue with a decoction of garlic, salt, 
 pepper, and asafoetida in vinegar, according to the Hippocratian 
 maxim : malignorum remedia sunt lac, allium, vinum fervef actum 
 sal et acetum. When the margin of the ulcer became hard and 
 callous it was dressed with oil of vitriol.^ In Italv, where it was 
 designated the cancro volante, it extended as regularly and 
 rapidly as elsewhere ; and, particularly in the Venetian States, 
 caused much alarm. It reached Ferrara and the Romagna; at- 
 tacked horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs; and altogether disappeared 
 in that country in 1732.^ 
 
 It has been regarded as somewhat singular that the malady 
 did not extend more towards the north, nor towards Lower 
 Germany. That it did not enter the latter region, there is the 
 positive testimony of a contemporary writer, Engel.^ 
 
 Towards the end of 1732, a very general epidemy of influenza 
 overspread nearly the whole of the known world, traversing it 
 from east to west, according to Gluge.* It was observed in 
 Edinburgh in December, and in England at the commencement 
 of Januarv. Horses and other animals were much affected with 
 disease before, or coincident with, the appearance of the malady. 
 Dr Arbuthnot describes the meteorological conditions of these 
 years in the following terms: ^ There have been of late two re- 
 markable instances of the influence of the air in producing an 
 epidemical disease, perhaps over the greatest part of the surface 
 of the earth ; the first happened in the year 1728, the last in the 
 latter end of the year 1732 and beginning of 1733, which, being 
 
 ^ Liger. La Maison Rustique. See also Reflexions sur la Maladie du Betail, 
 p. 169. 
 
 2 Bottani. Op. cit., p. 151. Miiratori. Annali d'ltalia, vol. xu. p. 1S2. 
 3 Engel. De I3rutoriim Morbus. Rintdlii, 1733. 
 * Cluge. Influenza, p. 81.
 
 254 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the most recent and remarkable, I shall give a short descrip- 
 tion of it, till a more particular one can be procured from the 
 collected memoirs of the several countries which it invaded, of 
 which I have seen only a few. 
 
 ^The previous constitution of the air was, in England and in 
 the greater part of Europe, a great drought, which may be in- 
 ferred from the failure of the springs, in the abatement of the 
 fresh water in all its usual currrents and reservoirs, which are the 
 best measure of the quantity of moisture falling from the clouds. 
 What is most generally taken notice of in the accounts I have 
 seen from Germany, France, and some other places, was, that 
 the air in the beginning of winter, especially in November, was 
 more than usually filled with thick and frequent fogs, the matter 
 of which was not precipitated on the earth in rain, snow, or any 
 other beneficial dispensations. Fogs are so usual in this country 
 in November, that there was nothing particular observed about 
 them that I know of. But there was hardly anything fell from 
 the clouds during the month of November, except a very small 
 quantity of snow, attended with a frost of no long duration; 
 and this was all the winter we had. In the northern parts of 
 France there was a very small quantity of snow, which lasted 
 from their 15th and our 4th of November, till after Christmas. 
 This was succeeded by southerly winds and stinking fogs, during 
 which there was observed, by some chirurgeons, a great disposition 
 in wounds to mortify. Both before and during the continuance 
 of the disease in England, the air was warm beyond the usual 
 temper of the season, with great quantities of sulphureous 
 vapours, producing great storms of wind from the south-west, 
 and sometimes lightning without thunder. 
 
 ^ As to the time of invasion of the disease, it was different 
 in different countries. It invaded Saxony and the neighbouring 
 countries in Germany about the J 5th of November, and lasted 
 in its vigour till the 29th of the same month. It was earlier in 
 Holland than in England, earlier in Edinburgh than in London. 
 It was in New England before it attacked Britain; in London 
 before it reached some other places westward, as Oxford, Bath, 
 &c. ; and, as far as I can collect from accounts, it invaded the 
 northerly parts of Europe before the southerly. It lasted in its
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 255 
 
 vigour in London from about the middle of Januan,?^ ^732-3, 
 for about three weeks. The bill of mortality, from Tuesday, the 
 23rd, to Tuesday, the 30th of January, contained in all 1588, 
 being higher than any time since the plague. It began in Paris 
 about the middle of their February, or the 21st of our January, 
 and lasted till the beginning of their April, or the 21 st of our 
 JMarch; and I think its duration was longest in the southerly 
 countries. It raged in Naples and in the southern parts of 
 Italv in our March. The disease, in travelling from place to 
 place, did not observe the direction, but went often contrary to 
 
 the course of the winds It was matter of fact that there 
 
 was a previous ill constitution of the air, noxious to animal 
 bodies. In autumn, and long afterwards, a madness among 
 doo-s. The horses were seized with the catarrh before mankind ; 
 and a gentleman averred to me that some birds, particularly the 
 sparrows, left the place where he was during the sickness.-' ^ A 
 medical society in Edinburgh gives another account of it : ' This 
 epidemic distemper, above described, spread itself over all Europe, 
 and also infested the inhabitants of America: so that it was, 
 perhaps, the most universal disease upon record. The first 
 accounts we have of anything like it this last year in Europe was 
 in the middle of November, from Saxony, Hanover, and other 
 neighbouring countries in Germany. It raged at the same time 
 in Edinburgh, and Basil, in Switzerland. It appeared in London 
 and in Flanders after the first week in January, towards the 
 middle of which it reached Paris, and about the end of the month 
 Ireland began to suffer. In the middle of February Leghorn 
 was attacked, and near the end of it the people of Naples and 
 Madrid were seized with it. In America it began in New 
 Eno-land about the middle of October, and travelled southward 
 to Barbadoes, Jamaica, Peru, and Mexico, much at the same 
 rate as it did in Europe.' ^ 
 
 To our celebrated countryman, Gibson, we are indebted for 
 a really excellent description of the affection as it was observed 
 
 ' An Essay concerning the effects of Air on Human Bodies, by John Aybuthnot, 
 M.D. London, 1751, p. 193. 
 
 '■' Medical Essays and Observations, published by a society in Edinburgh. 
 3rd edit. vol. ii.
 
 256 History of Animal Plagtces. 
 
 in the horse. ^ About the end of the year 1732, there was a 
 very remarkable distemper among the horses in London and in 
 several other parts of the kingdom. They were seized suddenly 
 with a vehement dry, sounding cough, which shook them so 
 violently that some of them were often ready to drop down with 
 hard straining and want of breath ; their throats were raw and 
 sore ; many of them had their kernels (submaxillary glands) 
 swelled, and painful to the touch. For the first two days, most 
 of them refused all manner of food as well as water, and had so 
 many other bad signs, that when this distemper first broke out, 
 many were afraid of a mortality coming among them ; and, 
 indeed, the only good sign they had was the vehemence of their 
 cough, that both kept their blood in motion and speedily set 
 them a running at the nose, which generally began the third 
 dav ; and continued in so profuse a manner for five or six days, 
 that some of them in that time discharoed as much as two or 
 
 O 
 
 three pails would hold of purulent matter, which, however, was 
 generally of a laudable colour and good consistence. While the 
 running at the nose continued they would not feed much, 
 though their appetites were craving, because the matter mingled 
 so much with their food as to render it altogether disagreeable, 
 so that they lost their flesh exceedingly; but this loss of flesh 
 proved a benefit to them rather than a detriment, and as soon as 
 the running abated they ate voraciously and soon recovered 
 their flesh. This distemper, though no ways mortal, yet was so 
 very catching, that when any horse was seized with it, I observed 
 those that stood on each hand of him were generally infected as 
 soon as he began to run at the nose, in the same manner as the 
 small-pox communicates the infection when they are upon the 
 turn. While this sickness lasted, above a hundred of the troop 
 horses under my care were seized with it. I always caused the 
 sick horses to be removed from the sound as soon as they were 
 taken ill, and put by themselves, as in an hospital. And in one 
 troop of Horse Grenadiers we filled a stable of thirty-six standings 
 in three days; an infirmary of five standings, and another of 
 eighteen standings, in three or four days more; nevertheless, 
 all of them recovered in a short time. Also many gentlemen's 
 horses, where I was concerned, did well without any remaining
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 257 
 
 taint from the distemper; and it was observable that some who 
 had been subject to a dry cough before this sickness, continued 
 
 more free from it for some time afterwards The horses 
 
 that chiefly escaped the distemper were those that had been kept 
 in constant strong exercise, or full-aged old horses, many of 
 which were no ways infected, though very much exposed to it.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1733. Famine and swarms of locusts in Germany. 
 ' The flights of locusts increased the general dearth by in- 
 vading various localities hitherto unvisited. In these places 
 they remained for some years. This was the case with the 
 Eastern locusts particularly, which in this year came from Tar- 
 tary and settled themselves in several provinces of Germany, 
 where they lingered until 1739.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1734. Epidemic fever (scarlatina?) in England and 
 Scotland. In July Huxham says, ^Many birds died whilst 
 moulting.' For August he observes, ' Many song-birds have 
 perished, and cicadae are very seldom heard. The summer was 
 more overcast, colder, and lately more rainy than usual. Every 
 place was covered with water and mud.' ^ 
 
 Short writes : ' In August a nephritic colic, or stoppage of 
 urine, was frequent among horses, of which they died in two 
 days, if not quickly bled and purged freely. A horse, when 
 near his end, ran his head against the wall or ground with his 
 greatest force, and thrust till he died.' * 
 
 An epizooty amongst horses in England and Scotland, 
 which Heusinger thinks may have been scarlatina, or, at any 
 rate, an exanthematous fever; because Huxham, for this period, 
 describes an epidemy which has certainly much resemblance to 
 an affection of that kind. Short, however, does not mention 
 any particular disease as present in the human species for the year. 
 Gibson again affcirds us a description of the sympt(jms of this 
 equine disorder. ' About two years after this, in 1734, another 
 epidemical distemper happened in the spring, that proved more 
 fatal than this, though bv reason of its short continuance it was 
 
 ' IV. Gibsoji. A New Treatise on the Diseases of Horses. London, I7S4> 
 vol. i. p. 375. 
 
 ''■ Asso. Y del Rio von den Ileuschrecken. Rostock, 17S7, p. 7. 
 
 ^ Huxham. Op. cit., p. 96. * Short. Op. cil., vol. ii. p. 226, 
 
 17
 
 258 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 much less taken notice of than the first. In the one, the 
 horses coughed so vehemently in the street, and many of the 
 hackney-coach and cart-horses that were obliged to work, had 
 their noses in so nasty a condition, and so much exposed to 
 open view, that they could not avoid being seen by everybody. 
 But this other distemper was not so universally talked of, though 
 vast numbers were seized with it, and some died suddenly. 
 They were seized with a very hot, burning fever, and their flesh 
 seemed so sore and tender that they could scarce bear to be 
 touched. They were generally costive, staled but little, and 
 that with pain and straining, and of a very high colour. They 
 refused all manner of sustenance, and were so extremely sick 
 that they would not drink, neither did I perceive any of them 
 offer to lie down till their distemper came to a crisis. Upon 
 treating them with cooling and opening medicines, with plen- 
 tiful bleeding, they generally recovered. I was confirmed in 
 this method by several symptoms that appeared upon the turn 
 of the distemper, some of them having very hot and inflamed 
 eruptions, which broke out in several parts, with blisters resem- 
 bling St Anthony's fire, and some of them had large bags of 
 water on the sides of their bellies, or towards their flanks, which 
 the farriers called water farcy, but, indeed, was the effect of a 
 very hot and inflamed blood.' ^ 
 
 In England, canine madness prevailed.^ Rutty writes : 
 'Spring very warm (and so in England), but followed by a 
 cold and nipping May, which hurted the fruits and burned the 
 grass. In February there was a very great rot among the hares. 
 In open winters there is a young spring of grass, which they 
 and the sheep feeding on, it proves pernicious.' ^ 
 
 In October of this year, according to Albrecht, an epizootic 
 dysentery, accompanied by swelling of the head, attacked poultry, 
 especially geese, in the neighbourhood of Coburg. They died 
 with their bills open. In the grand duchy of Baden, gloss- 
 anthrax was somewhat prevalent,* 
 
 A.D. 1735. Plague in Egypt amongst men. During the 
 winter in North America, an epidemy affecting the throat and 
 
 ^ Gibson. Op. cit., vol. i. " Webster. Op. cit. ^ Rutty, Op. cit. 
 * Wirth. Op. cit., p. 362.
 
 Hist 07'}' of Animal Plagues. 259 
 
 respiratory organs {angina ulciisculosa) nearly exterminated all 
 youno- children. The weather was cold and wet. An epizooty 
 was prevalent at the same time.^ 
 
 A most unhealthy year in England. In July, ' this season 
 more like winter than summer; all garden fruits sour and un- 
 ripe. Scarce a grasshopper to be heard or butterfly to be seen ; 
 many little singing birds die in casting their feathers.' August, 
 ' Never was a wetter season at the time of year: many sino-ino- 
 birds die ; very little honey. Leaves fall off the trees as if autumn 
 was past. Many mad dogs run up and down.^ October, 
 ' Many were bit by mad dogs.' November, ' Several mad dogs 
 run about.' ^ 
 
 The weather for a long time, indeed, appears to have been 
 most severe and trying for ruminants at pasture. For instance. 
 Short writes in 1734: 'June 12. Began the long wet season, and 
 continued mostly so to Feb. 2, 1736, viz. a year and eight 
 months, after two years and nine months' drought.'^ 
 
 An agricultural work, referring to ' the great losses that 
 several farmers sustained by the most noted sheep rot of 1735' 
 in England, remarks: 'This rot of sheep and lambs was the 
 most general one, I believe, that has happened in the memory of 
 man, because it rotted those deer, sheep, lambs, hares and conies, 
 that fed on lands where rain-waters were retained on or near 
 the surface of the earth for some time ; and as I have elsewhere 
 observed, the dead bodies of rotten sheep were so numerous in 
 roads, lanes, and fields, that their carrion stench and smell proved 
 extremely offensive to the neighbouring parts, and to passant 
 travellers.'* 
 
 The affection appears to have been particularly severe in the 
 Vale of Aylesbury, where one farmer lost 300 sheep within the 
 year, and another sold 100 sheep in Leighton Buzzard market 
 for sixpence each, rather than take them home again. 
 
 Rutty, who mentions hares beino; affected with ' rot' in 
 1734, in Ireland, observes of this year: 'It may, j^crhaps, be 
 worth observing, that notwithstanding the excessive moisture 
 
 ' Hecker. Op. cit., p. 24S. ^ Huxham. Op. cit. 
 
 ^ Short. Op. cit., vol. ii. \^. 225. 
 
 * The Shepherd's Sure Guide. London, 1749.
 
 26o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 of the season, or rather the continued moisture of several seasons 
 successively^ yet that no general rot appeared among the sheep 
 now nor for many years past/ Therefore, he argues, that the 
 murrain or pestilence among cattle ' which invades sometimes 
 this, sometimes that species of animals, is not from mere redund- 
 ant moisture, but from other causes/^ 
 
 In this year the Cattle Plague was again introduced into 
 Italy, but this time by war. The pest had not yet been extin- 
 guished in Poland or Germany up to this time, but was in all 
 likelihood maintained in an active condition durino; the war for 
 the Polish throne in 1733. Certain it is, that when Charles 
 Emmanuel of Savoy, in alliance with France and Spain, com- 
 menced the series of military operations that resulted in the 
 capture of the Milanese territory in 1738, the contagion was 
 brought into Italy, which had scarcely begun to recover from 
 the visitation of 1730. Austrian armies had invaded that 
 country, carrying with them, as usual, Hungarian or Steppe 
 cattle. It soon spread over the whole of Italy. A mandate, 
 issued at Venice on the 9th of October, shows that it was then 
 devastating Friuli, Bassanese, Trevigiano, and in the Coneg- 
 lianese." On the 3rd of December it had reached the provinces 
 of Verona, Brescia, and Crema,^ and on the 4th of January fol- 
 lowing, its dreadful presence was felt at Mantua and Milan. 
 From thence it spread rapidly, and was soon carried over the 
 Roman States, and into Piedmont, where it raged until 1739.* 
 
 Ulloa, who was a resident in South America from this year 
 until 1746, is the first author who has told us of the existence 
 of, and describes, the 'distemper^ in dogs in that country.^ Of 
 its oftentimes prevailing in Peru in recent days we have ample 
 testimony, but according to Rengger,*^ it is unknown in Paraguay, 
 a fact sufficiently worthy of notice. 
 
 A deadly disease appears to have been prevalent amongst 
 cattle in Scotland about this period. Dr Gilchrist, a phy- 
 
 1 Rictty. Op. cit 2 Bottani. Op. cit., p. 155. ^ ji^j^^ p i5j_ 
 
 * For descriptions of this outbreak, see Mazzuchelli. Notizie Pratiche, &c. 
 Milan, 1736. Pascoli. Delle Risposte, <S;c. Rome, 1736. 
 
 ^ Ulloa. Relacion Historica del Viage a la America Meridional. Madrid, 
 1748, vol. i. ; also Noticias Americanas. Madrid, 1792. 
 
 ^ Rengger. Saugthiere von Paraguay, p. 156.
 
 History of Aiiiinal Plagitcs. 261 
 
 sician at Dumfries, in an Essay on ^ Nervous Fevers/ notices 
 it casually as follows : ^ One thing I would not miss to take 
 notice of here : the distemper so mortal amongst the cattle 
 in this country, is a fever of a particular kind. I know of 
 no medicine that has been of much service, either to pre- 
 vent or to cure it. The most successful method to prevent 
 it is, when the cattle are thought to be infected, or the in- 
 fection near, to change the grass, by which they are purged, 
 and this is the ordinary effect of new grass. We cannot think 
 that it is owing to the particular qualities of the grass as a 
 proper antidote that they are preserved, grass being much the 
 same everywhere; but it must be from its purging quality, for 
 if this visible effect does not follow, I'm afraid they will not 
 escape. This suggests to us the use of purgatives in this disease 
 of the cattle, which, amongst the many remedies handed about, 
 and said to do wonders, is scarce ever thou2:ht of.' ' Havinsr 
 mentioned this disease of the cattle, a comparison might be made 
 betwixt it and some fevers that have affected human bodies, so 
 far as they may be found to proceed from the same first cause, 
 viz. the air and weather. For some years the seasons have not 
 been orderly. They have been unkindly, as they say. Warm 
 open winters without frost, rainy summers and harvests, have 
 been generally complained of. If by these a distemperature of 
 the fluids is brought on, it will be kept up so long as the general 
 course of the weather is the same.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1736-7. The weather was intensely hot during the 
 summer of 1736 in England, and gnats were so numerous all 
 over the country, but more especially in the neighbourhood of 
 Salisbury and Wiltshire, that they occasioned great annoy- 
 ance. Flying in dense clouds, they sometimes were observed 
 to ascend above Salisbury Cathedral spire. In 1737 there was 
 an eruption of Mount Vesuvius and a comet, as well as some 
 shocks of earthquake. Influenza in man in England in ^^fi. 'A 
 pestilential distemper made sad havoc of the cattle and swine in 
 the south of Devonshire in October.' ' In January, '37, catarrh- 
 
 ' Dr Gilchrist. Medical Essays and Observations by a Society in Edinburgh. 
 Edinburgh, 1737, vol. iv. p. 366. 
 2 T. Short. Op. cit., p. iii.
 
 2,62 History of Animal Plagites. 
 
 al fever was still prevalent in mankind. ^ Many horses had it 
 at the same time, and died.'^ In February, ' An anginous cough 
 still among; horses/^ 
 
 Wirth mentions epizootic pleuro-pneumonia in oxen here 
 and there in Switzerland, until 1739. The Cattle Plague devas- 
 tated Piacenza and Lodi.^ Convulsive ergotism appeared in 
 mankind in Silesia and Bohemia (1736), and Antoine Soring, 
 the historian of the epidemy, notices that it had been remarked, 
 and the subject had been demonstrated by experiment, that 
 spurred rye produces disease in fowls and mammiferous animals, 
 and that when we know positively that animals are affected in 
 this way during epidemics of ergotism, we may conclude that the 
 rye is very rich in ergot, and its action very violent. 
 
 A.D. 1738. In this year the Cattle Plague had been carried 
 into Upper Italy.* In England, in January, great floods drowned 
 thousands of cattle. In July a fearful storm, of thunder, light- 
 ning, and hailstones, some of which were solid as ice, and from 
 five to nine inches in circumference. Cattle suffered very much.^ 
 
 When Steller, a pupil of the great Linnaeus, was at Tobolsk, 
 Siberia, in this year, there was an epidemy of pestilential car- 
 buncles among the people; the disease was said to be so con- 
 tagious, that healthy persons who approached the sick were 
 seized with the malady. The plague had first shown itself in 
 horses and oxen, and subseqently attacked the human species. 
 It was reported that the cattle were affected in various ways, — 
 some had suddenly set off running with all possible speed, and 
 continued to do so, till they were quite exhausted and dropped 
 down dead. On other cattle carbuncles appeared, which were 
 dressed with a thin poultice, made of an herb mixed with yeast, 
 whilst a large quantity of this herb was mixed with their food; 
 by these means great numbers were cured. The herb is stated 
 to have been the Centaurea, and is described bv this botanist as 
 follows: squamis ovatis, foliis pinnatis, foliolis decurrentibus 
 linearibus, serratis et integris.** The wounds were sprinkled with 
 
 1 T. Short. Op. cit., p, 112. 2 y^^^_ Lq^. cit. 
 
 2 Muraiori. Annali, vol. xii. p. 238. 
 
 * Boitaiii. Op. cit., p. 180. Bianchi. Relazione dell'Epidemia de' Buoi. 
 Arimino, 1738. * T. Short. Op. cit., pp. 242, 243. 
 
 ^ Flor. Siberic, vol. ii. p. 89, Fab. 41. This is the same plant as that figured
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 263 
 
 powdered sal ammoniac^ and healed speedily. Human beings 
 were treated in the same way, except that they were made to 
 take the herb in decoction, and it proved with them equally 
 efficacious.^ 
 
 A.D. 1739. In the beginning of this year the first great po- 
 tato rot occurred in Ireland. It was believed to have been caused 
 solely by the intense frost that began about Christmas^ 1739, and 
 continued until late in the following spring. 'At the conclusion 
 of the year 1739, there happened an exceedingly cold winter, 
 remarkable for a very severe frost, continuing until spring. 
 From this dreadful and indescribable hard frost, there arose, 
 shortly afterwards, not only a great destruction of all sorts of 
 cattle, but a lamentable blight and calamitous rot of plants 
 and vegetables of all kinds, for the very birds of the air and 
 other animals used for human sustenance perished in great num- 
 bers from the excessive harshness of the cold season.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1740. An exceedingly severe winter in England. 'In- 
 expressible was the damage done by this frost; for the rainy 
 summer and harvest had caused a rot among sheep in low coun- 
 tries ; and this storm starved and killed many in the high moors, 
 
 so as in some parts scarce was there seed left to breed on 
 
 Many horses and much cattle were lost. . . . Spain was said to 
 suffer near as much that winter by deluging rains. ^^ The barley 
 and fruit crops were destroyed, and famine raged in many 
 countries. 
 
 In Ireland, Rutty alludes to the severe frost of 1739-40, and 
 the destruction of the potatoes, vast quantities of small birds and 
 game, as well as fish. He also mentions sheep dying from ' rot,* 
 and many from 'red-water' (sanguineus ascites); deer likewise 
 perished in such numbers, that in the King's (Phoenix) Park, 
 Dublin, out of 2000, 800 were lost. The rabbits suffered so 
 severely, that they did not reach their usual abundance for nine 
 or ten years after. He also says : ' Thestrand in the neighbour- 
 
 in the Hort. Lugdan. Batavorum, p. 89, Fab. 41, and called Cyamts Floridui 
 Odoratus Tttrcicus, seu Orientalis Major^ flore hitco. It is collected previous to its 
 time of flowering, though the powder is made before the flower-stalk has appeared. 
 
 1 Gmdin. Flora Siberica. Philosophical Transactions. 1753- 
 
 2 O'Ct'ww^//' J Observations. ^ 7'. Short. Op. cil., p. 254.
 
 264 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 hood of Irishtown was famous for the quantities of shrimps 
 cauoht there, but the great frost of 1740 destroyed them, and the 
 few that are now (1776) found are neither so large nor dehcate/^ 
 Another authority in Ireland writes : 'March nth. We have 
 dismal accounts from several parts of the kingdom, that besides 
 the great number of sheep which die daily, the wool peels off 
 those that are living, and is scattered up and down the fields in 
 such small quantities, that it will be impossible to gather it. 
 April 15th. There is now as great a scarcity of provisions in 
 the city (Dublin) as ever was known, and it is much to be feared 
 all over the kingdom. Several thousand sheep have died in 
 Connaught within the last two months.^ ^ 
 
 During this and the two following years, great ravages were 
 committed by a most destructive insect in many provinces of 
 Sweden. This creature destroyed all the meadows by devouring 
 every kind of herbage, except the foxtail grass.^ 
 
 Petechial fever and malignant sore-throat were rife among 
 mankind in England. In the month of May, Huxham writes : 
 ' Violent cough, with sore-throat, oppressed horses and other ani- 
 mals in general. It often attacked a herd of neat cattle with 
 such effect that only a few escaped. The sheep suffered very 
 much from cough, and became emaciated and withered. Great 
 numbers died, and their livers were found to be very greatly en- 
 laro-ed and schirrous ; but the gall-bladder was enormously in- 
 creased, and was turgid with black bile.' * The Cattle Plague 
 had extended or broken out anew in Hungary, and passed into 
 Bohemia and Bavaria. 
 
 From this period up to the end of the eighteenth century, it 
 may be truly said that this bovine scourge was never absent 
 from some part of Europe, and that the principal cause of its ex- 
 tension and perpetuation is to be found in the almost continuous 
 wars occurring during the interval. We have seen that, in 
 1735, hostilities introduced it into Italy. The war of the 
 Austrian Succession, on the death of Charles VI., in 1740, 
 aided largely in maintaining and disseminating it ; as the Hun- 
 
 ^ Rutly. Op. cit. " Pile's Occurrences. 
 
 3 Amoen. Acad., vol. vi. p. 17. ^ Huxham. Op. cit., p. 232.
 
 History of Anwial Plagues. 265 
 
 garians — who lent their assistance to Maria Theresa^ the 
 daughter of Charles — and the Austrians drew their supplies oF 
 cattle from Hungary. The movements of the hostile armies^ ac- 
 companied^ as they were, by infected droves, diffused the conta- 
 gion far and wide, and rendered futile all attempts to suppress it 
 at the seat of war. And at a later period, Frederick the Great, 
 contending repeatedly with the armies of Austria and Russia, 
 carried the pestilence about in his own dominions, or was the 
 means of importing new sources from the adjacent countries. 
 The principal of these irruptions will be alluded to in the order 
 of their occurrence. 
 
 A.D. 1 741. Very irregular seasons, and a cloudy summer. 
 A most severe winter in America, where many cattle perished 
 for want of food. In England, horses, cattle, and sheep died 
 from starvation. Huxham again writes for the month of March, 
 when people in England were suffering from catarrhs and an- 
 ginas : ' Almost all horses, unless well taken care of in their 
 stables, were affected with a purulent cough and mange, became 
 emaciated and weak, so that many perished,^ ^ 
 
 In Ireland, for February 17th, it is recorded: *We hear from 
 different parts of the country, that numbers of people daily die 
 of fluxes and fevers, from want of proper food ; and that there 
 is great sickness among horses, of which numbers die, which 
 people eat for want of other victuals.' ^ 
 
 'Tillage in the year 1740 was sadly deficient, owing perhaps 
 as much to the despair of the people as to their actual sufferings; 
 but whatever the cause, the effect was the same, and the year 
 1741 was even worse than that which preceded it. Horses, 
 cows, sheep, pigs, and poultry, all were struck by the plague, 
 and perished; and the mortality of the people must have been 
 increased by feeding on the diseased animals. There were, also, 
 it is said, shoals of dead fish cast on shore, on which the people 
 also fed, but it is not believed that such food was unwholesome. 
 The next harvest was plentiful, and it was said that, cows being 
 very scarce, a sheep produced as much milk that year as a cow 
 would in ordinary seasons. The year 1741 was always mcn- 
 
 ' Huxham. Op. cit., p. 232. 2 /-^^^//.^^/j Dublin Journal.
 
 266 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 tioned as Bliadhain an air — ' the year of the slaughter.' ^ Dur- 
 ing the progress of a bill passed against forestalling and regrat- 
 ing, by the Irish Parliament, it was ordered that ' the committee 
 be empowered to receive a clause to prevent persons from selling 
 distempered cattle, knowing them to be so/ ^ Hughes states 
 that many dogs went mad in Barbadoes during this year. ^ 
 
 A.D. 1742. Two comets were seen. The winter was long 
 and cold. Epidemic influenza in England. For the month of 
 May, Huxham reports: 'Not only were these rains most grateful 
 in watering the fields, but also in destroying caterpillars. For 
 the disease in vegetation was very severe at that time. And 
 besides, it gently hindered the attacks on the crops of a new 
 race of black caterpillars, for they grew healthy and abundant. 
 These caterpillars came in vast crowds from the mountains like 
 a torrent, and threatened to devastate the whole land.' In Au- 
 gust there were '^innumerable wasps, tree-crickets or cicadae, 
 caterpillars, and many mad dogs.' * 
 
 Rutty remarks for Ireland : ' The cold and dry spring was 
 attended with disorders not unlike those of the two preceding 
 and cold springs, particularly colds, and chincoughs, and the 
 measles w^ere exceedingly frequent ; the infirm, both old and 
 young, and particularly the asthmatic, suffered greatly, and not 
 less remarkably than did the vegetables during this sharp, cold 
 season and prevalence of N.E. winds ; and the cold affected 
 not only mankind but the horses, and was fatal to several both 
 here and in England, particularly at Plymouth, where Huxham 
 observes that, in March, almost all the horses out of the stable 
 had the mange and a purulent cough. The summer was more 
 healthful than the spring, and the fever mentioned last year was 
 far less frequent, and disappeared entirely in winter.' ^ For April, 
 we are told that there was ' a most violent cold raging among 
 horses, which killed many of them.' ^ 
 
 Upon the 26th of August, in Dublin, there occurred 'a sudden 
 and great shower of rain, with great lightning, which killed the 
 fish of all sorts in the Liffey, which came down the stream, 
 
 ^ Mr Curry to Dr Petrie, in pamphlet ' Famine in Ireland in 1740, 1741.' 
 ^ The Commons' Journal. ^ Sir R. H. Schomburgh. Hist, of Barbadoes. 
 * Huxham. Op. cit. . ^ Rutty. Op. cit. ^ Faidknet-'s Journal.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 267 
 
 floating in great shoals, and were taken up in great quantities as 
 they were carried to the sea/ ^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague was imported into Lorraine and the 
 Vosores." 
 
 A.D. 1743. A cold and wet year. Meteors, earthquakes, and 
 a comet. For three months before epidemic influenza began in 
 man, the atmosphere was dense and humid, and on the 23rd of 
 January there was a stinking fog. In this month Huxham 
 noticed that S^ery many stags died on all sides;' in February 
 there was ' loathsome mange in horses, which has already lasted 
 a long time;' in March, 'mange greatly disfigures horses, and 
 some which are affected perish from emaciation, others perish from 
 suffocation arising from cough and sore-throat.' ^ 
 
 The whole of the sheep in the territory of Aries, France, died 
 from rot [pourriturc)} 
 
 The Cattle Pla^^ue accompanied the army from Bavaria into 
 Alsace, on the one side; on the other, it penetrated to France 
 through Switzerland, entering Franche-Comte and Dauphine. 
 
 Bovine contagious pleuro-pneumonia was prevalent in Suabia 
 and Switzerland, according to Wirth.^ 
 
 Dr Grant asserts that the French term la grippe, as applied 
 to the influenza then reigning as an epidemy, was derived from 
 an insect of that name, which was remarkably common in France 
 during the previous spring, and which the people imagined con- 
 taminated the air.® 
 
 A.D. 1744. For Ireland, it is noted: 'The autumn of this year 
 was uncommonly wet and cold, and much grain was spoiled in 
 the fields all over the North of Ireland from which this year was 
 called " The Rot Ycar.'^ Provisions were scarce and bad the fol- 
 lowing spring, and a considerable mortality arose among the 
 cattle from the bad quality of their food.' ^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague once more entered Italy, and again from 
 two difl^crent directions. War introduced it into Piedmont, 
 
 * Dublin Gazette. 
 
 ^ Bayard. Diction. Veteriiiairc de Buchoz, article Epizootic. 
 
 ^ Huxham. Op. cit. 
 
 * Iltirtrel d'' Arhoval. Diction, dc Med. Vetciinaire, vol. i. p. 249. 
 
 * IVirth. Seuchcnlchre. Zurich, 1846. 
 
 « An Essay on Influenza. London, 1782. '' M'Ukimmius. Carrickfcrgus.
 
 268 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 where^ and in the adjoining countries to which it spread, it was 
 most destructive; and it was at the same time imported into 
 Venice. Germany and Holland were also invaded by the 
 pestilence ; but these invasions will be noticed more fully here- 
 after.
 
 269 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1 745 TO 1 77 1. 
 
 A.D. 1745. In Januarv there was a great overflow of the 
 Liffey, especially about Dublin, where men and cattle were 
 drowned. Rutty remarks, ' In March was a famine among the 
 black cattle in the Co. Sligo and Roscommon ; also oats and 
 potatoes were very dear. In April there was a mortality among 
 the black cattle, which was common to us and other parts of 
 Europe, promoted greatly here, if not occasioned, by want of 
 food and by bad hay. The horses also died in great numbers.' ^ 
 
 * A great fall of snow this year that smothered vast numbers 
 of cattle and sheep, which caused a great many farmers to sur- 
 render their lands.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1745-71. The year 1745 is remarkable in our record 
 as that in which the ' Cattle Plague' was carried into England, 
 Ireland, and Scotland (?) from the Continent of Europe, where, 
 as we have already seen, it had been extending itself and causing 
 an immense amount of destruction among horned cattle since 
 the war for the Polish throne in 1733,^ or since its supposed 
 outbreak at the siege of Prague, Bohemia, in 1740. 
 
 1 Rutty. Op. cit. 2 Dutton. History of Galway. 
 
 ' In the Journal de TrSvoux for May 1757, there is a letter from tlic Cure of 
 Yprcs, describing how, in 1735, a pestilential disease among cattle broke out at 
 Ulm, on the banks of the Daniil)e, where for a time it made great ravages ; it was 
 soon, however, stamped out by the care which was speedily taken to prevent all
 
 270 History of Animal Plagices. 
 
 In 1745, it appears to have reached Constantinople; for, 
 according to Dr Murdoch Mackenzie, who was then residing in 
 that city, there was ' a great murrain among the black cattle in 
 Turkey/ in May of that year ; and in the beginning of June 
 'there came immense swarms of butterflies, as well as caterpillars 
 creeping everywhere. After this the plague raged severely in 
 mankind.' ^ 
 
 I will briefly notice what some of the English writers have 
 said relative to the pestilence in this country, and will then pass 
 on to glance at some of the statements of a few foreign authori- 
 ties; observing, however, that this not being a special treatise 
 on the disease, I regret I cannot notice the subject more fully, 
 and that much valuable and interesting matter pertaining to the 
 epizooty at this time must be omitted. 
 
 The malady was believed to have been introduced from Hol- 
 land to England, either by two calves which a farmer at Poplar 
 had sent for, in order to cross the breed of his cows, — or the 
 contagion was conveyed by a parcel of infected hides from Zea- 
 land. Perhaps the disease had its origin from both sources; 
 though it is certain that it first showed itself in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of London, on the Essex side of the river; from 
 thence it gradually spread through Essex and Hertfordshire, 
 reached London, and once there, was not long in being widely 
 propagated in every direction over the kingdom. It appears to 
 be also certain that its introduction into Berkshire was due to 
 two cows which had been purchased at a fair in Essex, after the 
 disease had obtained a footing there. 
 
 There was nothing very noticeable in the temperature, nor 
 were there any particular diseases prevalent in mankind when 
 this plague commenced. The spring and summer had been rather 
 wet, but the autumn was dry and cold, and the early winter 
 damp and cold. The cows of the farmer who had bought the 
 calves soon sickened and died ; cases of a similar character quickly 
 
 communication between the infected and the healthy animals. France was then at 
 war with Austria, and as cattle had to be collected on every side for the subsistence 
 of the armies, this contagious disease was spread everywhere around. The cure 
 above-mentioned thought the malady resembled somewhat the exanthematous 
 catarrhal fever that he had seen attacking man. 
 ^ Philosophical Transactions. 1764.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 O *" T 
 
 If I 
 
 manifested themselves in the neighbourhood, and the infeetion 
 was carried far and near from these various and continually in- 
 creasing centres. It is recorded that soon after the epizooty 
 declared itself in London, a disease broke out among the cattle 
 in Argyllshire, Scotland, which killed six thousand animals. 
 Whether or not this was the same affection, however, I believe 
 there is no evidence to show. 
 
 Dr Mortimer is the first writer whom I can find describino- 
 the epizooty as it appeared in London. His account of it is 
 contained in a paper read before the Royal Society on the 21st 
 November, 1745. He says : 
 
 ' As to the distemper now reigning among the cattle, I am 
 informed by the cow-keepers that a cow shall be seemingly 
 well, and feed heartily, over-night, or in the morning, and give 
 the usual quantity of milk ; that in twelve hours' time they shall 
 all of a sudden abate in their milk near half, and entirely fall 
 off their stomach, so as neither to eat or drink, and then 
 gradually lose all their milk. As soon as they perceive this 
 they give them a warm mash of malt, or the following drench : 
 "Take two ounces of caraway-seeds, boil them in a quart of 
 water, and strain it ; add a gill of white wine, and a quarter of a 
 pound of honey." Their teeth are commonly observed to be 
 loose,^ for which they lance the gums and rub them wnth salt 
 and vinegar. The very first day they have a huskiness, breathe 
 short, and wheeze, but have no great cough ; for which they 
 have blooded them (in too small quantities), and rubbed their 
 noses with tar, but with no success. Some hang down their 
 heads, and run much at the nose, for which they lay a bag of 
 scalding hot malt at their heads, tying it between their horns. 
 This has sometimes relieved this symptom, but the beasts have 
 not recovered. The second or third day most of them, not all, 
 fall into a purging, groan much, and seem to be in great pain. 
 The stools I have seen seem to be bilious, have cakes of jelly 
 come away with them, and some were streaked with blood. 
 They soon die after these stools come on. Those that arc kept 
 out in the cold air seldom live beyond the third day; those that 
 are kept warm in houses and clothed, live five, six, or even 
 
 ' This is the normal condition of the ox's incisor teeth.
 
 2,72, History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 seven days. Many of the cows I have seen have a wild stare 
 with their eyes; the whites of the eye and the skin of the eyeUds 
 looked yellowish; their tongues looked white; they had an 
 extraordinary heat in their mouths, at the roots of their horns 
 (a place where they usually feel to judge of the heat of cattle), 
 or in the axilla, or armpit, if I may so call it. The mucus run- 
 ning from their nose is very thick and ropy; their milk is thick 
 and yellow. In the two I have seen opened, the flesh and blood 
 looked much darker-coloured than usual. The fat of the first 
 looked yellow; the lungs were much inflamed in many places, and 
 had several large blisters, two or three inches over, full of water 
 on their outward surface; there was no water in the thorax, 
 little or none in the pericardium. The heart looked well, but 
 the blood in it was not at all clotted, being exceedingly fluid 
 and dark-coloured ; the paunch was very full of food and greatly 
 distended ; the stomach looked well ; the liv^er was full of 
 schirrous swellings and chalky knobs ; the gall-bladder bigger 
 than usual ; the gall fluid, but dark-coloured ; the intestines 
 inflamed in many places; the fat about the kidneys was dis- 
 tended with air ; the kidneys were sound, as was the bladder 
 and uterus. This cow was not with calf. On opening the skull 
 there was much water gushed out. In the second cow the fat 
 was not yellow; the lungs, heart, and stomach were like the 
 former; the liver was pale, flabby, not schirrous, but the gall- 
 bladder was very large ; the intestines inflamed, and in some 
 places livid ; the fat of the kidneys in this was sound, but one 
 of the kidneys was mortified. This cow was about a month gone 
 with calf. The man who skinned and opened these cows said 
 these were the general appearances in most he had skinned ; 
 only that in some he found water in the cells of the cores of the 
 horns. They skin off the hide, which they say is good to tan, 
 and they save the fat to make tallow of. The skinner told me 
 that a poor man made a hearty meal of some stakes he cut off 
 one of those cows, and that he was not sick with it (I am assured 
 that a very sufficient experiment was made in our army in Flan- 
 ders last campaign in favour of this). 
 
 ' From these circumstances I think it evident that this dis- 
 temper begins by an inflammation of the lungs, attended with a
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 273 
 
 catarrh or flux of huinours from the nose; that in the progress 
 of it there comes on an inflammation of the outs and a puririns:, 
 which ends in stools tinged with blood, exciting great pain in the 
 bowels, and so brings on death. 
 
 'Bleeding (in small quantities) has not been found effectual, 
 nor in short any of the remedies yet made use of; therefore, 
 havincr a chief reoard to the ultimate effort of nature, which 
 seems to be to carry off' the distemper by an extraordinary dis- 
 charge of gall, I hope the use of crocus metallorum, a me- 
 dicine made use of with success in horses, and a great discharger 
 of gall, as I have known its good effects in the jaundice of men, 
 mav be attended with success. I have therefore proposed to 
 some cow-keepers to give to a cow, as soon as taken ill, one of 
 the following halls {\) "Take crocus metallorum half an ounce 
 (or more, according to the size and strength of the cow, or as 
 the first dose is found to operate), in powder ; make it into a 
 ball with doutjh or crumb of bread moistened ; give the cow a 
 draught of bran and warm water after it, and repeat the draught 
 after every purging stool." f'or the running at the nose, I am 
 told, that pouring a pint of warm vinegar, with an ounce of 
 salt, into the nostrils, has proved successful in making the cow 
 sneeze and discharge a great quantity of thick yellow mucus 
 and other matter from the nose, after which the cow recovered. 
 For the shortness of breath, T have advised the giving 'Svhale- 
 oil, treacle of sugar, each a pint ; flower of brimstone four 
 ounces : give it in a mash of malt, or bran and water, twice or 
 thrice a day." For the scouring, first give the crocus purge 
 above mentioned ; then give them every six or eight hours the 
 following draught : " Take whiting one pound, bruise it ; pour 
 boiling water upon it, a quart or more; let it stand to settle; 
 pour off the clear water and fling it away ; then put a quart of 
 warm water to the wet whiting, and add hole armeitiac, in 
 powder, two ounces, Venice treacle one ounce, English malt 
 spirits half a pint." These proposals being founded upon the 
 appearance of the symi)toms, I hope they will be attended with 
 the wished-for success.' ^ 
 
 FuuTHEU OiiSEiiVATiONS. — ' Siucc my former paper t)n this 
 
 * riiil. Trans., vol. xliii. p. 532. 
 18
 
 274 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 subject I have had an opportunity of being present when three 
 cows have been skinned and opened. The lungs in all were 
 inflamed and blistered, and the guts in some places inflamed, 
 in others livid, the gall-bladders exceedingly large. A collar- 
 maker's man, who has been assisting in skinning above a 
 hundred dead cows, assures me these are the general appear- 
 ances in them all, except that in one he met with a large bag 
 full of corruption between the bag enclosing the heart and 
 the back-bone ; in another he found the gall-bladder quite con- 
 tracted and shrivelled up, having little or no gall in it, and in 
 several he found schirrous knobs in the livers. 
 
 ' Nov. 26. I desired Mr Hill, an ingenious apothecary in 
 Westminster, to accompany me to see a cow dissected, and to 
 help me examine everything very carefully, having got her 
 drawn into a shed, to defend us from the weather. When the 
 skin was taken off she appeared very fat ; the muscles looked of 
 a darker colour than usual. On opening the abdomen, the 
 caul [omentum) appeared very fat; the paunch was greatly dis- 
 tended; on making a puncture, much wind rushed out; it had. 
 in it a great deal of food ; the inside looked well and did not 
 peel ; the second and third stomachs, or the omasum, as also the 
 fourth stomach, or alomasimi, were almost empty, but looked 
 well; the liver was firm, well-coloured, and sound, except a few 
 schirrous knobs about the size of nutmegs; the gall-bladder was 
 exceedingly large, and full of very fluid gall ; the guts were in- 
 flamed in many places, the colon and caecum livid. I had the 
 curiosity to have them measured. From the anus to the in- 
 sertion of the caecum there were twelve yards (the caecum was 
 an ell long), and from the caecum to the pylorus there were 
 fifty-two yards. The midriff [diaphragm) was much swelled, in- 
 flamed, adhered in some places to the pleura, and almost wholly 
 covered with bladders of water. There was no appearance of 
 any inflammation on the pleura, or in either the internal or ex- 
 ternal intercostal muscles; the windpipe was inflamed greatly 
 throughout its whole course, especially its Inside ; but the gullet, 
 which lav so near it, was not in the least inflamed. The heart 
 was of its natural size, the pericardium full of very fluid blood, 
 probably from the bursting of some branch of the coronary
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 275 
 
 artery, caused by the extraordinary accumulation of blood in the 
 risjht ventricle; for the vena cava and right ventricle of the 
 heart were turgid and full of black coagulated blood, though this 
 cow had been dead but twelve or fourteen hours; the luno-s 
 were likewise turgid with blood, but little or none was found in 
 the left ventricle or aorta; the obstruction seemed to have been 
 so great in the lungs that very Jittle blood could pass through 
 them from the right to the left ventricle of the heart, and there- 
 fore evidently evinces the existence of a confirmed peripneumony. 
 All the membranes lining the nostrils, and the spongy bones 
 thereof, were quite turgid with blood, and in the highest state 
 of inflannnation. The greater and lesser brain looked fair and 
 well, seeming in no way distempered. I have not seen in any 
 I have examined any cutaneous sores or exulcerations; nothing 
 like the boils, carbuncles, &c., described by authors as the con- 
 stant concomitants of plague in men ; nor does there seem to 
 be any attempt of nature to fling off the distemper by any inter- 
 nal imposthumation or discharge, unless by the running at the 
 nose, and by the bilious stools, or bilious urine. The few which 
 have recovered have been such as have been kept within-doors 
 very warm ; have been blooded once, twice, or oftener; have had 
 warm mashes of malt and i)ran given them ; and warm drenches 
 of warm herbs, such as rosemary, wormwood, and ground-ivy, 
 with honey or treacle, and have neither purged at all or but 
 little; and when they have not purged at all, their urine has 
 been observed to be as high-coloured as porter's beer. 
 
 ' I am informed by the farriers and cow-leeches that a horse 
 or cow will bear to have near two gallons of blood taken away 
 without fainting. One cow I have seen, within about a month 
 or six weeks of her calving-time, was taken with the running 
 at the nose and the shortness of breath ; the owner of her imme- 
 diately took away out of the neck five quarts of blood by measure, 
 and cave her a warm mash of malt once in six or eight hours; 
 next day he cut her tail, and let her bleed two hours ; the 
 day after he took away two quarts from under the tongue, 
 and so continued bleeding her at fourteen or liltccn hours' dis- 
 tance, for seven times. She did not purge at all ; her urine 
 was as high-coloured as coffee at first, but grew ])aler and ])alcr
 
 276 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 every time of bleeding; she soon recovered, now eats heartily, 
 looks brisk, and has not slunk (aborted) her calf. 
 
 ' The concern the cow-keepers are under for the loss of their 
 substance, the various methods offered to them, and their want 
 of judgment either to choose the most rational, or their want of 
 accuracy in making experiments and following directions, is 
 quite discouraging, and is the reason why none of them have 
 pursued any regimen so steadily as to give one an opportunity of 
 making conclusions from it; indeed, several own to me they are 
 quite bewildered, not knowing which way to turn themselves, 
 or whose advice to follow, what one says being quite contrary to 
 the directions given by another. Some to whom I have given 
 my directions have blooded once, have given the purge twice, 
 but have not given the oily drench, or have given this once, and 
 have not repeated it ; others have given the chalky drench once, 
 and not repeated it, and have not followed the other parts of my 
 instructions ; so that I am sorry to find that I can have no satis- 
 factory experiments made. Yet, as the state of the disease seems 
 to be so evidently a peripneumony, or inflammation of the lungs, 
 windpipe, and nostrils, attended with a redundance of gall, I 
 cannot forbear urging to the public the following method: 
 " Give to all cows in general, while well, half an ounce or an 
 once (according to the size of the cow) of crocus metaUorum. 
 As soon as a cow falls off her meat, give her another dose of 
 crocus metaUorum, and give her warm mashes of malt, bran, &c. 
 When she runs at the nose, lay a bag of malt-meal, wetted with 
 boiling water, upon the forehead and nose, tying it to her horns, 
 morning and evening; pour warm vinegar and salt into the 
 nostrils; if a short cough or difficulty of breathing comes on, 
 bleed her one quart twice a day, for three or four days, and 
 every six hours give the oily drench ; if a purging comes on, give 
 another dose of the crocus metaUorum ; if it continue, e:ive the 
 chalky drench every six hours ; and if it does not abate in 
 twenty-four hours, inject the same mixture by way of glysters; 
 and if the husky cough continues with the purging, give the oily 
 drench one three hours, and the chalky drench the next three 
 hours. ^' 
 
 ^Most of the cows which have recovered from this distemper
 
 History of Animal Plagues. I'j'^ 
 
 recover their milk again as their appetites mend, but they arc 
 observed to have scabby eruptions come out in their groins and 
 axillce, which itch much, for a cow will stand still, hold out her 
 leg, and show signs of great pleasure when a man scratches these 
 pustules or scabs for her. I am informed that some cow-leeches 
 had given coloquintidce and salt of tartar, each one ounce, in a 
 quart of warm ale; but I imagine it must be too griping a 
 purge, and improper where the guts are inflamed. Indeed, I 
 have not heard of any cows recovering which took it. 
 
 'As for the cause of this distemper, I am still at a loss. I 
 think it cannot be owing to the food, because the cows which 
 had it first in Essex eat only grass, turnips, and hay or straw ; 
 the cows about London eat, some grass; all, grains and hay; 
 some, little or no grass, but live chiefly on grains, turnips, off- 
 falls from the garden grounds, and hay. I am in doubt as to the 
 air ; the spring and summer were very wet and the ground very 
 damp, the autumn was very dry and cold, the beginning of win- 
 ter very damp and cold. The cows in Essex had the distemper 
 in summer; it first began about London in autumn; it has 
 spread itself equally among cows which have lain in the fields 
 a-nights, and those which stood in stables or sheds ; it spread 
 itself in Essex, at first into such farms where they bought in 
 strange calves, or lean cows, at market, which they did not know 
 where they came from, but most probably from the hundreds 
 where the disease first broke out; but how it got thither, whether 
 by importing any cattle from Flanders, I know not, for surely 
 there is too wide a tract of sea for any infectious miasmata to be 
 wafted over to that part of the country by the winds ! This is 
 certain, the viscera concerned in respiration are the parts chiefly 
 affected. Its spreading here in England has been progressive, 
 and therefore one may reasonably think it is not constitutionary 
 in the air, for then it ought to be universal everywhere; but 
 that it is contagious, and propagated by infected cows being 
 mixed with well cows, therefore the not buying-in calves or 
 strange beasts, but every farmer keeping his herd by itscll, must 
 be a great means of preventing the propagation ot it. And 
 housing the cows a-nights may be a proper preservative against 
 it.'
 
 278 History of Animal Plagjics. 
 
 A third account was read by this gentleman on January 9th, 
 
 ^ During the Christmas hoHdays we sent for some milk^ as 
 usual, from the vineyard in St Jameses Park, none of the cows 
 belonging to that house having as yet caught the distemper, 
 though three had already died in the Park. We used part of the 
 milk for chocolate, and set part by for cream for the next morn- 
 ing. The milk had a rank sourish smell, and taste like rank 
 butter, the cream next morning was more so. We boiled the 
 milk, which did not curdle, so we used the cream with tea, 
 though the taste was not very agreeable. The milk boiled 
 curdled in the tea; neither any of my family, nor a friend who 
 drank of it, found any inconvenience from it. Upon sending 
 the morning following for more milk, the people refused selling 
 any, saying one cow was taken ill, and another was near dry. 
 This was the cow whose milk we had had, and she died in forty- 
 eight hours. Next day another fell ill, and was knocked on the 
 head by the public officer, in about forty-eight hours after her 
 being seized. I had the curiosity to see this cow opened, which 
 was done the next day but one. The inflammation in general 
 in this creature was greater than what I had before seen in any 
 of those which died of the distemper. This cow had been blooded 
 about three weeks before she was taken, and once as soon as taken. 
 The caul {omentum) was greatly inflamed, the paunch inflamed, 
 and the inner coat peeled off, especially that of the abomasum ; 
 the o-uts were all inflamed, the liver was much inflamed in some 
 parts, in others was turned livid ; the gall-bladder was very 
 large, and the gall was very liquid ; the lungs adhered in many 
 places to the pleura, were greatly inflamed and turgid with 
 blood, and were in many places quite black. I did not find any 
 of the watery bladders on the surface of these, as 1 did on all the 
 others I had seen opened. Here^s an instance of the most sur- 
 prisingly quick progress of this distemper, and to such a violent 
 dep-ree, that I don't think it in the power of medicines to have 
 prevented death ; but I think this case is still a further confirm- 
 ation of the necessity of plentiful bleeding as soon as a beast 
 falls sick, especially if a shortness of breath ensues. This cow was 
 not come to the stage of purging.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 279 
 
 'From the distemper getting into the Park^ I think there is 
 reason to conclude it cannot arise solely from any fault in the 
 food, because the pasture is always good there, and, from the 
 great number of horses, always kept low, and the soil never 
 dunged or manured, and the cows have plenty of hay in winter. 
 How it got into the Park is very strange, there having been no 
 fresh cows broucjht in there since Welsh fair in August. And 
 this is further very observable, that though this distemper seems 
 so very infectious among the cow kind, yet I do not hear any of 
 the deer have fallen ill, which is much more likely to happen to 
 them than to the horses, because they chew the cud, these do 
 not. I humbly therefore suggest whether it would not be the 
 most likelv means to put a stop to the spreading of the distem- 
 per, to forbid any cows or calves being brought to market, to be 
 sold alive, or that any farmers should buy in any fresh cattle for 
 six months, or till it is found that the distemper is entirely 
 ceased ; and that all fat cattle should be kept carefully separated 
 from the cows and calves, and that under severe penalties.' An 
 Appendix to the foregoing paper. ^ Upon my reading the fore- 
 going paper, some gentlemen present favoured the company 
 with the following informations and remarks. Mr Theobalds, a 
 worthy Member of the Society, and a diligent observer of remark- 
 able occurrences, informed the gentlemen present, that the first 
 infection of this dreadful distemper among the cow-kind was 
 brought over from Holland, in April, 1745, by means of two 
 white calves, which a farmer at Poplar, near London, sent for in 
 order to mix the breed; and that the infection was got to 
 Maidenhead, in Berkshire, by two cows brought out of Essex, 
 and sold at the fair there ; that there was observable a very dis- 
 agreeable smell in the clothes of persons who had been very con- 
 versant with sick cows, and that the infection had been propa- 
 gated by means of sheep, who, it is presumed, carried it in their 
 wool. Upon the mention of this scent in clothes, I remarked 
 that Dr Lobb, in his late book entitled Letters relating to the 
 I'lague and other Contagious Distempers, recommends to per- 
 sons conversant about sick cows to wear a linen garment (over 
 their clothes) wetted with a mixture of salt and vinegar, and he 
 gives many prudent useful rules to farmers for the management
 
 2 8o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 of their sick cattle. Dr Parsons, another ingenious Fellow of 
 
 ■ the Society, said, that the cattle in the high grounds about 
 Hampstead, Highgate, Millhill, and Hembdon had hitherto re- 
 
 , mained free from the infection, but that it had spread all about 
 
 ' in the lower grounds.^ 
 
 \ 'Mr Hoffman, a learned Danish gentleman present at this 
 meeting, said this infection was first carried into Denmark by 
 raw hides of cattle dead of this distemper, rubbed with wood 
 ashes, in order to preserve them fit for tanning, which were 
 brought from Flanders ; that some cows sickened in a few days 
 after the unpacking of these hides in Denmark ; and that they 
 have lost upwards of 50,000 head of cattle in that kingdom. At 
 another meeting, Mr Collinson, a member greatly deserving of 
 the Society, acquainted the company present that a farmer in 
 Essex, who had the distemper among his cows, invited a neigh- 
 bouring farmer to come and assist him in giving drenches to 
 some of his sick cattle j the good-natured man went accordingly, 
 and spent best part of the day with his neighbour, to lend him 
 his help in his distress, little dreaming of what ill consequence 
 this friendly act was about to prove to himself; for being so 
 many hours conversant with the diseased cows, so much of the 
 infectious effluvia adhered to his clothes, that, as he was walking 
 home, which was about a mile and a half, his way lying through 
 a field in which several of his own cows were feeding, he no 
 sooner entered the field, but the cattle all left off their grazing, 
 ran to the farther end of the field snorting and flinging up their 
 noses, showing the greatest uneasiness at their mastei-'s approach, 
 and endeavouring, as much as possibly they could, to avoid him, 
 as though they smelt something very disagreeable ; and so in- 
 deed it proved to them, for the very next day many of them fell 
 sick, and died in a few days.'' ^ 
 
 I ^ At a later period of this outbreak, it was observed that Wiltshire and a few 
 other places remarkable for a light, porous, and dry soil, with an elevated and open 
 aspect, escajDed the disease altogether, or were but lightly visited. 
 
 ^ Philosophical Transactions, vol. xliv. A book entitled ' An Account of the 
 Present Epidemical Distemper amongst the Black Cattle, &c., by a Member of the 
 College of Physicians, published in London in 1745, may be mentioned here for 
 the purpose of reference. It is full of grave errors and imperfect or erroneous 
 observations, especially as regards the pathological anatomy of the disease in ques-
 
 History of Animal Plagitcs. 281 
 
 Dr Lobhj the gentleman to whom Dr Mortimer refers, and 
 who appears to have been an early observer, writes : ' The con- 
 tagious distemper, which has for some time been among the 
 larger cattle in foreign countries, and which, as 1 have been in- 
 formed, appears now among that sort of cattle in Essex, in Scot- 
 land, and in Ireland, is a subject not unworthy the consideration 
 of physicians. . . . The owner of cattle in a contagious season 
 should have a faithful servant continually in the day-time with 
 his herd (as the farmers in Wiltshire, and other countries, have 
 shepherds with their flocks of sheep) to watch, and observe when 
 any of them begm to grow sick, which the herdsman may dis- 
 cover by the beast's falling off from its usual feeding, and a dull- 
 ness of its eyes. As soon as the least symptom of illness appears 
 in any beast, separate it from the herd, and convey it into some 
 place of confinement, either into a booth of boards erected for 
 this service or into some inclosure. The observance of these 
 rules is of great importance, because little or no infection is 
 emitted from the body of the beast immediately in the beginning 
 of his sickness ; but, as the distemper proceeds, more parts of the 
 blood are transmuted into the quality of those which produced 
 it, and more infectious particles will be emitted from the body of 
 the sick beast, and the danger of other cattle near the sick will 
 daily very much increase. . . . Let the booth be erected, if it can 
 be, at least a quarter of a mile from the cattle, and from houses 
 inhabited. This I propose as a means of safety to men and to 
 beasts. . . , Let the persons employed about the sick beasts keep 
 as much as possible to the windward side of them, and carefully 
 avoid taking their breath ; and while drenching, or otherwise 
 handling the beast, keep their hands wetted with a mixture of 
 salt and vinegar, and let each of them wear a linen garment, 
 after it has been wetted with vinegar, and dried, over all their 
 clothes (like that which is used by some country carters for 
 keeping off the dashings of dirt) to be buttoned close under their 
 
 tion. Like some pliysicians of our own day, he believed in its spontaneous origin : 
 'the distemper has sprung up spontaneously, about the same period of lime, in 
 many places which are very distant from and have no communication witli each 
 other.' One cannot be surprised at tlie disease ravaging tlic country for so many 
 years, when such opinions were allowed to prevail at its commencement.
 
 282 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 chins and at their wrists^ while they are among the sick cattle, 
 and put it off before they go to any other business, ... If" the sick 
 beast dies, let it be immediately buried with its hide on, and 
 with or without quicklime, in a pit seven or eight feet deep, and 
 the earth filled in close upon it, that no exhalations may pass 
 from the dead body through the earth into the air of the atmo- 
 sphere. . . . Postscript. — It is a pleasure to tell you, that since 
 I wrote this letter, I have been informed that the mortality 
 among the cattle in Ireland was not propagated by any conta- 
 gion, but was occasioned by the scarcity and badness of their food 
 the last winter, which therefore we may hope will soon cease, as 
 their food is now plentiful and wholesome.^ ... It appears to be 
 very prudent, in regard to the present sicknesses among the 
 cattle in Essex, Scotland, and Ireland, to have researches made 
 (according to the method proposed) in order to find out the 
 nature or quality of the causes that produce them, and the 
 proper remedies. But besides the accounts mentioned, there 
 should be transmitted with them a particular account of the 
 
 1 I am unable to find any particular allusion to the probable introduction of 
 the Cattle Plague into Ireland at this time ; and indeed the existence of 
 the malady in that island appears to have been altogether overlooked by recent 
 investigators. Besides the notice given by Rutty for 1745, in Faulkner's Journal 
 for August 26th, 1746, mention is further made of this epizooty in Ireland. 
 ' A great number of cows have lately been affected with a dry, husky cough 
 and universal tremour, and the urine which they make is generally very pale ; 
 the colour of their eyes is not altered, neither is the breath so offensive, nor their 
 tongue so black, as last year ; some have a violent purging, others very costive, 
 and it has destroyed a vast quantity of cattle.' In the same Journal for 1747, 
 the existence is noticed of ' an epizooty in England among horned cattle ; their 
 removal from one town to another prevented.' Another account I have been 
 able to procure refers to some murrain, which may have been the one under con- 
 sideration, and is to be found in Button's Survey of the County of Clare. He says : 
 'The murrain was a very common and fatal disorder some years since. Like the rot 
 in sheep, it exercised the ingenuity of conjecture and quackery. It was by some 
 imputed to a worm with a very large head, and of very vivid colours, which, it was 
 said, poisoned the water that the cattle drank. By others it was conjectured that 
 some poisonous plant, the seed of which, it was supposed, dropped from the clouds 
 at that particular period, and which most fortunately asses were fond of. On ac- 
 count of this happy propensity they were purchased by many sagacious graziers, 
 and, the murrain ceasing about this period, the asses had all the honour ; and it is 
 still usual to keep two or three of these animals on a farm. The number of cattle 
 killed by this dreadful disease was inmense — many persons lost almost the entire of 
 their stock, and were completely beggared. However the cure of it may have 
 been effected, it has not been known for several years.' P. 79.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 283 
 
 cases of the cattle in the sickly countries, as to the quantity and 
 qualities of their food.' ^ 
 
 There is in the London Gazette of Saturday, May 25th_, 
 1745, the following paragraph, viz. : 
 
 'Hamburg, May 19th, N.S. The mortality among the 
 horned cattle has now reached within a German mile and a half 
 of the Balliage of Pinnenberg, contiguous to the territory of 
 Hamburg, which is of little extent on the side of Danish Hol- 
 stein. The appearance of this same distemper at Hamburg, 
 gives an alarm lest it should gain further on that side of the 
 country, proper precautions are used to prevent its spreading, 
 and to get the better of it in its beginning, which is attributed 
 to some infected cattle having passed through there. This evil 
 has communicated itself likewise to the Danish Islands of Zee- 
 land and Fuhnen.^ 
 
 Dr Layard " gives us a very detailed description of the disease, 
 but drawn chiefly from other authors. His work did not appear 
 until twelve years after the outbreak of the pest. Its substance 
 will be presently given in the words of Mr Dossie. 
 
 Two years before Layard's Essay was published, Malcolm 
 Flemming recommended inoculation as a preventative of the 
 Cattle Plague. His recommendations are contained in a pamph- 
 let entitled, ' A Proposal, in order to Diminish the Progress of 
 the Distemper among the Horned Cattle, supported by Facts.' 
 London, 1755. See also The Gentleman's Magazine, vols. xxiv. 
 and XXV. for 1754 and 1755. The earlier volumes also contain 
 many notices on the progress of the Cattle Plague. 
 
 With reference to inoculation, for November, 1 754, it says : 
 'Mr Dobson, a gentleman of Yorkshire, lately connimnicated 
 to Mr l^son, a farmer and higgler of Tottenham, in Middlesex, 
 a method of preserving his cattle by inoculation. This method 
 Mr Dobson had learned from an eminent physician in Yorkshire. 
 The operation was performed by an incision in the dewlap, into 
 which was inserted a piece of tow dipped in the morbid niatter 
 
 ' Dr Theophilus Lobb. Letters relating to the Plague and Contagious Distem- 
 pers, 1745. 
 
 * Dr Layard. An'Essay on the Nature, Cause, and Cure of the Contagious 
 Distemper among the Horned Cattle in these Kingdoms. London, 1757.
 
 2,84 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 discharged from the nostrils or eyes of an infected beast^ and this 
 was allowed to remain till the symptoms of the distemper ap- 
 ' peared.' Dr Layard, writing on the 26th of November, 1757, 
 to the Earl of Macclesfield, endeavours to remove all apprehen- 
 sions of a second attack of the disease after inoculation. 'An 
 lentire conviction of the analogy between this disease and small- 
 pox would not permit me to omit mentioning the great advan- 
 tages which must arise from inoculation. ... So long as the 
 distemper has raged in Great Britain not one attested proof has 
 been brought of any head having this disease regularly more 
 than once The Marquis (de Courtivron) says that this dis- 
 temper is not communicated but from one beast to another imme- 
 diately. I must beg leave to say, that, to my knowledge, the 
 j distemper in February, 1756, was carried from the farm-yard, 
 I where I visited some distempered cattle, to two other farm-yards, 
 'each at a considerable distance, without any communication of 
 the cattle with each other, and merely by the means of servants 
 going to and fro, or of dogs.'' ^ 
 
 The disease, as we have seen, raged in all its virulency in 
 this country for many years.^ We have no difficulty in dis- 
 covering the cause for this. Veterinary science scarcely found 
 the shadow of a representative in the ignorant cowleech, and 
 there were none but medical men at all competent to give any 
 advice as to the best measures to be adopted to meet the emerg- 
 ency. These men, able and skilful undoubtedly in their own 
 profession, had, in all probability, nine-tenths of them, never be- 
 fore given comparative pathology an hour's study; and the know- 
 ledge of the diseases of mankind only, without this study, would 
 be far more likely to mislead than to guide them, and to make 
 them oppose, rather than approve of or suggest, the proper pre- 
 ventive measures. There appears to have been no Lancisi — no Dr 
 Bates, to point out the incurable character of the disease, and to 
 suggest that as it spread by contagion alone, so it could only be 
 suppressed by destroying the contagious source. It is even 
 
 1 Philosophical Transactions, vol. i. p. 528. 
 
 - Bishop Berkeley, writmg to the London Magazine in 1747, says, ' If I can but 
 introduce the general use of tar-water for this murrain, which is in truth a fever, I 
 flatter myself this may pave the way for its general use in all fevers whatever.'
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 285 
 
 questionable if the true nature of the epizooty was discovered 
 for a long time after its introduction. A cure bv medicine was 
 sought for, and with the usual result. In this way, nearhj a yeari 
 was spent in nursing the virus, and in dissoninating it over the two 
 or three kingdoms, imtil at last the public mind beoan to be 
 roused to a sense of the danger that threatened the herds, and 
 legislative measures were brought to bear against the desolating 
 scourge. But it was too late, by many months, for these to be 
 made at all efiective. ' A commission for Middlesex was ap- 
 pointed on the 25th of November, 1745. The Commission, 
 with the short experience of 1715 to guide them, appointed 
 various cowkeepers and butchers as inspectors of cattle, and in- 
 structed them — I. To inspect cow-houses, and to separate sick 
 from sound cows. 2. To see that all cow-houses and yards were 
 kept thoroughly clean. 3. To kill all sick cows and calves, to 
 slash their hides so as to render them useless, with several cuts 
 from head to tail and round the body, and then to bury them in 
 graves ten feet deep, with two bushels of unslacked lime to each 
 cow. 4. To certify to the destruction of the cows, for each of 
 which the Treasury gave 40,1'. 5. To see that proper returns 
 were made by cow-keepers as to their losses. 
 
 The disease having spread beyond Middlesex, an Act was 
 passed and received the Royal Assent on the 13th February, 174(5, 
 empowering the Crown to issue, through the Privy Council, 
 rules and directions in order to prevent the distemper spreading 
 amongst horned cattle. 
 
 On the 1 2th March, 1746, an Order in Council was passed 
 in which the incurable nature of the malady is set forth and the 
 following regulations appear : — 1. Covv-kccpers must shoot in- 
 fected beasts, and bury them entire with slashed hides, four feet 
 deep covered with lime. (The direction as to the use of lime was 
 subsequently revoked.) 2. All hay and litter used by diseased 
 animals must be burned. No herdsman who has attended a dis- 
 eased beast is to go near a sound one without changing his clothes. 
 3. Infected sheds must be thoroughly washed all over, then dis- 
 infected with burning sulphur, &c., again repeatedly washed with 
 vinegar and water, ,'iiul not used for two nioiillis. 4. Convales- 
 cent anin)als are not to Ik- mixed with sound ones for one month,
 
 2,86 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and not then till they have been well curried and cleansed with 
 vinegar and water. 5. Flesh and entrails of diseased cattle are 
 not to be given as food to other animals. 6. No man whose 
 herd is infected is to be allowed to drive any cattle, whether dis- 
 eased or not, beyond the boundary of his farm. And even when 
 disease has disappeared, his herd is to be held infected for a 
 month. 7. Local authorities, such as churchwardens, over- 
 seers, constables, or cattle-inspectors who may be appointed, are 
 charged to see to the execution of this order. They are to report 
 to each meeting of Justices, and to make exact returns. 8. 
 These local authorities are to persuade owners to divide up their 
 herds into separate parts ; they are not only to see to the bury- 
 ing of diseased cattle, but also the burial of all infected dung. 
 
 9. Cattle travelling on roads are to be stopped and examined. 
 
 10. Houses, buildings, or yards used for cattle, sound or diseased, 
 are to be carefully kept clean. 11. Compensation for slaugh- 
 tered cattle is to be paid at the rate of 405. per head ; for calves 
 10s. 
 
 Towards the end of that year, the Government found that 
 the local authorities had not assisted them vigorously in the exe- 
 cution of the first Order, and they issued a second to the effect, 
 that from the 27th December, for three calendar months, no per- 
 son shall send to fairs or markets any cattle except for immediate 
 slaughter, or ' buy, sell, or expose to sale any cattle except those 
 which are ready for immediate slaughter. Nor is this privilege 
 of selling fat cattle permitted to any one whose herd is infected. 
 Therefore all beasts going to fairs or markets must be provided 
 with passes from a Justice, or, failing him, from other competent 
 local authorities, given on the owner's oath that his cattle are and 
 have been for a month free from the plague. No raw hides shall 
 be sold or allowed to be transported without like passes, but hides 
 and horns of diseased beasts must absolutely be destroyed, and a 
 compensation of 10^. per hide is given.' 
 
 A third Order in Council was issued, proscribing the district 
 from the Humber and Trent, and not allowing cattle to be driven 
 out of it northwards from the 19th December, 1747, to the fol- 
 lowing 27th March. 
 
 On the 13th February, 1747, an Act to amend and extend the
 
 History of Anhnal Plagues. 287 
 
 powers of the previous Act was passed ; and this was followed, 
 up to 1757, by various continuing and enlarging statutes. In 
 addition to the measures before specified, these Statutes also 
 provided that sales of cattle should only take place when the 
 seller had had them in his possession for 40 days; calves were 
 not allowed to be sold, in order that they might be preserved for 
 breeding; purposes, and severe restrictions were put on the sale of 
 the hides of diseased animals. 
 
 Various Orders were issued during the year 1747, stopping 
 local fairs, and empowering local authorities to do so when they 
 found it expedient. 
 
 The plague, in consequence of these Orders, was extinguished 
 where the local authorities acted with vigour, but lingered in 
 other places when these were remiss or indifferent, which was 
 generallv the case; so that it spread after a time as rapidly as 
 ever. In consequence of this, in 1749, there is a new suspension 
 of all fairs and markets, and of all movements of cattle, except 
 for slaujrhter, throus;hout the kingdom for three months. This 
 was modified afterwards, sound lean cattle being allowed to be 
 changed to clean pastures, and cows being allowed to go to bulls 
 when both were sound. Tiie same result followed this new 
 Order as its predecessors. The disease was extinguished in 
 many counties, but lurked in others where the local authorities 
 had been lax in looking after the execution of the Order. Hence 
 in December, 1749, the Council admits its failure in suppress- 
 ino- the disease, and now again prohibits all movement of cat- 
 tle except for slaughter, and the place of slaughter must be within 
 two miles of the spot where the cattle are on the 14th December, 
 1750. The requirement that cattle should be slaughtered only 
 within two miles of their stalls was found very grievous by London 
 and Westminster, and the outcry raised against it by these influen- 
 tial places produced a revocation of it within a month of its issue. 
 . . For some time after the revocation of the Order of 1749, each 
 county proscribed neighl)()uring infected counties, and refused to 
 receive their cattle.^ The roads from one county to another were 
 
 ' The following is from a private nicmorandum on this disease, which was 
 puhlishcd in 1 866. 
 
 ' 1754.— In the Session of 1753-4 the (lueslion of llic Cattle Plague seems to
 
 288 History of Animal Piagices. 
 
 strictly guarded, and cattle, hides, carcases, and tallow from any 
 infected counties were carefully excluded. 
 
 have received much attention in the House of Commons. Papers upon the subject, 
 and a return of tlie sums paid for compensation, were presented, and referred to a 
 select committee, who reported certain causes of spreading the distemper, and made 
 recommendations, having come to 1 6 resolutions on the subject. 
 
 ' These are given in cxtcnso, as showing the opinion of the House of Commons 
 after eight years of the distemper. 
 
 ' I. The lodging of cattle driven for sale in places where infected cattle are or 
 have lately been, may be one cause of spreading the distemper. 
 
 ' 2. The mixing together different herds of cattle not fit for immediate slaughter 
 in fairs, markets, and other places for sale has been one other cause. 
 
 ' 3- The mixing of infected cattle with sound on commons and common grounds 
 has been one other cause. 
 
 '4. Great difficulties and inconveniences have arisen and may hereafter arise 
 from the want of proper powers to order the lodging cattle stopped by virtue of 
 his Majesty's Orders in Council of March 22, 1747-8. 
 
 ' 5. The laws, rules, orders, and regulations for the killing of infected cattle 
 upon their first being seized have not in general been punctually complied with. 
 
 '6. Certificates for cattle to be driven beyond the distance of five miles, with- 
 out a limitation of time beyond which such certificates shall cease to be of force, are 
 subject to abuse, and may have been one other cause. 
 
 ' 7. All contracts and bargains between the buyers and sellers of cattle, condi- 
 tional upon such cattle, or any number of them, surviving a certain time, tend to 
 the continumg and further spreading of the distemper. 
 
 ' 8. The laws, rules, orders, and regulations now in being should be reduced 
 into one Act of Parliament, subject to such alterations and regulations as his 
 Majesty, by the advice of his Privy Council, shall from 'time to time think pro^Der 
 to order. 
 
 ' 9. The notices ordered to be given of the breaking out and arising in particu- 
 lar places of the distemper by his Majesty's Order in Council of the 22nd day of 
 March, 1747-8, should be published in the London Gazette. 
 
 ' 10. No horned cattle should be driven or admitted into any pasture, close, or 
 field where the distemper has been for two calendar months after such distemper 
 has ceased, nor for six calendar months where such pastures, closes, or fields have 
 not been cleared of all litter, dung, stones, or hay, and where such pastures, &c., 
 have not been rolled, mowed, or fed bare with horses, hogs, geese, or sheep. 
 
 '11. No certificates for cattle to be driven beyond the distance of five miles, 
 conformable to his Majesty's Order in Council, should be of force for any longer 
 term than ten days from the date of such certificate. 
 
 ' 12. No two or more herds of cattle, consisting together of above 20 beasts, 
 intended for immediate sale, and not fit for Immediate slaughter, should be driven 
 or admitted at the same time in the same pasture, close, field, fair, market-place, 
 or other place of sale whatsoever, unless such pasture, &c., be so separated and 
 divided as to preserve the cattle of such different herds from immediate contact. 
 
 ' 13. No horned cattle should be driven to pasture in common or common 
 grounds unless such cattle have been in the possession of their owners and free 
 from the distemper 40 days at the least before such driving. 
 
 ' 14. Proper powers should be granted for the lodging [disposition] such cattle
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 289 
 
 These measures, however, had but a very partial effect. 
 For the next two or three years this local war against the disease 
 was allowed to be waged, the Government occasionally interfer- 
 ing when the magistrates permitted fairs in places likely to be in- 
 jurious to neighbouring counties. It continued up to 1756 with 
 considerable variations, the Plague being intense in some coun- 
 ties, milder in others, and absent from many, until it wore itself 
 out. There is no accurate record within our knowlcdo-e of the 
 mortality produced by it. In the second year of the visitation, 
 100,000 head of cattle are supposed to have been lost in Lincoln- 
 shire ; in the third year, more than 40,000 died in Leicester- 
 shire and Nottinghamshire, and in about six months of that year, 
 30,000 perished in Cheshire. In the same year, 80,000 were 
 killed, under the Orders in Council, to prevent the spread of the 
 contagion; and in the following year, they were destroyed at the 
 rate of 7000 a month ; but a far larger number perished by the 
 disease. During its course it must have destroyed several hun- 
 dred thousand cattle.^ 
 
 as shall be stopped by virtue of his Majesty's Order in Council, dated March 22, 
 1747-8. 
 
 ' 15. All contracts and bargains between the buj'ers and sellers of cattle, con- 
 ditional upon such cattle, or any number of them, surviving a certain time, should 
 be void, and further penalties be inflicted upon all those who shall so offend. 
 
 ' 16. Reward equal to the full value should be paid to the owner of every first, 
 second, and third beast of the whole stock of horned cattle upon every farm or 
 holding [or upon commons thereto belonging] of the same person, that shall be 
 seized with the distemper, and that shall be separated, killed, and buried conform- 
 able to his Majesty's Order in Council of March 22, 1747-8, provided such beast 
 or beasts shall have been the real property and remained in the actual possession of 
 such owner 40 days at the least immediately preceding such killing. 
 
 ' These resolutions were agreed to by the House, with amendments, shown in 
 brackets, in the 14th and i6th, and a Bill was founded upon them, which passed 
 through the House of Commons, but was rejected on going into committee by the 
 House of Lords, perhaps in consequence of the approaching dissolution of Parlia- 
 ment, and a simple Continuance Bill was passed instead.' 
 
 ' First Report of the Royal Commissioners on the Cattle Plague, p. viii. The 
 remembrance of this fearful epizooty among the cattle in Britain has not yet passed 
 away. Mr Cecly, for example, in speaking of the epizootics |and enzootics of the 
 Vale of Aylesbury, says : ' In common with many other parts of the kingdom, this 
 neighbourhood suffered much from tlie contagious epizocity which prevailed so 
 fatally among horned cattle from the years 1745 to 1780. Tlic places of interment 
 of many of its victims are yet pointed out, and the dismal talcs of its ravages are 
 remembered by many with whom 1 have conversed.' — Obsen'otions on (he Vatiolct 
 Vaccin<e. Trans. Provincial Med. and Surg. Assoc. 
 
 19
 
 290 History of Animal PlagiLCs. 
 
 In a work entitled ' Considerations concernina; the Dis- 
 temper which still spreads itself among the Horned Cattle in 
 this Kingdom/ by a Physician, and published in 1749, we are 
 made acquainted with some of the causes which led to the ex- 
 tension and retention of the disease in England ; and learn 
 something of its contagious character, and its symptoms, as 
 well as a method of cure. From this treatise we will make 
 some extracts. Speaking of the doctrine of contagion, a sub- 
 ject which was then much debated, and which was for more 
 than a century later to furnish a bone of contention to medical 
 men, and to lead to oftentimes unhappy results by permitting 
 infectious and contagious maladies to run riot amongst man- 
 kind, because certain physicians did not believe in the com- 
 municability of special diseases, he says: ''At present it is my 
 design to consider this doctrine principally as it concerns pesti- 
 lential contagion, and that chiefly in relation to the calamitous 
 distemper which has so long raged among the horned cattle in 
 this island, which I take to be pestilential. Nothing in my 
 humble opinion did so much contribute to the spreading of this 
 terrible distemper at its first breaking out as the heliefthat it ivas 
 not contagious, and the expectation of an effectual remedy for it ; 
 because both those notions had a manifest tendency to lessen 
 the care and vigilance that were necessary to prevent it. In re- 
 gard to the latter of them, I am not ashamed to own I was then 
 an infidel ; and I am so still as to the possibility of the cure be- 
 fore the malignity of the distemper began to decline ; being fully 
 persuaded that what Virgil says on a like occasion is too applic- 
 able to the present as well as every other pestilence in its begin- 
 ning and at its height, viz. that it admitsof very little relief from 
 the Art of Medicine. Such of the most eminent physicians as 
 were first consulted by the Government concerning this dis- 
 temper were certainly of the same opinion as to the difficulty of 
 curing it, and therefore very honestly advised their superiors to 
 employ their authority in enforcing a punctual compliance with 
 the most likely means to stop the progress of it — an attempt 
 which there was then some reason to believe as practicable as it 
 
 was desirable It has been suo-o-ested bv an incjenious 
 
 writer, who some time ago undertook to confute the opinion of
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 291 
 
 this distemper's contagion (see An Account of the Present Mor- 
 tality among the Black Cattle, 1745), that the notion of con- 
 tagion may contribute much to the mortahty of the distemper " by 
 putting the dealers in cattle upon an improper method of treatino- 
 it/' This may possibly be true, but it is no argument against 
 the reality of the distemper's contagion. The same improper 
 method has often been deduced from the same principle in the 
 small-pox, and yet nobody will scruple to own that distemper to 
 be contagious. ... I cannot therefore but wish that, instead of 
 patronizing the contrary opinion, this ingenious author had 
 endeavoured to confirm the farmers in their notion of the dis- 
 temper's contagion, and to convince them of the falsity of the 
 inference in respect of its cure which they had been tau2;ht to 
 draw from it. In this case he would have contributed more to 
 the stopping of it by his theory, than either he or any eminent 
 physician upon earth could probably have done during its first 
 violence by any method of practice It is very observ- 
 able that this pestilence among our cattle very much resembles 
 that of Ramazzini in most of its symptoms and effects, as in the 
 stupidity of the beginning, the flux from the nose, the looseness, 
 the shortness of breath, the coagulation of the blood, the crisis 
 which sometimes happens by eruptions (Ramazzini tells us these 
 pustules, which he calls Tuhercula variolariim speciem refereiitia, 
 broke out over the whole body on the 5th or 6th day, and that the 
 cattle generally died — as they do now — about the 5th or 7th; from 
 whence it is probable these eruptions were not symptomatica! 
 but critical, as they arc in the present distemper, wherein scarce 
 any beast that has them dies. It appears, then, that the learned 
 author of the Account, &'c., was mistaken in what he tells us, 
 " that this variolous eruption was the distinguishing mark of the 
 disease described by Ramazzini, and that either he was misin- 
 formed when he said no such eruptions are seen upon the skins 
 of cattle, which are now infected, or that this symptom is one 
 instance of the present mitigation of the distemper's original 
 virulence"), and the dry hard substance constantly found in the 
 Omasum or Paunch, which Raniazzini supposes, but in my 
 opinion unjustly, to be caused by the first imi)ressi()u of the 
 contiigious miasmata on that part. For it appears to nic as if it
 
 292 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 proceeded merely from the violence of the fever, which causes 
 an entire defect of the juice that is naturally secreted there for 
 the moistening and lubricating the food and the paunch; for 
 want of which juice I can easily conceive the dry food to be 
 capable of being baked by the preternatural heat of the body. 
 .... The excessive mortality of the present distemper under 
 every method of cure in its beginning is sufficient to prove its 
 malignity, if anything can ; and from the degree of its malignity, 
 I think we may safely infer the species of it. For as pestilential 
 malignity is the most mortal of all others, and no malignity was 
 scarce ever more mortal than this among the cattle, it is surely 
 good logic to infer that the malignity of the present dis- 
 temper is no other than pestilential I am of opinion, 
 
 that as the pathognomonic sign of the distemper described by 
 Severinus was a sore-throat, so the distinguishing one of this 
 among the cattle is a peripneumony, or inflammation of the lungs. 
 Neither is this sign of a peripneumony less familiar to a plague 
 than any other topical inflammation is . . . I will not pretend to 
 say there are no aphthae in this general inflammation, they being 
 very common in many inflammatory disorders, where they are 
 not the pathognomonic; but that the general and most obvious 
 sympton)s of this distemper are such as belong to a peripneu- 
 mony, will not be controverted by any physician who has either 
 
 seen it or heard any description of it I will only add one 
 
 thing more concerning the learned author^s determination, which 
 is, that with submission to him I think a pestilential peripneu- 
 mony is a more discriminating name for this disease than a 
 gangrenous contagious one ; for the most striking circumstance in 
 this calamity, the prodigious mortality of it, is not so thoroughly 
 implied in the author's two epithets, as it is in the one I have 
 given it, which likewise expresses every circumstance implied in 
 loth those of the learned author. ... It cannot, I imagine, 
 be denied that to give contagion a power of infecting an animal, 
 there must be a disposition in the animal itself to be acted upon, 
 as well as in the contagion to act upon it. For if the simple 
 power of contagion was able to infect, it would not be possible 
 for any animal that lived within its reach to escape its influence; 
 but it is a known truth that some escape it who live in the midst
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 293 
 
 of it, in all, even the most virulent of contagious distempers. In 
 what this disposition in an animal to be acted upon immediatelv 
 consists, we are not enough in the secrets of nature to explain, 
 any more than we can tell what constitutes the specific essence 
 
 of any contagion I never denied it to be possible in the 
 
 height of some very violent plagues (when a great quantity of j 
 pestilential vapours are continually exhaling from innumerable 
 bodies — both living and dead), for some of the contagious effluvia 
 to be carried from the places of their emission, by a current of 
 wind constantly running in the same direction, to a considerable 
 distance; by which means I can easily conceive it possible for 
 some people, who have no commerce with the infected, to live 
 within the limits of the progress of these contagious effluvia, and 
 consequently within the influence of their power. But supposing 
 these facts could not be thus accounted for, I would beg leave to 
 ask, whether these authors do not seem to have been too hasty in 
 affirming there was no communication between these people 
 living at a distance and the infected places ? For what they 
 affirm is a negative which cannot be proved, and therefore ought 
 not to be admitted. If by no communication they mean only no 
 communication of the same species of animals, that will not 
 answer their purpose; because contagion may undeniably be com- 
 municated by many other ways, many of which might be practised 
 without falling under the observation of the persons who re- 
 ceived the infection. All other species of animals may carry it 1 
 without being infected by it themselves, and as nothing is known 
 to retain infection more than hair, it mav, and doubtless has been , 
 carried by animals who have strayed from the infected to the 
 
 sound Neither does diet any better account for this ) 
 
 excessive mortality. For these exclusively mortal distempers 
 equally destroy all creatures of the same species, however differ- 
 ently dieted. We cannot, therefore, but subscribe to the general 
 opinion concerning the principal cause of such excessive mortality, 
 and acquiesce in their judgment, who have imputed this eilect 
 to pestilential contagion. It only remains, then, to incpiire 
 whether the confessed mortality of the present distemper lias not 
 always been excessive in every condition of air and diet, for a 
 long time after its first breaking out? And as a proof that it
 
 294 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 has been so, I need only appeal to those who have observed its 
 mortality in verv different countries and very different seasons. 
 The truth of this fact would have been still more apparent but 
 for the early care of the legislature^ which by enabling distant 
 countries to guard against the approach of suspected cattle, did 
 thereby for a long time prevent the infection from being carried 
 into many different grounds of very different degrees of fer- 
 tility. But, notwithstanding all their prudence, it has now 
 insinuated itself into very distant countries and very different 
 soils, where its pestilential contagion is even still sufficiently 
 
 evident A late ingenious writer (vide Essay on 
 
 Pestilential Contagion) has proposed the only effectual method, 
 if indeed anything can be effectual in the present diffusive- 
 ness of the contagion, which I think there is too much reason 
 to doubt. For if we consider how long it has now raged 
 among us, and how ineffectual every method enjoined by the 
 legislature to restrain the communication between the infected 
 and the sound has for a long time been, we cannot but think it 
 probable that some portions of infection are now dispersed in an 
 infinite number of places in this kingdom, and as long as any of 
 these infectious portions remain undestroyed (which in some that 
 are lodged in substances very retentive of infection, such as hair, 
 wool, &c., must certainly be a long time), so long it will be in the 
 power of every animal in whose clothes or hair they at present 
 lie concealed to propagate them whenever they come near that 
 species of animals which alone they are adapted to infect. And 
 when the occasions of spreading disease are become thus exten- 
 sive, what can a Government do ? Be it ever so disposed to 
 restrain any suspicious commerce between its subjects, it cannot 
 prevent danger where it sees it not ; and be it ever so circum- 
 spect and vigilant, it cannot possibly see where it is, unless it 
 offers some marks of itself to men's senses; which it certainly 
 does not but where it meets with its object, the cattle themselves. 
 Wherever, indeed, it actually breaks out, from thence all further 
 occasion of spreading it may be prevented by the learned author's 
 method; but still it may be propagated from every other place 
 and thing where it continues unexhausted; and therefore it must 
 necessarily be a long time before it be extinguished. (Perhaps it
 
 History of Animal PlagiLcs. 295 
 
 would not a little contribute to the accomplishment of this dif- 
 ficult purpose to lower the hedges and cut up all the superfluous 
 wood in enclosures of a dry soil, by which means not only a 
 freer communication of air would be obtained, but likewise a 
 greater degree of dryness and purity; and in marshy and fenny 
 inclosures, where infected cattle are known to have been, it seems 
 no less useful to burn wood for ^some time after they have left ' 
 them.) As to the method which was at first employed to stop 
 the progress of the infection in any place where it had once 
 broke out, viz. the indiscriminate shooting of the sick cattle, 
 though it was at first wisely enjoined by the legislature, yet I am 
 of opinion, that unless it be always executed upon the very first 
 suspicion of the distemper's appearance, it never was, nor ever 
 could be, effectual. And if nothing can justify the killing a few 
 but the probability arising from thence of saving the rest, what 
 is killing them without such probability but conspiring with the 
 distemper against the lives of the whole? But there can be no 
 such probability withouta punctual observance of the circumstance 
 above-mentioned, viz. a very early execution of the Government's 
 Order; and what chance there is for such a compliance in a 
 country where we are apt to prize oiir liberty most when it is 
 least useful to us, our fatal experience has already too well in- 
 formed us. Nor in the present extensiveness of the contagion 
 can even the most early execution of this Order be always success- 
 ful ; for though it be probable from some experiments lately 
 made that the cattle do not infect each other till a few days after 
 the very first signs of the distemper in themselves, yet it is no 
 less probable from other experiments, as well as the reason of 
 things, that the pastures in which they feed, nay, the very high- 
 ways through which they pass, do receive and retain some por- 
 tions of contagion accidentally brought into them by animals 
 of different species ; so that though they escape it ever so often 
 from each other, by the care of their owners, yet they are 
 every hour liable to it from many other accidents. When the 
 means, therefore, of communicating the distemper are become 
 thus numerous, and the chance for preventing its spreading from 
 that as well as other causes is proportionately lessened, surely it 
 is advisable to aj)ply our industry to find out the means of cure.
 
 296 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 And thisj if I am not much deceived, the present mitigation of 
 the distemper's original severity has made much more feasible 
 than it was some time ago. (As great havoc as the distemper 
 makes at present, it is very certain that many more cattle have 
 for this last year and a half recovered than did from its first 
 breaking out to that time. And this is true both of those treated 
 medically, and of those which are not. This difference of event 
 in regard to the latter, cannot be denied to proceed from a dif- 
 ferent degree of violence in the distemper; and I think the same 
 conclusion may be justly drawn in respect of the former, since 
 no method of treatment for some time after its first appearance 
 — when all kinds were tried — was able to produce the same 
 event.) The cure consisted in bleedings every day for three, four, 
 or five days, with drenches of water gruel, and afterwards warm 
 mashes of bran and water gruel alternately until nearly quite well, 
 when dry food was to be allowed in very small quantity. The 
 animal was to be kept in a warm house with plenty of straw to 
 
 lie on If the beast breaks out in blotches about the fifth or 
 
 seventh day, its recovery may be depended on; but a great many 
 do also recover which have no such critical eruptions. . . . There 
 may undoubtedly be some occasions where it may be useful, and 
 even necessary, to add some medicines; and whoever has a mind 
 to use them properly may find them very judiciously adapted to 
 the chief indications of cure in a late pamphlet styled An Essay 
 to fix the Judgment of the Public on the Nature and Cure of the 
 Distemper now raging among the Horned Cattle, cSc, which, so 
 far as concerns the means of cure, is the best which has yet been 
 published on the subject.' 
 
 Another physician, writing in 1751, remarks : ^'Tis observed 
 in experience, that sometimes the particular distemperature of 
 the air infects human bodies only. Again, it shall only infect 
 animals, sometimes of one kind, and sometimes of another ; 
 and of late we have had a very fatal experience of a most raging 
 pestilential fever among our horned cattle, from a peculiar pollu- 
 tion in the air. And what confusion of advice and melancholy 
 destruction have we been witnesses of in the present raging sick- 
 ness among the cattle, except in some few instances where the 
 rational means of cure have prevailed For when the
 
 History of Animal Plagues. igy 
 
 distemper is suffered to get a-head, there is little hopes of a 
 recovery ; this sickness among the cattle being evidently a most 
 inflammatory and pestilential fever_, admitting of no delay ; for 
 if once the inflammation be suffered to form, or fix on the lungs 
 and other viscera or bowels, very little hope is then left/ ^ 
 
 On the 30th of August, 1748, it was announced that the 
 justices of the peace in several counties where the distemper had 
 raged among the horned cattle, had certified to the Privy Coun- 
 cil that the infection had ceased. In the month of September of 
 the same year, however, it was declared that the distemper among 
 the horned cattle had broken out afresh about Burton-upon- 
 Trent, in Buckinghamshire, and also near Camberwell, in Surrey. 
 In the month of September, 1749, a report from Manchester was 
 published, to the effect that the plague had reached Lancashire, 
 and that it continued to rage in the counties of York and Dur- 
 ham. The distemper raged in the month of November, i750j» 
 in the Isle of Ely and some parts of Suffolk. In the month of 
 May, i75i,itwas reported that, in consequence of ' the infection 
 among the horned cattle raging in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and 
 Westmoreland, the justices of the peace of the neighbouring 
 county of Cumberland have, at their quarter sessions, ordered the 
 roads to be strictly guarded for preventing the introduction of 
 cattle, hides, carcases, or tallow, from any adjacent English county. 
 The said distemper is broke out also in the counties of Wilts 
 and Oxford, which has alarmed the justices of the counties of 
 Gloucester, Hereford, and Monmouth ; and the justices of So- 
 mersetshire have forbid the bringing of cattle from Wales, Wilt- 
 shire, and Gloucestershire, on advice that the distemper is spread 
 into those parts.' On the 26th of February, 1752, it was stated 
 that the justices, at their respective sessions, had announced that 
 the distemper was raging in the parishes of Ash Church and 
 Bcckford, in Gloucestershire; in several parts of Buckingham- 
 shire, and the adjacent counties ; within the division of Holland, 
 and in several other parts of Lincolnshire; and in the counties 
 of York, Lancaster, and Derby. In the month of March, it 
 was declared that the disease seemed to be much abated; In 
 
 ' A Treatise on the Plague and Pestilential Fevers, with some Observations on 
 the Pestilential Fever now raging among the Horned Cattle. London, I75'i.
 
 298 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Wiltshire it had totally ceased ; but in Somersetshire sixteen 
 had died in the parishes of East Chennock and Clodsworth.^ 
 On the 9th of May it was said : ^Tis hoped the distemper 
 among the cattle at East Chennock is stopt, not one having 
 been taken ill for above three weeks. Great care has been 
 taken by the justices to prevent the calamity from spreading. 
 All fairs have been stopt for some time, and above twenty shot 
 by order of the clerk of the peace. The cattle were appraised, 
 and the owners paid out of the county stock ; and one of the 
 oxen in an ox-v/aggon which carried the soldiers' baggage, fall- 
 ing down dead, the other five were immediately shot.' On the 
 31st of May, it was announced that the distemper was about 
 six miles east of Reading, Berks, where it had not been before. 
 
 Early in 1753, 'The distemper among the cattle being 
 broke out near Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, fifteen belonging to 
 one man were ordered to be shot; and the justices of the peace 
 this day prohibited the holding any fair or market, and removal 
 or sale of any, except fat cattle for immediate slaughter.' On 
 the 15th of October, 1753, ^ fanner of the parish of Shemping, 
 in Suflblk, was convicted, on his own confession, before two 
 justices of the peace, in the penalty of <^ioo, for buying and 
 driving infected cattle, contrary to law, and immediately paid 
 the penalty; and his servant was afterwards committed to Bury 
 gaol, not being able to pay the penalty of .^^50 for intimidating 
 and preventing the inspector and parish officers from executing 
 his Majesty's orders and regulations, and not suffering them to 
 kill four beasts that were distempered, whereby the infection 
 was spread into several adjoining parishes. On the 26th of 
 October, 1753, ^^ clerk of the peace for Ipswich received notice 
 of upwards of sixty parishes within the county where the dis- 
 temper had broken out amongst the cattle. On the 3rd of 
 November, 1753, ^^ ^^'^ reported that the distemper among the 
 horned cattle had broken out at Chatham, and ninety-seven had 
 died on the roads between that place and Canterbury. The 
 
 ^ The Dublin Gazette for March, 1 752, speaking of the Cattle Plague in London, 
 says : ' The distemper among horned cattle rages considerably about the skirts, in- 
 somuch that last Saturday several cows were buried in the fields at the bottom of 
 Gray's Inn Lane.'
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 299 
 
 infection was supposed to have been communicated by some 
 droves lately brought from distant counties. In February, 1754, 
 it was stated that the distemper continued to rage amongst the 
 horned cattle in the North Riding of Yorkshire and some parts 
 of the county of Durham. In the month of December, more 
 cows died of the reigning distemper in St James's Park. The 
 malady continued more or less, as already mentioned, in 1755-6. 
 In the month of April, 1757, we find it stated that the conta- 
 gious distemper among the horned cattle had appeared at Lewis- 
 ham, in Kent, and in some parts of Somersetshire. On the 28th 
 of June the Royal assent was given to an Act ^more effectually 
 to prevent the spreading of the distemper now raging amongst 
 the horned cattle in the kingdom;' and in the month of October 
 the justices of the peace for the county of Essex, at their 
 general quarter sessions, prohibited all fairs and markets, in 
 order to prevent the spreading the disease. After this little more 
 was heard of the subject for some years. In 1758, it does not 
 appear that any cases were reported, and in February, i759j) a 
 day of general thanksgiving was ordered to be observed, because 
 of its cessation. The malady lost much of its virulency towards 
 its decline, and the proportion of recoveries was very much 
 larger than at its commencement. For several reasons, no 
 reliance can be placed upon the Treasury records as to the num- 
 ber of cattle that perished from it during its twelve years' reign, 
 but it has been roughly estimated at about 500,000.^ 
 
 In 1769, the disease continuing to ravage Holland, it was 
 again introduced into England and Scotland towards the end 
 of that year. On the 9th of January, 1770, his Majesty, in 
 his speech to both Houses of Parliament, referred to it in 
 these words : Mt is with much concern that I find myself 
 obliged to open this Session of Parliament with acquainting 
 you that the distemper among horned cattle has lately broke 
 out in this kingdom, notwithstanding every precaution that 
 could be used for preventing the infection from foreign parts.' ^ 
 
 ' Much curious information rcsj)ecting llie invasion of the Cattle Plague, and 
 more particularly the ' cures,' will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine and the 
 Scots' Magazine for this period. 
 
 ^ The Annual Register, vol. xiii. p. 244.
 
 300 History of Aiimial Plagues. 
 
 The outbreak in England^ alluded to in the speech from the 
 throne^ occurred at Stoneham^ in Hampshire, in the winter of 
 1769, and appears to have attacked cows only; it was extin- 
 guished in January, 1770. Orders in Council, based on those of 
 1747, were issued, applying not only to Hants, but also to 
 Dorset, Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, and Berks. 
 
 In the Scots' Magazine for 1770, there is a great amount 
 of information on this so-called Cattle Distemper. In the 
 March number, it is said that ^the distemper among the horned 
 cattle, the lamentable effects of which, in Holland, are related 
 in our last, having made^ its appearance in this country, the 
 gentlemen who have the honour to serve the King exerted 
 themselves speedily, and we hope successfully, to stop its pro- 
 gress.' The disease was first supposed to have been commu- 
 nicated to cattle at Portsoy, in the county of Banff, by four 
 packages of hay imported from Holland. Dr Cullen, writing 
 on the 15th of April, 1770, says: Ht is needless to mention 
 that the distemper made its first appearance at Portsoy, a sea- 
 port town situated on the Boyne, in the Moray Firth, about 
 eio-ht Encjlish miles to the west of Banff and four to the east of 
 Cullen. In order, if possible, to eradicate at once such an alarm- 
 ing calamity, the justices of the peace of Banffshire resolved 
 to destroy every horned beast in Portsoy and the neighbourhood, 
 infected and not infected, and to bind themselves to see the pro- 
 prietors fully indemnified of the value of the sound cattle. This 
 was punctually executed on the 2ist and 22nd of March, and 
 the carcases, horns, skins, and all were buried about four feet 
 underground. Then the dung of all the infected byres, with 
 the upper part of the floors, were also buried, and the byres 
 were thoroughly fumigated with tar and brimstone. The justices 
 at the same time appointed all the cattle, within two English 
 miles round Portsoy, to be daily visited by four of the most 
 respectable farmers in the neighbourhood, who were ordered to 
 make a report every day of the state of all the cattle within the 
 circle of their visitation. Orders were likewise issued to all the 
 Earl of Findlater's fishers on this part of the coast, prohibiting 
 them, in the strongest terms, from assisting, directly or indirectly, 
 to land any goods in a clandestine manner from any ship which
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 301 
 
 mioht happen to arrive on the coast. This happened about tea 
 days before the prohibition by the sheriff and admiral appeared. 
 For eio-ht davs after the Portsoy cattle were buried the inspectors 
 reported 'all the cattle well/ and the most sanguine hopes 
 were entertained that the contagion had entirely subsided ; 
 but, to the unutterable astonishment of everybody, intelligence 
 was brought to Cullen, on the 4th of April, that one of the | 
 cattle of my Lord Findlater's tenant at Dytach, situated at the 
 distance of about two English miles to the east of Cullen, three ^ 
 from Portsoy, and one without the line of circumvallation, was 
 dead, and four more very sick. A meeting of the justices was' 
 held next day at Portsoy, when information was received that 
 some cattle belonging to General Abercromby, of Glasshaugh, 
 were likewise bad. The justices resolved to make one vigorous 
 effort more to root out the infection, by ordering all the Dytach 
 cattle, and all those belonging to the General which were kept in 
 the same place with his sick cattle, to be immediately knocked j 
 on the head, and buried, like those at Portsoy. This resolution 
 was carefully executed on Saturday and Sunday se'nnight. The 
 justices at this meeting likewise resolved to enlarge the circle of 
 inspection, and accordingly appointed inspectors for all the 
 parishes of Cullen, Dcllford, and Fordyce, who were appointed 
 to visit and make report every day of the state of all the cattle 
 within these parishes, which comprise a circuit of eighteen English 
 miles at least. Hitherto no appearance of the infection had been 
 discerned, and people began again to flatter themselves with the 
 hopes that it is at last fundamentally rooted out. In the mean 
 time the vigilance of the justices and of the people in the country 
 is nowise relaxed. A report having prevailed here that the tenant of 
 Dytach intended to discharge some of his servants who had been 
 employed about his oxen, a positive prohibition was sent him 
 not to dismiss, before the expiry of a month, any of his servants, 
 and to keep them within the bounds of his own farm as much 
 as possible. In a word, every precaution has been used thatj 
 seemed in the least conducive to extirpate this very dangerous 
 distemper.^ The malady in consequence quickly disappeared.) 
 An Act received the Royal assent on the i6th of February, 1770,' 
 for indemnifying all persons with respect to advising or carrying
 
 302 History of Animal Plagttes. 
 
 into execution his Majesty's Orders of Council, made for prevent- 
 ing:; the spreading of contagious distemper amongst the horned 
 cattle, and for rendering the same valid and effectual, and for 
 preventing suits in consequence thereof, and to authorize the 
 continuing, extending, and executing the same for a further 
 time. Dr Cullen's Memoir concerning the contagious disease 
 affecting the horned cattle, contains a notice of this indemni- 
 fication. 'The sheriff'-substitute and justices of peace of BanflT- 
 shire met at Portsoy on Friday, September 14th, 1770, and 
 made a dividend of ^799 lis. id., issued from the tenancy 
 upon the first certificate to the proprietors of the cattle which 
 had been slaughtered in order to prevent the spreading of the 
 contagious distemper then raging among them; as also to all 
 others who had been in advance of money upon the same 
 account.' ^ 
 
 At the court of St James's, September 14th, 1770, present 
 the King in council, an order was issued, in consequence of the 
 contagion among horned cattle having broken out at a village 
 called Werlpen, between Furness and Newport, about four 
 leagues from Ostend, in Flanders, and supposed to have come 
 from the side of Berg St Wenon, about two leagues from Dun- 
 kirk, where it actually was. This order prohibited the import- 
 ation of any cattle, or of any manner of hides or skins, horns 
 or hoofs, or any other part of any cattle or beast, from Dunkirk or 
 any other part of Flanders, or from any of the places mentioned in 
 the aforesaid order of May 26th, 1769, into the kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland.^ This aforesaid order referred to a new 
 outbreak of the disease in the Netherlands in 1768, and pro- 
 hibited the importation of cattle and hides from thence, as also 
 from Denmark, Sweden, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Ham- 
 burg. In December, 1769, the importation of hay and straw 
 had been prohibited. 
 
 Towards the end of 1770, an Indemnity Act was passed, as 
 it appeared ' there was no legal power to give these orders ' — 
 alluding to those issued in February, granting compensation for 
 slaughtered cattle, 
 
 ^ The Scots' Magazine, vol. xxxii. p. 517. J. Gantgec. The Cattle Plague, 
 p. 302. 2 ii3ij_
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 303 
 
 Dr Lavard, writing to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the 
 Royal Society, in 1780, mentions, amongst other matters, the 
 outbreak in Hampshire. ' In consequence of the essay which I 
 published in T756, I was called upon in 1769 by Government to 
 assist with mv advice towards the stopping the progress of the 
 contagious distemper among the cattle, which had broken out in 
 Hampshire ; and by mere accident I discovered how the infec- 
 tion was brought from Holland to London, and was conveyed 
 into that country. Speedily and effectually to extirpate the 
 calamity, no assistance was permitted to visit the infected 
 villages, lest the farmers should be induced to prolong the ill- 
 ness by attempting to cure their cattle; but positive orders were 
 issued that all the cattle should be killed, and buried properly, 
 by which vigorous and salutary directions, the distemper ceased 
 entirely in a short time. The same Acts of Parliament and 
 Orders of Council, to kill the cattle and bury them deep, suc- 
 ceeded also soon after in North Britain ; and to the former 
 Acts and Orders, issued in his late Majesty King George the 
 H.^s reiirn, these alterations were made : in order that the in- 
 fectcd cattle should be killed, without effusion of blood, by 
 strangling; the hides to be neither cut nor slashed, but the car- 
 cases buried whole ; and that all the fodder, litter, excrement, 
 &c,, should be buried, instead of being burned. Since that time, 
 the contagious distemper has been brought twice into Essex, 
 and once into Suffolk, from Holland, and as often stopped by 
 the same means. His Majesty having most graciously been 
 pleased in April, 1770, to appoint me to hold a foreign corre- 
 spondence, the orders and regulations which had happily suc- 
 ceeded in Great Britain were communicated to the Dutch, the 
 Flemish, and the French, and copies of all papers delivered to 
 Baron Nolcken, the Swedish minister. In Flanders, and Picardy 
 in France, the system of killing was adopted, and succeeded. 
 Afterwards, in 1774, when the same contagion was carried into 
 the south of France from Holland through Bordeaux, many at- 
 tempts having failed to effect a cure, the devastation was at last 
 stopped by no other means than by killing the cattle, as in Great 
 Britain. And here I beg to observe, that Mons. Vicq d'Azyr, in 
 his Exposd (Its Moyens Curat'tfset Prescrvatifs contrc Ics Maladies
 
 304 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Pestilent'ielles des B^te^ a Comes, published by authority at Paris 
 in 1776, savs^ p. 577 : "^ That the sakitary effects of the precau- 
 tions taken in the Austrian Low Countries had excited the atten- 
 tion of the EngHsh, who bv the same means got rid of the same 
 calamity. They have exactly and scrupulously translated and 
 put into execution the edicts issued from the Juntos of Ghent 
 and Brussels, and their undertaking has been crowned with the 
 most complete success/^ Mons, Vicq d'Azyr was misinformed, 
 for, on the contrary, the late Mr Consul Iivine transmitted the 
 Acts of Parliament, the Orders of Council, and my papers, con- 
 taining every necessary instruction, to a member of the Junto of 
 Ghent, whence they were sent to the Government at Brussels; 
 and it was also a long while before the Juntos could be pre- 
 vailed upon to adopt the system of killing, as they called it. It 
 originated in England in 1747 (?), and it is certain that the Court 
 of Vienna knew fully the obligations which the Austrian Nether- 
 lands had to the British Government, whose orders and regula- 
 tions had been implicitly followed, and which Mons. Vicq 
 d'Azyr says, p. 585, " He had modified and adopted to the rules 
 of French government.^' In Flanders, the infection was also pre- 
 vented from spreading a second time by the same method of pro- 
 ceeding; but, unfortunately, in Holland the cattle continue to be 
 exposed to the same disease. The half-yearly returns which 
 have been regularly sent me contain melancholy accounts of the 
 severe loss of cattle; sometimes the whole have perished; at 
 other times two-thirds have died ; and generally above half fell 
 when the sickness was less violent. In a country where the ill- 
 ness is become general, and constantly raging more or less, 
 where the system of killing cannot now be thought of, and where 
 inoculations have met with so many opponents of all ranks, there 
 can be no other hope of getting rid of the calamity than by ad- 
 mitting into the United Provinces no other cattle than such 
 as are sound, or recovered from the infection. (By the last 
 half-yearly return from Holland, the number of infected cattle 
 was so small, that it was hoped no further return to the States 
 would be necessary.) I shall not trouble you, sir, with the returns 
 from Holland, or the tables of inoculation in Denmark, which 
 would too much increase the length of this letter; but only men-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 305 
 
 tion, that in Denmark, - where the contagious distemper is 
 become naturahzed and general, the Danish Government have 
 not only wisely adopted the orders and regulations issued in 
 Great Britain, but have with unwearied application pursued the 
 practice of inoculation. Count BernsdorfFand Dr Struensee had 
 all the necessary instructions, books, and papers, delivered to 
 them by me, when the King of Denmark was in England ; and 
 I am assured by Daniel Delavul, Esq., lately his Majesty's 
 Envoy Extraordinary at that court, that inoculation is approved, 
 recommended, and by authority established. Even in the first 
 three years that inoculation was practised, of near 300 head of 
 cattle which were inoculated in a Danish island, not a sixth part 
 were lost, notwithstanding the many disadvantages which un- 
 avoidably occurred. Professor Camper had before attempted to 
 introduce inoculation in Holland, but the learned professor's 
 abilities, diligence, and perseverance were so much counteracted 
 by the obstinacy and interruption of the peasants, the badness of 
 the situation, and inclemency of the weather, that out of ii3 
 only 41 recovered, and yet that number is fully sufficient to 
 prove his opinion of the disease, and of the use of inoculation. 
 Application was made in 1770 to the Lord President of the 
 Council by a famous inoculator, for leave to take matter from 
 the infected beasts in Hampshire, and to inoculate the cattle in 
 the southern and western counties of England : on a represent- 
 ation to his lordship that by such an operation the contagion 
 would not only be introduced in those counties where it had not 
 yet appeared, but also might spread the sickness so as to become 
 general all over the kingdom as before, a positive and strict in- 
 junction was given to drop the intention, especially as by killing 
 the cattle there was no doubt of extirpating the contagion out 
 of Hampshire. The inoculator, therefore, made no attempt. 
 According to the several prejudices of different countries, various 
 opinions have arisen of the nature of this sickness. Such as.are 
 averse to inoculation have obstinately refused to acknowledge it 
 was similar to the small-pox in the human body, and have very 
 idly asserted that the only intention of declaring the contagion 
 to be a sort of small-pox was purposely and with no other view 
 
 than to promote inoculation for the small-pox. 
 
 20
 
 3o6 History of Aiiinial Plagues. 
 
 ' Others have positively declared it to be a pestilential putrid 
 fever, owing to a corrupted atmosphere, and arising from in- 
 fected pastures; but unfortunately for the supporters of this 
 opinion, while the contagious distemper raged with the utmost 
 violence on the coasts of Friesland, North and South Holland, 
 Zealand, and Flanders, there was not the least appearance of it 
 on the English coast, from the North Foreland to the Humber, 
 although the coast and climate are the same. I shall not dwell 
 on Mr Turherville Needham's elegant discourse read at Brussels, 
 since he must have been convinced, when he came to England 
 in 1776, that the illness was of another sort than he imagined; 
 for such a proof of the efficacy of salt, recommended by him as an 
 antiseptic in this disease, has been given as is positive and deci- 
 sive, namely, that in Scania, a province in Sweden, where it is 
 customary to place a large piece of rock-salt, called salt stein, in 
 water, for the cattle housed to drink, all the cattle in that pro- 
 vince were seized with the contagious distemper, and not one 
 outlived it. Mons. Paulet, in his " Recherches sur les Maladies 
 Epizootiques,^^ vol. ii. pp. 25, 26, Paris, 1776, has sufficiently ex- 
 plained Mr Needham's opinion. M. Bergius had insisted that 
 the contagion was not of the exanthematous sort, and there- 
 fore inoculation must be of no use ; but this opinion was also 
 fully refuted by the late Professor Erxleben, of Gottingen, in his 
 learned oration on the 20th of October, 1770. From every in- 
 formation, domestic or foreign, and comparing the several 
 opinions, experience and observation plainly and completely de- 
 termine the dispute. The disease among the horned cattle, so 
 fatal in many countries, is not endemical or natural to Europe, 
 although it is become so in Denmark from spreading all over 
 the Danish dominions, and its long continuance in that king- 
 dom. It is an eruptive fever of the variolous kind (in a letter 
 from Mons. Vicq d'Azyr to Dr Layard, dated Paris, August 28, 
 1780, is the following declaration: " II me paroit comme a vous 
 que c'est toujours la meme maladie qui a regne depuis 1711 ; 
 et qii'elle a de grands rapports avec I' eruption varioleuse") ; and 
 notwithstanding the exanthemata, or pustules, may have been 
 frequently overlooked, yet none ever recovered without more ojr 
 less eruption or critical abscesses; but these differ from the pesti-
 
 History of Animal Plagties. 307 
 
 lential sort ; no othcrways similar to the Plague, but, like unto 
 the small-pox, it is communicated by contact, by the air convey- 
 ing the effluvia, which also lodge in many substances, and are 
 thereby carried to very distant places. Unlike other pestilential, 
 putrid, or malignant fevers, it bears all the characteristic symp- 
 toms, progress, crisis, and event of the small-pox; and, whether 
 received by contagion or inoculation, has the same appearances, 
 stages, and determination, except more favourably by inoculation, 
 and with this distinctive and decisive property, that a beast 
 having had the sickness, naturally or artificially, never had it a 
 second time. Thus, sir, I have endeavoured to lay before you 
 and the Royal Society the result of my inquiries, experiments, 
 observations, and correspondence concerning this calamitous 
 sickness, which from my situation in Huntingdonshire in 1756, it 
 fell to my lot to investio;ate.^ ^ 
 
 Mr Robert Dossie,^ an eminent agriculturist and writer, in 
 his Memoirs of Agriculture gives an excellent summary of the 
 opinions held regarding the Cattle Plague at that time, and as 
 it is in many respects a valuable document, it is here repro- 
 duced almost in its entirety. 
 
 'The first clear traces we have of the later introduction of the 
 murrain into Europe commence in the year 1710 or 1711, at which 
 time there are authentic accounts that it was observed in Hungary. 
 Whether it was brought thither from other countries, most probably 
 further to the south-east, or if not, how it was originally generated 
 there, we have no lights that lead to any certain knowledge. But 
 it was conveyed thence into Dalmatia, and propagated through that 
 country to the neighbourhood of Padua, whence it spread over the 
 whole of the Venetian state. It was soon afterwards disseminated 
 through the whole of Italy, and passed, in 17 13, through the Tyrolese 
 into Germany ; whence it communicated itself to almost every other 
 part of Europe, as far north as Denmark and Sweden, introducing itself 
 also about that time into Great Britain. After this, in consequence of 
 more favourable seasons, the contagion abated by degrees in all the 
 places where it had prevailed, and in about nine years the infection 
 seemed to be exterminated in most of them. There is reason to 
 believe, notwithstanding, that some lurking remains kept their ground 
 
 1 Philosophical Transactions, 1780. y. Gamgee. Op. cit 
 ^ Memoirs of Agriculture. London, 1771. Vol. ii.
 
 308 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 in parts where the relaxation of moist air, and the debilitating effects 
 of putrid vapours, rendered the cattle more susceptible of all contagion. 
 For, in the beginning of the late king's reign, the disease revived here 
 to such a degree as to give occasion to the Government to make some 
 regulations for the suppression of it, though after a short time the in- 
 fection again seemed to have been extinguished. It also appears to 
 have shown itself in some parts of Germany even to the year 1730- 
 
 ' In the year 1740 or 1741, this disease again broke out in the south- 
 eastern parts of Europe, and made its progress through the same coun- 
 tries as in its former course after 1710. 
 
 *■ It was brought hither in 1744 or 1745, from Holland, as is be- 
 lieved, and made great devastation of the cattle for several years, after 
 which it declined considerably, but took fresh vigour in 175*5^ ai^d con- 
 tinued to rage with considerable violence for some time. It then 
 abated gradually, and, as far as appears, the infection, at length, was 
 wholly lost ; as for a number of years we had not the least signs of it 
 before the autumn of the last year, and since, when it is believed to 
 have broken out afresh in two or three places of the island, though not, 
 as there is reason to believe, from any relics of the former, but the in- 
 troduction of a new contagion brought from other countries. In the 
 mean time, though we have been free from the murrain for a number 
 of years, yet it has during that period visited other places. Denmark 
 and Jutland, in particular, felt it in 1769, with greater severity than 
 has ever been known elsewhere. The United Provinces have under- 
 gone a yet harder fate, from some disadvantageous circumstances in the " 
 temperature of their climate. For since its lirst introduction, in 1741^ 
 it has never entirely left them, but maintained its ground, though with 
 various degrees of violence, at ditferent times 5 and at present it makes 
 great ravage in the parts of those countries where cattle most abound. 
 
 ' These latter invasions of several parts of Europe by the murrain, 
 have furnished the opportunity of making the following general observ- 
 ations on its effects and consequences. 
 
 ' It is to be remarked that as the infection of this disease prevails 
 only at particular times anywhere, and acts with greater violence at 
 some times and in some places than others, according to the preceding 
 view of its migration, so it affects only part of the cattle anywhere, and 
 those with various degrees of malignancy. This leads us to explore iu 
 what this difference of the cattle's being susceptible of the infection, or 
 exempt from its effects, when exposed to it, may lie. On examination 
 of this matter it will appear that where the infection does not before 
 subsist, it never comes but after some general cause has weakened the 
 habit of the beasts in general, such as very severe cold, long-continued
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 309 
 
 want of a sufficient quantity of wholesome food, repeated alternations 
 of heat and cold in the weather, moist air replete with putrid vapours, 
 a long continuance of easterly winds, or, what is more frequent, a com- 
 bination of two or more of these causes together. Thus we lind this 
 contagion invading every part of Europe after the year 171 1, when the 
 season had been so inclement the year before as t© destroy a great por- 
 tion of the sheep in England j and again in 1741, as mentioned above, 
 after a very intense frost, which lasted from December to April, and 
 by the rigour of cold and scarcity of fodder, had reduced the cattle in 
 general to a debilitated state, which was still aggravated by the almost 
 constant easterly winds that blew the summer and autumn following. 
 After the abatement of it, in more clement seasons, which followed 
 that period, we find the disease resuming its force again in various 
 places, since that time, by similar accidents. We see, also, that from 
 the same principles it has long maintained its ground in countries where 
 moist air and vapour of stagnated water disposes to agues and other dis 
 eases that come from the laxity of the fibres, which disposition is equally' 
 produced by these causes, in the brute and human species. While, on 
 the other hand, it has been extinguished in places where a drier and purer * 
 air gives robustness and vigour of constitution to the animals, it had 
 been observed, also, that the infection, when it has abated during the 
 summer or winter, has generally resumed fresh vigour in the spring 
 and autumn, when the alternations of heat and cold have disordered 
 and weakened the beasts. 
 
 ' The same principle, with respect to the cause of the prevalence of 
 the contagion, holds good as to the particular beasts which are seized 
 with the disease, or escape the contagion when exposed to it. For 
 we see, in all cases, it is the weaker which are attacked by it, 
 and the stronger which remain free from it. It is ascertained, by 
 a very sufficient basis of remark on facts, that the beasts of a black, 
 dark, or red colour, either wholly or in mixture, are less subject to the 
 infection than those which are white, or of a light mixture of colours j 
 and the concurrent observation of all times has established the belief 
 that this difference of colour is an indication of the greater or less degree 
 of natural strength of the beasts, as well in neat cattle as horses. It is 
 equally certain that bulls are less subject to the infection of this disease 
 than oxen, oxen than cows, cows not pregnant than those which are 5 
 and, among all these, such beasts as appear naturally of a feebler make, 
 or are debilitated by any accidental suffering. 
 
 ' It is manifest, too, from an e(|ual ground of observation, that the 
 same difference in strength and weakness which renders the cattle 
 more or less susceptible of the infection, makes ihem more or less liable 
 
 re /
 
 310 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 to the violence of the etFects of it. Those which are weaker from any of 
 the above causes have more aggravated symptoms, and more frequently 
 die of the disease in proportion to the degree of such causes. 
 
 ' It results, therefore, from these circumstances, that though infec- 
 tion conveyed from some beasts diseased with it is the ethcient cause of 
 the murrain in cattle, yet there is a predisponent cause, or particular 
 state of the subject, absolutely necessary to its acting or taking etfect ; 
 and this predisponent cause is the condition of the beast with respect to 
 weakness of habit or relaxation. It appears, also, that this weak state 
 of the beast may arise from general causes, either of an epidemic nature, 
 atfecting whole regions, such as inclemency of season, or scarcity of 
 wholesome food j of an endemic nature, atfecting only particular places 
 or countries, such as dampness of the air, or abundance of putrid 
 vapours j and it may be produced also from some particular cause re- 
 garding the individual only, such as original weakness of constitution, 
 pregnancy, or debility occasioned by some accidental sutfering. 
 
 ' The susceptibility to the infection, and the predisposition to be 
 more violently atfected by it, in consequence of the weakness of the 
 habit, are neither peculiar to cattle nor to this disease. It is evident, 
 from what offers in a very extensive field of observation, that both 
 mankind and brutes are liable to the attacks of most contagious dis- 
 orders in proportion to their defect of strength. Even were it not so 
 well verified by notorious facts, a theoretic proof might be drawn from 
 incontestable principles of physiology, and from the constant efi'ects of 
 medicine administered in such cases. But this is too wide a ransre of 
 subjects to be entered on here, and would, besides, requires a previous 
 acquaintance with medicinal science in order to its being understood. 
 That beasts are liable to take the infection of the murrain, and sutfer 
 more from it, in proportion to their weakness, is sutficiently obvious 
 from just remarks on the subject itself; and it is very necessary to be 
 understood and taken into consideration in all practical disquisitions on 
 that disease, because it constitutes a principle which admits two very 
 useful applications. It not only affords the means of prognosticating 
 when great numbers, or single particulars, will be seized with the disease, 
 if exposed to the contagion, and, consequently, supplies the proper 
 notice and warning for the use of preventive methods; but it furnishes, 
 likewise, the true indication of cure, and points out what tlie regimen 
 should be that will counteract the disease. 
 
 ' The manner in which the contagion may be conveyed is likewise 
 a matter of great moment in the consideration of the murrain, with a 
 view to the preventing its injurious effects. 
 
 ' The observations already made on facts have not set everything
 
 History of A uimal Plagties. 311 
 
 relating to it in a clear and decisive light. There are some opinions 
 respecting it, in which all agree, because they are supported by evident 
 instances ; but there are others which, though they have the sanction 
 of common assent, may yet be disputed on very just grounds. It is 
 unquestionably certain, that the murrain is communicated by transmis- 
 sion of some contagious matter from beasts which have that disease to 
 those which are sound 3 but that this is done by all the means of com- 
 munication generally supposed is not at present so manifest a matter. 
 
 * The effect of inoculation in the murrain, as well as a great number 
 of other palpable facts, render it plain that the contagious matter 
 may be carried by other bodies, which receive it from the diseased 
 beast, and convey it, by actual contact, to the sound. This may be 
 performed by any substance to which the infecting particles can adhere, 
 but is most likely to happen, through accident, by the mediation of any 
 body that is of a hairy, woolly, or pilous texture,' because the matter is 
 much less liable to be rubbed or cleansed off" from such bodies, than from 
 those which are denser and have an entire and smooth surface. 
 
 'But there is another mode of conveyance of the infection, which, 
 though it must be allowed to subsist with regard to some contagious dis- 
 orders, admits of a doubt with respect to the murrain, that is, the com- 
 munication of the contagion by the air. It is in general taken for 
 granted that the air is the chief vehicle of the contagion of this disease, 
 and several means of prevention of its action have been instituted on 
 that principle. But there is no clear fact which in the least proves this 
 notion, and the universal failure of the preventive means founded on it, 
 furnishes arguments against it, as far as anything at all can be thence 
 inferred. On the other hand, a great number of circumstances seem to 
 evince that the cattle are never infected but by an actual conveyance 
 of the contagious matter, by means of contact of a sound beast with one 
 that is diseased, or with some other body, which receives first the viru- 
 
 ^ It has, however, been strangely made a matter of doubt by some eminent 
 professors in the United Provinces, whether the skin itself of a dead infected beast 
 would impart the contagion, and they have even asserted the negative, in con- 
 sequence of the result of certain experiments made for the determination of this 
 point. But some fallacious circumstance attended those experiments, as appears 
 even on the face of the relation. It would, indeed, require very strong proofs to 
 gain assent to such an opinion, than which a stranger paradox can scarcely be 
 advanced. It is evident the infection is conveyed by other substances ; and nothing 
 can be more suited to collect and retain the matter of it than a hairy skin. The 
 matter must, undoubtedly, abound in the skin of the beast which generates it, 
 whether it be evacuated by tiie perspiration, saliva, or any other excretion. Indeed, 
 whatever other bodies convey it must in general receive it from the skin, which, 
 if it can impart the same to them while the animal is living, must, in common withi 
 oilier bodies, retain it a certain time after the beast is dead.
 
 312 History of Animal Plagues, 
 
 lent matter from such beast. There are many instances where good 
 fences, and other effectual means of exclusion of whatever could bring 
 the infecting matter, have prevented the cattle in particular places from 
 sutiering by the contagion, though surrounded on every side by numbers 
 of beasts seized with the disease. In some of these places the cattle 
 have escaped to the last. In others, after a time they have taken the 
 infection in consequence of known accidents, which occasioned the in- 
 troduction of the contagion, from the actual conveyance of it by some- 
 what that had received the virulent matter from a diseased beast. 
 Where the neighbouring infected cattle were, in these instances, all on 
 one side the place in which those that escaped were confined, this ex- 
 emption of them might be reasonably imputed, as it has been, to the 
 wind blowing the contrary way, and carrying off the contagious effluvia 
 that might have otherwise reached them. But this solution of the 
 difficulty cannot hold good, when, as has been frequently the case, the 
 free place where the cattle escaped was surrounded by infected beasts 
 on every side. The determination of this point is not merely a specu- 
 lative object, for it settles the proper nature and limitations of the means 
 to be used for the prevention of the communication of the infection, 
 and rightly confines them to such as regard the hindering the contact 
 of diseased beasts with the sound, or the exclusion of bodies which may 
 convey the virulent matter from the one to the other. 
 
 ' From the facts which have appeared respecting the disease, there 
 is reason to infer that the contagious matter retains its infecting power 
 a considerable time. The contagion is believed in several instances, from 
 very strong circumstances, to have been conveyed to remote places in 
 bodies transported by sea, as the known intercourse with the countries 
 whence it was presumed to be brought palpably suggested that manner 
 of its introduction, which could not be otherwise accounted for. Some 
 of the later experiments with regard to the inoculating cattle with the 
 disease show this fact with greater certainty of proof. The precise 
 limitation of period in which the infecting matter will keep its power 
 is not, however, well ascertained by any observations or trials 5 but 
 there is room to conclude that, under some circumstances, it will act 
 at a considerable distance of time from its being generated. We see 
 the variolous matter will communicate the small-pox after many months; 
 and there is no foundation for any doubt of the analogy betwixt the 
 contagion of that and of the murrain in this particular. But it is a 
 matter of great consequence, and this should be decided by adequate 
 experiments. Because the knowledge of it is of great moment, in 
 judging of the proper means and regulations for preventing the intro- 
 duction of the contagion into places free from it.
 
 History of Animal Plagues . 313 
 
 ' The space of time, likewise, betwixt the beasts receiving the in- 
 fection and the perceptible effects of it, is not yet precisely settled by 
 accurate observations. But there are vi'ell-known facts that give us 
 a considerable degree of information with regard to it. In general, 
 appearances will be found in three or four days ; in some few instances 
 they may not come on till six or seven. We may state the latter time 
 as the utmost period, unless when the beasts are very slightly affected 
 with the disease, and then, where the symptoms may not be discernible 
 till it be in its most powerful state, ten days may be allowed. If a 
 beast, therefore, suspected to have received the infection, do not show 
 any signs of it in six or seven days, there will be very little danger of 
 its being seized ; and if none appear in ten, it may be taken for granted 
 that there is no infection in the case. 
 
 ' The time for detaining cattle in any place to which they have 
 been removed, after having been exposed to a risk of the infection, in 
 order to prevent their spreading the disease to other parts, may be 
 therefore limited to a fortnight, since there is not the least hazard 
 after such time of their being seized with the disease, in consequence 
 of their having been exposed to the contagion so long before. 
 
 ' These are the general facts and observations respecting the murrain 
 which have hitherto presented themselves. It is proper to subjoin that, 
 as before intimated, this disease has various appearances, symptoms, and 
 degrees of mortality, at dilferent times, and in ditferent places ; as the 
 epidemical effects of the seasons, or endemical circumstances of par- 
 ticular countries, have interfered with the natural process of the disease. 
 In the United Provinces a profuse diarrhoea, or looseness, is a very com- 
 mon symptom, and generally carries off the beasts by exhausting their 
 strength ; but, where they do not recover, it seems to be the critical 
 evacuation by which the virus of the disease is discharged. Eruptions 
 more rarely attend the murrain in that country, though they are not 
 always wanting. On the contrary, in Great Britain the looseness seldom 
 happens, and is mostly a mortal symptom, though, in some few cases, a 
 salutary one. Eruptions occur much more frequently, and are generally 
 the critical deposit of the virus when the beasts recover. In Denmark 
 the disease, when it made its furious attack in 1759, '^^^ ^^'^ more violent 
 and mortal than it was ever known in England or Holland, or than it 
 had been when it infested the same places before. The fatal crisis 
 was then very rapid, the beasts dying in two or three days, and some 
 sooner, after they first appeared to be affected. At some periods, re- 
 markable bhstcrs on the tongue are related to have been an early and 
 general symptom of this disease ; ' they are not near so frequent now, 
 
 ' There is, as was above observed, another contagious disease of the cattle, of
 
 314 History of A nimal Plagues. 
 
 and only found at or towards the end of the disease. Like variations 
 are, as above intimated, seen in other malignant contagious diseases : 
 and render an accurate observation of the symptoms, when they break 
 out fresh at a distance of time, necessary to the forming a just descrip- 
 tion of them, in order to the distinguishing them with certainty from 
 others which are similar. 
 
 ' A.S the mortahty of cattle occasioned by the murrain has been a 
 very great evil to many countries, means for the prevention or cure of 
 it have been earnestly sought after by great numbers of physicians and 
 others. But this research has been made with very little success any- 
 where, either with regard to the interest of the proprietors of the cattle 
 or benefit to the public, except what relates to the introduction or 
 spreading of the infection into places or countries free from it. 
 
 ' Among the means of prevention of the murrain, those the most 
 generally adopted, though the least effectual to the end, have been the 
 attempts to render the places where beasts are kept, or the beasts them- 
 selves, insusceptible of the infection. In this intention, by an imitation 
 of what the ancients recommended and practised as preservatives against 
 the plague, fumigations, scents, and external medicaments employed on 
 the cattle have been almost everywhere used. 
 
 * With respect to fumigations of the places where beasts are kept, all 
 confidence in them must fall to the ground whenever the opinion of 
 the air's being a vehicle of the contagion is refuted, as they were per- 
 formed with a view to destroy the putrid eflHuvia with which it was 
 supposed to be impregnated, and which was considered as the matter of 
 the contagion. But these fumigations fi-equently repeated, as they were 
 for this purpose, in close places where the beasts were confined, were not 
 only ineffectual to that purpose, but noxious in a considerable degree as 
 being conducive to the prevalence of the contagion. For, being in 
 general made with bodies that afforded an acrid steam, such as sulphur, 
 vinegar, tobacco, or terebinthinate substances, they injured the respira- 
 tion of the beasts, and thence, diminishing the animal strength, render- 
 ed them more disposed to be affected by the contagion.^ A multi- 
 
 which blisters on the tongue seem, from the accounts of it, to be a constant, prin- 
 cipal, and characteristic symptom ; and proper care, therefore, should be taken to 
 avoid confounding this disease with the murrain, either ni reading or practice. It 
 appears to have been curable, in most subjects, solely by opening the blisters ; and 
 is therefore evidently of a much less malignant nature than the murrain ; in 
 vi^hich, as is well known, from many trials, that operation would be of very little 
 avail. This circumstance alone would give a sufficient criterion for distinguishing 
 the one from the other. (Mr Dossie is here speaking of 'glossanthrax.') 
 
 1 A free respiration of fresh undepraved air is essentially necessary to the strength 
 of the beasts, in order to their resisting the effects of the contagion. It has appeared,
 
 History of Anwial Plagues. 315 
 
 plicity of facts confirm the truth of this remark, as it appears from 
 nearly all the accounts given that the greatest number of beasts have 
 been lost where means of this kind have been most employed. 
 
 ' The medicating the cattle externally by rubbing them with sulphur, 
 gunpowder, tobacco-water, and other substances does less harm than 
 the fumigations, but not more good, as experience has largely evinced. 
 The same may be said of those extraordinary mundifications, or cleans- 
 ings of the hair and skin of the cattle, which have been recommended 
 and practised on the same authority of the ancients. There is reason'' 
 to conclude that the contagion, in whatever part it is first imbibed, takes; 
 elfect too soon to be rubbed off" in time 5 and it is most reasonable to] 
 suppose, if the infection be at all absorbed by the skin, this great cleans- 
 ing of it may fit and prepare it to receive the contagion rather than 
 defend it against its admission. All the supposedly preservative methods ^ 
 of this kind, though they have the authority of many writers from an 
 implicit submission to the more ancient, have been found as vain and 
 fruitless in practice as they seem absurd in speculation, when examined 
 on the just and demonstrable principles of physiology. 
 
 ' The use of the internal medicines, administered as antidotes to 
 fortify the beasts against the attacks of the contagion, have been equally 
 inetficacious or detrimental with the external means. Those of the 
 medicines that have been recommended for this purpose, which come 
 within the class named alexipharmic, and are proposed to combat the 
 virus, are entirely inadequate in their degree of power to the intention, 
 though some of them, by their invigorative qvialities, may have a tend- 
 ency to oppose the effects of the contagion. Those which have been 
 adopted as antiseptics or resisting putrefaction, such as sulphur, oil ot 
 vitriol, vinegar, &c., when given as preservatives against the contagion, 
 must of course be administered out of season. Since putrefaction in 
 the fluids of the beast is the consequence, not the cause, of the contagion, 
 and, therefore, cannot take place till the contagion be received, nor, as 
 it did not before subsist, can it admit of being counteracted till then. 
 Moreover, the substances of this kind, which are of an acid nature, have, 
 
 from a number of observations wliicli are recorded by the writers on this subject, 
 that the cattle which have been ke[jt out in tlie air, wlien tlie weather was not in- 
 clement through too much cold or moisture, have been less subject to take the in- 
 fection, and recovered in greater numbers when seized with it, tlian those which 
 were housed. In Denmark, during the terriljle visitation mentioned above of this 
 disease in the year 1759, many of the boors attempted to preserve their cattle from 
 the infection by the fumes of tobacco, which they continually smoked in the cow- 
 houses, even sitting up the whole night in turns for that purpose in the midst of 
 them. But it was remarked that scarcely any of the cattle so treated avoided the 
 contagion and death in consequence of it.
 
 J 
 
 1 6 History of A nirnal PlagiLes. 
 
 in this case, a contrary tendency to that of resisting the effects of the 
 contagion. For, destroying the bile, and checking, by other means, the 
 digestive ferment, as well as lowering the vis v'ltce from some other less 
 known power, they weaken the habitof the beasts, and consequently 
 dispose them to receive the infection more readily, and suffer, with less 
 resistance, its action in bringing on a putrescent state of the fluids. It 
 '' has been, therefore, everywhere found that, whenever any of these 
 ■ methods have been pursued, more beasts have been lost than when they 
 were left to the friendly assistance of nature undisturbed, and only 
 secured from those accidents that would injuriously affect their health 
 in all circumstances. 
 
 ' There is another proposed method of sa\'ing cattle from the mortal 
 effects of the murrain, of which some trial has been made, that properly 
 comes under consideration along with the preceding. Because, though 
 it is not, indeed, the preventing the infection, but, on the contrary, the 
 giving it, yet it is calculated to answer the same end, that is, the prevent- 
 ing the ill effects of the contagion by anticipative means. This method is 
 the inoculation of the cattle with the murrain, in the same general manner 
 as is practised with mankind for the small-pox. The fact is well known 
 that beasts which have had the murrain from accidental infection, like 
 mankind with regard to the small-pox, do rarely take it again 5 and it 
 being presumed on this ground that the analogy betwixt these two dis- 
 eases still holds good in other particulars, and, consequently, that the 
 communicating the murrain by inoculation would have the same con- 
 sequences on the cattle in preventing their receiving the infection again, 
 and in rendering the symptoms of the disease proportionably milder and 
 less fatal, it was imagined the use of this method might be, in a con- 
 siderable degree, a substitute for a preservative from the infection itself. 
 But experience has evinced that this presumption was erroneous in 
 point of fact ; and there is, besides, one essential circumstance of differ- 
 ence betwixt the murrain and the small-pox which constitutes the use 
 of inoculation detrimental in the former, even if it were productive of 
 tlie same consequence as in the latter, with respect to the mitigation of 
 the symptoms or the prevention of future infection. The experiments 
 ' made to explore the effects of inoculation in the murrain, though not 
 , all alike in their result, have yet given sufficient lights to determine that 
 they are very different from those of inoculation for the small-pox, and 
 that it can in no degree answer the same end, even with respect to the 
 particular beasts subjected to it ; much less can it conduce to the re- 
 straining and diminishing the mortal effects of contagion in any manner 
 that may be beneficial to the public. 
 
 ' In the first place, it is sufficiently proved from instances that the
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 317 
 
 inoculation of beasts for the murrain does not hinder their receiving the 
 infection again, as other cattle, by accident. This may seem very ex- 
 traordinary on the first view, because, when the cattle take the infection 
 by casual means and recover, they are rarely subject to have the disease 
 a second time, and because we see inoculation for the small-pox pre- 
 vents the ill etfects of future contagion in the same manner as a casual 
 infection. But reasons drawn from analogy, however just they may be] 
 in support of supposition, cannot conceal facts ; and though the cause 
 of this difference betwixt the small-pox and murrain be of a dark and 
 inexplicable nature, yet nothing is to be thence inferred against its real- 
 ity as the subject itself is so in all respects. For there has been no 
 satisfactory reason hitherto assigned why the having either of these dis- 
 eases once, by any mode of infection, should be preventive of the future 
 effects of the same contagion. Whatever difficulties may attend the 
 accounting for it, we yet find on a revisal of the relations of the trials I 
 of inoculation practised for the murrain, a considerable number in pro-! 
 portion to the whole are known to have actually taken the infectioni 
 afterwards, and that of these the far greatest part died of the disease.^ 
 
 1 There are many instances of cattle taking the murrain a second time after having > 
 just before had it by inoculation. Noseman, and two other Dutch physicians, were 
 among the first who performed this operation in Holland. The beasts they inocu- 
 lated were seventeen in number, and out of them three recovered, but took the in- 
 fection again by accidental means a fortnight after in so violent a manner that two I 
 of them died. Professor Grashuys inoculated six beasts, which recovered. All of ; 
 them took the infection again by accident, and four of them died. There is an ac- 
 count, in the experiments of the Marquis de Courtivron, of two calves that were \ 
 inoculated twice without any apparent symptoms of the disease being produced. 
 But they took the infection without any operation afterwards from other cattle hav- 1 
 ing the disease from inoculation, and one of them died. In an experiment made 
 last year on the inoculation of cattle for the murrain, in consequence of a subscrip- , 
 tion formed for that purpose in Friesland, and reported to the States-General ofi 
 the United Provinces by Professor Camper, it appears that out of ten which re- 
 covered after being inoculated the 5th of July, five took the disease again by acci- 
 dental means, and all died. In the continuation of the above experiments, seven 
 beasts which recovered, after being inoculated July 20th, all took the infection again 
 casually aftenvards, and were carried off by the disease. It may seem difficult to, 
 conceive why more of the cattle that have recovered from inoculation, and taken 
 the disease afterwards, should die of it than of those which have not been inoculated, 1 
 and are casually infected with it. But as inoculation does not, similarly to what is I 
 found in the small-pox, prevent the future action of the contagion w ilh equal power, 
 nor render the symptoms less violent when the disease is received by that mode of 
 infection, than when in the natural way, there is room to conclude tliat the weak- 
 ened habit of the beast, in consequence of the injury done by the disease in the 
 inoculated subjection to it, renders the effects more fatal in the second attack accord- 
 ing to the principle we have above specified.
 
 2i8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 We may reasonably presume, thence, that others of them might take the 
 infection after the accounts were written, or under circumstances which 
 might prevent the writers from attaining to the knowledge of it. It 
 must likewise be considered, that among the beasts inoculated a part 
 must have been such as were not constitutionally susceptible at all of 
 the infection by casual means, and therefore did not take it afterwards 
 on that score. But, if we reason on the simple fact alone, that a con- 
 siderable proportion of the number of the beasts inoculated have had the 
 disease again, and with at least equal violence and mortality as those not 
 before inoculated, we must grant that this practice cannot any way 
 answer the end proposed, which is solely that of preserving them for the 
 future against the bad effects of the contagion. 
 
 ' In the second place, it is likewise evinced by the same testimony of 
 facts, that the infection communicated by inoculation is not attended 
 with less violent symptoms and mortality than when received by casual 
 means. The accounts of the practice of that operation fully justify this 
 assertion.^ Hence, therefore, as well as for the last-mentioned reason, 
 inoculation appears evidently to fail of its intended purpose. 
 
 ' There are many instances, in the relations given of the trials of inoculation for 
 the murrain, of the beasts dying in a great proportion to the number subjected to 
 it. Amongst them are the following : — Noseman and his Jtwo colleagues, as we 
 have before had occasion to mention, inoculated seventeen, of which fourteen then 
 died, and two of the others, which had recovered from that infection, took a fresh 
 one casually, which appeared stronger, and carried them off. So that only one 
 was saved out of the seventeen. Doctor Fountayne, Dean of York, had four 
 inoculated, and lost one of them. Doctor Layard inoculated eight beasts, of which 
 five died, and he killed another for inspection, which otherwise might have been 
 added to them for anything that appears. Four beasts were inoculated for the 
 murrain in the spring of the year, by order of the States of Utrecht, all of which 
 had the distemper with great violence and died, as appears in the report made to 
 the states of that province of the opinion of some eminent physicians they consulted, 
 and of the result of this experiment. The following numbers died from the inocu- 
 lation performed in consequence of the subscription mentioned in the preceding 
 note, made last year for that purpose in Friesland. Out of twenty-five head of 
 young cattle inoculated the 5th day of July, ten died, besides five others which, 
 though they recovered, took the disease again afterwards casually, and then died of 
 it, as before related. Out of twenty-five that were inoculated the 20th of July, 
 thirteen then died, besides the seven before-mentioned, which, having recovered, 
 caught the infection by accidental means afterwards, and were carried off by it. 
 Out of fifty-eight that were inoculated the 9th of August and took the infection, 
 twenty-five died of the disease then, and five more died soon after of a pulmonic 
 decay occasioned by it. Four other beasts were inoculated on tlie same 9th of 
 Auo-ust, in which the infection failed. They were again subjected to the operation, 
 the 18th and 19th, in a similar manner, and, taking the disease then, two died at 
 the time, and a third soon after, from pulmonic abscesses brought on by it. In
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 319 
 
 ' The total insufficiency of inoculation to answer, in the case of the 
 murrain, the end proposed, on the score of both the preceding circum- 
 stances, would be a sufficient ground for exploding the practice of it. 
 But there is a yet stronger reason against its use, w'hich arises from this 
 principle: — The mtirrain is, at least with respect to the European coun-.. 
 tries, an epidemical disease, though contagious. That is, it does not, asl 
 we have observed before, ever reign but when certain unfavourable cir- 
 cumstances of season have created a predisposition in the cattle to re- 
 ceive the infection, and thence rendered them temporarily susceptible 
 of it. When the etfects of these unfavourable circitmstances of seasoni 
 cease the etfects of the contagion cease likewise, as far as regards accidental! 
 infection 5 so that when the consequences are left to the natural course 
 of things, this disease is only a temporary mischief, to which there is 
 some certain period, though that period may be different, as we have 
 seen above, from the various condition of different places. Now, if the 
 inoculation for the murrain were practised in so general and continued 
 a manner as to render it of any public consequence, supposing the 
 inoculated beasts incurred less danger from the disease by that mode of 
 receiving the infection, and were more secure from future attacks of it, 
 the contagion must be spread in proportion to the extent of the country 
 where the operation is practised, and must also be constantly kept up 
 in sood as well as bad seasons. Hence all the natural means of the 
 contagion being exterminated in the favourable times would be wholly 
 taken away, and in the bad times there would be necessarily a great 
 
 these instances taken together, we find a far greater proportion of the cattle destroyed 
 by the murrain given by the inocufation than would have been by the infection 
 taken' in the natural way. Professor Camper says, nevertheless, 'That such ill 
 success should not discourage the future pursuit of inoculation for this disease, be- 
 cause the same miscarriages happened on the first introduction of this operation for 
 the small-pox into our parts of the world.' But I must beg his pardon for saying 
 that this is an inadvertent assertion, and that he is entirely mistaken in the matter 
 of fact. For the inoculation for the small-pox was equally successful at first as 
 now ; and though extraordinary stress has been lately laid on some particular 
 methods of treatment supposed to be new, yet, where they have not been followed, 
 we have two instances of a greater list of recovered patients in proportion to those 
 which have been lost under the same conduct, than can be produced on equal 
 authority by any of the pretended improvers of this practice. Some few out of 
 great numbers have at all times died of inoculation for the small-pox, but never in 
 any proportion to the beasts, which appear in the relations here cited, to have died 
 from inoculation for the murrain. It was the striking examples of success which 
 could alone have introduced and established the use of inoculation for the small-pox 
 here, and it would have been rejected with horror, and prohibited by authority, had 
 a similar failure to that which has been experienced in the murrain been found m 
 the result of the first trials.
 
 320 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 destruction of such beasts as neglect or the casual want of opportunity 
 of inoculation had left exposed to the rage of it. This we see happen 
 at present with us, in the instance of the small-pox, from the very ex- 
 tensive dissemination of the infection by inoculation. But this disease 
 differs very materially from that of the murrain, with relation to that 
 operation. For we find no instance of the contagion of the small-pox 
 being ever totally suppressed in any country where it has once gained 
 admission j and therefore, if general inoculation mitigate the effects, it 
 may be adopted for that disease without the mischief of causing a per- 
 petuity of the contagion, as would happen from a general practice of it 
 for the murrain, the contagion of which will otherwise spontaneously 
 cease in certain periods, as past events have incontestably manifested. 
 
 ' The failure of inoculation to answer its intended purpose, as evinced 
 by the instances above quoted, and others, has disposed the favourers of 
 it not to insist on its utility when practised on cattle in general. But 
 Camper, De Monchy, and some others of those who have most lately 
 given opinions on this subject, still continue to recommend it to be 
 performed on calves, or young cattle. But even admitting a greater 
 number of them than of older cattle might recover, when subjected to 
 it, yet, if it be not, as we have above shown good reason to believe, a 
 security against future infection, it can be of no vitility. The objection, 
 moreover, against the general use of inoculation, with regard to its 
 \ spreading and perpetuating the contagion, avails equally against the 
 inoculation of the calves as the adult beasts. For what will secure the 
 other cattle from this infection when the calves have the disease in 
 places near them ? Will not this universal propagation of the con- 
 tagion, in spite of all the care that can be taken, of course occasion its 
 frequently reaching some of the older cattle- and will they not infect 
 jeach other the same as at present, only in a more general manner ? It 
 jmay be answered that, if all the calves be inoculated, the whole stock 
 of cattle would in time be rendered insusceptible of the infection, and 
 therefore not subject to this mischief But if, which is, nevertheless, 
 denied, for the reasons before specified, the inoculated cattle were ren- 
 dered incapable of having the disease again, yet the detriment arising 
 from the above-explained effects of such a practice, before it could pos- 
 sibly be extended in any general manner, and the impracticability of 
 making more than a part of the people conform regularly to it, would 
 be extremely great. This plan has, besides, the further inconvenience 
 of being incompatible with any supply of foreign cattle in places of 
 great scarcity, for the contagion being spread everywhere by the con- 
 stant inoculation of the calves, such foreign cattle would of course be 
 affected by it, which must produce such a loss to the dealers in them as
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 321 
 
 would deter any persons from venturing on so dangerous a trade ; whence 
 the pubHc distress would be greatly enhanced by the scarcity of all cattle 
 thus occasioned. 
 
 ' We may, on the whole, conclude that no general effectual aid is to 
 be obtained against the murrain, in a preventive intention, by medicinal 
 means. For such as might avail to a certain degree in nature are ren- 
 dered impracticable from economical reasons. Whatever is done of this 
 kind to answer any real purpose, must be extended to all the cattle in 
 every stock, at least, where there are not very particular signs of strength, 
 which will be found only in few. It must also be continued, or at 
 least renewed at short intervals, during the whole time the infection is 
 in the neighbourhood, as no foresight can point out what accident may 
 convey it to the beasts. This must cause much expense in the pur- 
 chase of the medicines, and constant trouble in the administration, 
 which is in fact equal to expense. Professor Camper says, nevertheless, 
 that nothing affords a greater prospect of success than preparing the 
 humours, while the cattle are yet in health, as the contagion approaches. 
 But he seems aware, however, that the medicine which could be most 
 depended upon for this purpose, the Peruvian bark, would be too dear 
 to be administered in that profusion which is necessary 3 and therefore 
 he proposes the finding some substitute for it, intimating that he con- 
 siders the willow bark as such. But, unhappily, it is well known that 
 neither the willow bark nor any other hitherto discovered simple is an 
 adequate substitute for the Peruvian bark, and, though they have a de- 
 gree of the same power, and may be joined with it to make some sav- 
 ing of the quantity, yet, given alone, they are not to be depended upon 
 and deemed equal to the intention. The expense of the Peruvian bark, 
 or of strong fermented liquors or cordials, the only efficacious means of 
 invigorating and keeping up the sanative strength of the beasts, would 
 be apparently more burthensome to the proprietors of cattle than that 
 of replacing such of them as might be carried off by the disease. Since 
 to put a large herd of cattle under a medicinal regimen, and continue 
 it so t(;r a long time, would most obviously be attended with a certain 
 great loss for the precarious chance of avoiding another loss that, at 
 worst, could not be ecjual to it, nor possibly incurred at all, and would 
 therefore be neither advantageous, nor in general jiracticable, as many 
 proprietors of cattle could not rind resources for making so considerable 
 a disbursement. 
 
 ' The remedies which have been tried for the cure of the murrain 
 have been in general as inetficacious and absurd as those employed for 
 its prevention ; and though some few have been better chosen with re- 
 sipect to the intention, yet they never appear to have been well used as 
 
 21
 
 322 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 to the manner of administration, whence we have very few certain in- 
 stances of tlieir success. The far greater part of these medicines, like 
 those used for the prevention of the disease, have been taken up on the 
 authority of the ancients and the earher writers, and consist ot a jum- 
 bled variety of those medicaments which are deemed antidotes of 
 poisons or alexipharmics. Under this class have been given theriaca, 
 mithridate, diascordium, opium, camphor, balsams, frankincense, myrrh, 
 juniper berries, camomile flowers, marigold flowers, feverfew, rue, sage, 
 fenugreek, madder roots, grass roots, horse-radish, bay leaves, mustard 
 seed, snake root, contrayerva root, turmeric, savin, moth maslein, 
 spearmint, calamus, aromaticus, garlic, onions, leeks, testaceous powders, 
 sulphur, vinegar stalks, honey, raisins, figs, blood of a tortoise, and eggs. 
 Some present physicians on more modern, but perhaps not more just 
 notions, have exhibited to the beasts several of the above and other 
 simples, under the name of antiseptics, in another intention ; it is that 
 of resisting putrefaction, in which they principally place the cause of 
 this disease.^ The chief of the remedies of this class they have adopted 
 
 ^ The antiseptic class of medicines has not much more claim of propriety and 
 efficacy in the cure of the murrain than that of the antidotes and alexipharmics. 
 Though a putrescent state of the fluids be the consequence of this disease in the 
 second stage, when the effects are violent, yet it does not seem to have any concern 
 in the cause, nor from any marks even to come on in the first stage. The effectual 
 method, therefore, of doing somewhat that may resist the putrefaction is to miti- 
 gate the violence of the disease, which can only be effected, as far as hitherto 
 V appears, by keeping up the natural strength of the beasts, through the use of an in- 
 vigorative regimen. The action of those remedies called antiseptics may be there- 
 fore well doubted, as we shall have occasion to take notice more particularly below, 
 /with respect to their immediate effects in that intention in any febrile cases, and 
 I more especially in the murrain. Notwithstanding they check putrefaction in inani- 
 ; mate animal substances, yet, in living subjects, being taken into the intestines, their 
 I nature is changed by the digestive operation, and they do not pass into the habit 
 with the same qualities, but as a part of the chyle in which such qualities cannot 
 exist. Those of them that contain the astringent gums which have the property of 
 \ tanning, such as are found in the Peruvian bark, &c., may promote this intention 
 ' indeed secondarily by invigorating the solids, accelerating, consequently, the mo- 
 tion of the fluids, and thence aiding the natural ferments, which are the cause why 
 putrefaction does not take place in the juices of the living animals. But the acid 
 kinds of the antiseptic medicines have even the conti-ary effects in febrile cases. 
 For, diminishing the irritability, they lower the vis vita:, and they prevent digestion 
 by checking that particular ferment by which it is performed. Whence, in both 
 ways, they lessen the animal strength, and of course conduce to the putrescence of 
 the humours. These antiseptic remedies, moreover, can have no effect on the habit 
 in that stage of the disease where the putrescence actually takes place, because 
 the digestion is then totally lost, as we shall see below, and the medicines, when 
 taken, either remain in the stomachs of the beasts, or pass off in the colliquative 
 purging. . It is thence we may account for the greater mortality of beasts so treated.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 323 
 
 are the vitriolic acid, vinegar, verjuice, sour dough, butter-milk, com- 
 mon salt, and sal ammoniacus. Others, who are attached to the doc- 
 trines ot" ant)ther modern school, considering this disease as inflamma- 
 tory, have administered medicines they hold as emollient and sedative, 
 of which nitre, cream of tartar, acids, mucilages, and oils are the princi- 
 pal/ Mercurialis, antimonialis, and white vitriol have also been em- 
 ployed in the intention of febrifuges by some of the present physicians, 
 who are favourers of chemical and metallic medicines. 
 
 ' But alike has been the success of all the proposed remedies of these 
 several classes, which is, that a remarkably great number of the beasts 
 to which they have been administered have died, in proportion to that 
 of those which have been left to nature. This may appear strange, but 
 the fact is that all of these medicaments which have any operation, 
 except those which have an invigorating and strengthening quality, dis- 
 turb, in some way or other, the animal economy, and, thence weakening 
 
 ^ How far the notion, that the mortal effects of febrile disorders in general 
 depend on inflammation, and that the indications of cure are to tx; ihence deduced, 
 may be just, does not make a proper object of examination here, though, perhaps, 
 a medical error in this point has not only been destructive to many cattle in cases 
 of trials to cure the murrain, but to a greater number of mankind than were ever 
 saved by all the means of medicinal art. But however that may be, it is obvious 
 the murrain cannot be classed amongst inflammatory disorders when the symptoms 
 of it, that will be below investigated, are duly considered. It must be allowed, in- 
 deed, that when the whole animal economy is perverted by this distemper in the 
 second stage of it, the efforts of nature to relieve herself from the discrasy of the 
 fluids, produce inflammation in particular parts, the marks of which are constantly 
 found. Inflammation is not, however, in the murrain, even the secondary cause of 
 the disease itself, as it is in the small-pox, plague, and some other febrile contagious 
 distempers of mankind, but the last consequence of it in the most advanced state. 
 On the contrary, the symptoms of the flrst stage of the murrain, and frequently of 
 the second, exhibit no signs of general inflammation, but of general and partial 
 weakness. A lentor of the animal action, a stupor, and a paralysis of the head and 
 digestive organs, are, as we shall see below, the first visible effects. When these 
 are aggravated so as to prevail over the efforts of nature to perform the vital func- 
 tions, the disease necessarily proves fatal ; but where the animal strength is suf- 
 ficient to resist for a certain period, the disease terminates by a critical discharge 
 of the virus or morbid matter, and the beast recovers. Certainly, therefore, the 
 treating the murrain as an inflammatory disorder by the exhibitions which diminish 
 irritaliility, and lessen the vis vittr, or animal strength, is conspiring with the efforts 
 of the contagion to bring on the destruction of the beasts, as tliose efforts prevail 
 according to the weakness of the subjects. It must be admitted, indeed, that the 
 medicines administered in this intention arc not very jiowerful in their effect, but 
 when conjoined to bleeding or other evacuations, they have some share in render- 
 ing nature unable to resist the action of the contagion. They may consequently be 
 granted to have contributed in some degree to that remarkable loss of the cattle 
 whicli has attended tiie attempts to cure the murrain.
 
 324 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the beasts, render them more subject to the malignant action of the con- 
 tagion, according to the principles above laid down. 
 
 ' The Peruvian bark, strong fermented liquors, cordials, and other 
 medicines which have the same tendency to invigorate, and are thence, 
 as will be shown below, agreeable to the true indication of cure, have, 
 amongst the rest, been tried by some tew physicians in their treatment 
 of this disease. But the manner in which they were used, either with 
 respect to the period of the distemper when they were given, the want 
 of due perseverance in the exhibition, the joining to them injurious 
 practices, or some other circumstance, has been such that few in- 
 stances of good can be shown to have resulted from them, though enough 
 to contirm what may be deduced from just principles of physiology re- 
 specting this disease, as to their utility in the cure of it. 
 
 ' Bleeding has been practised by most who have attempted to cure 
 the murrain. Many have done it promiscuously, in every period of the 
 disease 3 others have confined it to the first stage only. Whoever con- 
 siders the effects of bleeding on the habit and the nature of the dis- 
 temper, as deduced from the symptoms, cannot doubt but that this 
 evacuation must have largely contributed to augment the extraordinary 
 number of those beasts which have died when subjected to medicinal 
 treatment, compared to that of those which have been left to the 
 favour of nature. The failure of that degree of animal strength in 
 some beasts which is found in others is, as we evidently see from the . 
 facts abov^e-mentioned, not only the cause why one part of the cattle 
 takes the infection while another escapes it, but also, why it proves 
 mortal to one part of those seized with it while the other recovers. 
 Now it must be allowed that bleeding, when to such degree as to have 
 any effect, more than almost any other means, diminishes the animal 
 strength, or the force of circulation. Must it not, then, in proportion, 
 conduce to bring the strong cattle to that state of weakness which is 
 the cause, as we have seen above, \^'hy the disease prevails over nature 
 in some more than others, and to render still more weak those which 
 were so ? 
 
 * It is not to be wondered at, nevertheless, that physicians who have 
 hastily considered the murrain as an inflammatory disease ' should adopt 
 
 1 The notion that the murrain is an inflammatory disease, has arisen from the hasty 
 conclusion of physicians of its being similar and having a great affinity to the small- 
 pox and plague. But it will be manifest, from moderate observations on the re- 
 spective symptoms of them, that tliere is no such similarity or affinity betwixt them 
 in nature. The small-pox always procluces general inflammation, and consequently 
 signs of a strong fever in a greater or less degree in the first stage, and the excess 
 of that inflammation is frequently the cause of its proving mortal. The same is 
 seen in the plague, which begins with symptoms of strong fever and inflammation.
 
 History of Animal Plagiies. 325 
 
 this most effectual means of resisting inflammation, but there is not the 
 least ground for this notion of die nature of the disease. 
 
 'In the first stage the contrary of general inflammation appears, for 
 then the symptoms exhibit signs of languor and a disposition to insensi- 
 bility. Nor is there any general inflammation seen in the whole course 
 of the disease, except when deposits of the morbid matter are made in 
 the last stage, which, if they prove eruptions or tumours in the external 
 parts, are a salutary crisis that should not, on any account, be disturbed 
 or checked, or, if they fall on the internal parts, are a fatal symptom 
 not to be resisted, and are then, moreover, attended with such a state of 
 weakness in the beast that any considerable evacuation must soon be 
 followed with a mortal sinking. At what time, therefore, is the bleed- 
 ing to be practised with a view tothe relieving against the inflammation? 
 In the flrst stage, when there is a total absence of any such inflamma- 
 tion and the whole danger of mischief lies in that of the want of sufficient 
 strength, or in the last stage, when there is such a state of weakness 
 that the evacuation must necessarily kill the beast ; or such a critical 
 eruption as, if suffered to take its course, may save the animal, but if 
 checked or thrown in by the diminution of the lever, which supports 
 it, must attack the internal parts and either cause instant suffocation or 
 convulsions, or, in a short time, a mortiflcation of those parts ? ^ In 
 
 Whence they may both be properly deemed inflammatory disorders, as inflamma- 
 tion is one principal secondary cause of the dangerous symptoms and mortality 
 attending them. But in the murrain no such inflammation ever appears in the 
 first stage, but the very contrary ; nor does any great degree of heat occur till either 
 towards the middle of the second stage, and then only in the case of a disposition to 
 eruptions, when, as Dr Layard has justly remarked, it is a prognostic of a recovery, 
 or at the end of the second stage, when deposits of the morbid matter are made on 
 the viscera and soon induce a mortification. In the smalI-])ox, an eruption is the 
 sole salutary crisis which nature has instituted, and through which the subject can 
 be saved. It is tlierefore, together with the preceding and attending inflammation 
 and fever, essential to the disease. But, on the contrary, in the murrain, though ' 
 eruptions are one mode of the crisis of the disease, or in other words, one way by 
 which nature discharges the morbid matter when of due maturity, yet they are 
 often wholly wanting, even when the beasts recover, and, therefore, not essential to 
 the disease, even where it has its full natural progress. For in the United Pro- 
 vinces, and other moist and low countries, cruinions are most frequently not found 
 in the beasts which do well, but a diarrhoea, or looseness, constitutes tlie critical 
 discharge, and, in such case, no great degree of heat arises in the whole course of 
 the disease. This proves an entire diversity in the nature of the diseases to be 
 betwixt the small-pox and the murrain, and evinces that the indications of cure 
 which are adopted from a supposed analogy of them stand on a very erroneous 
 foundation. 
 
 ' Dr Layard, who, on the whole, has written the most sensi1)iy on lliis disease, 
 says, ' Bleeding, therefore, will be found necessary only wlien the inflanunation
 
 326 History of Animal Plag7ies. 
 
 every light, this evacuation appears to be injurious in the murrain. For 
 if there can be a case supposed where it might tend to reheve against a 
 
 is so considerable and the fever so high that nature is obstructed and cannot expel 
 the morbid matter, and, whenever such symptoms are apprehended, prudence will 
 require bleeding to prevent this coming on, according to the constitution, strength, 
 or age of the beast.' But I must dissent from the doctor as to his opinion that 
 there are any cases which admit of a rule to be laid down for bleeding the cattle in 
 the murrain. That inflammation does ever obstruct natitre so that she cannot expel 
 the morbid matter is a mere hypothesis, and, perhaps, might easily be shown to be 
 such, as it is not consistent with tlie known principles of physiology ; I shall, how- 
 ever, waive any discussion of that kind here. It is sufficient to deny that any such 
 inflammation is found in the course of this disease, as no strong signs of any appear 
 but the shivering and heat in the earlier part of the second stage, which denote an 
 eruption, and are, as above-mentioned, enumerated by the doctor himself among 
 the prognostics of recovery ; or the violent fever, which follows the attack of the 
 disease on the viscera in the very last period, and is, consequently, always a fatal 
 symptom. But admitting there were cases when it might be beneficial to bleed the 
 beasts in this distemper, with a view to prevent the coming on of too much inflam- 
 mation, or the consequences of it when subsisting, how are they to be certainly 
 distinguished in practice ? Few physicians would agree with each other in settling 
 precise diagnostic marks of this indication. How then are untaught owners of 
 cattle, on whom the task of judging on this matter must depend in the general exe- 
 cution of ,it, to determine on a point of so complex and nice a nature ? On what, 
 according to Doctor Layard's intimation, is to be grounded the apprehension of the ' 
 symptoms when i)7-iidence zvill regit ii-e bleeding to prevent this coming on? Some an- 
 swer to that diificulty is, indeed, given in another passage of his essay below, page 
 65, where he declares, ' If a beast be full-grown and fleshy, if a cow big with calf 
 and of such colour as denotes strong fibres, then take away two quarts of blood 
 from the neck. From a strong yearling calf, one quart : and so on in proportion 
 to age and strength, but neither weakly nor poor thin cows, especially white ones, 
 are to be bled so much, if at all.' But in the third chapter, where he treats of the 
 prognostics, he enumerates these circumstances among the marks by which it may be 
 discerned what beasts are least in danger of being attacked by the contagion and 
 suffering violently from it, all which marks are, in fact, the appearance of strength, 
 though he has not directly said so. Now, if strength be the preservative from the 
 contagion and its effects, what is the consequence of bleeding those which bear • 
 such marks but, in fact, reducing them to the same state with the others which 
 want this strength, or, in other words, rendering them equally unable to resist the 
 effects of the contagion ? Is not this setting up of art founded on vague principles for 
 the sake of accommodating practice to the notions and hypotheses of darling writers, 
 in opposition to the clear dictates of reason suggested by observation on facts. In 
 chapter the eighth, speaking of the means to prevent infection, he is led round 
 again to truth by the force of such observation. For there he very justly acknow- 
 ledges the real fact that ' Bleeding and purging the cattle, so far from being of 
 use, has not prevented the disease, but rather the symptoms have been more violent 
 in some who were bled and purged.' The reason is obvious ; because, being weak- 
 ened, the beasts were less able to resist the contagion. But has tlie bleeding less 
 effect in weakening the subject when performed after the infection has taken place 
 than it had before ? Surely it has not. This was delivered candidly from observ-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 327 
 
 particular symptom, which is only when some internal part is inflamed 
 by the deposit of the matter, yet such case would be desperate, and the 
 evacuation would, in other respects, promote those effects that lead to 
 fatal consequences. Bleeding for prevention of the infection, though 
 not enumerated in the preceding view of the means used for. that end, 
 has yet been recommended by some physicians, and frequently practised. 
 But on the same principle, of exposing the beasts to the force of the 
 disease by weakening them, it is of the same bad tendency as when 
 used for the cure. Indeed, it does not in this case so generally do harm. 
 For when it happens not to be performed nearly at the time of the 
 beast's taking the infection, the cattle, except those which are naturally 
 weak, recover their strength again, and the evacuation has, therefore, 
 no consequence with regard to the distemper. 
 
 ' Purging has been frequently tried as a remedy against the murrain, 
 iu all the periods of the disease. There is evidently the same objection 
 to it as has made above to bleeding, since it undoubtedly conduces to 
 weaken and exhaust the beast, and, consequently, to render nature 
 less able to resist the force of the contagion. It is also from other reasons 
 improper in this disease by whichever of the two courses, a diarrhoea or 
 eruptions, nature seeks to produce a critical discharge of the morbid 
 matter. Where there is a tendency to eruptions, as for the most part 
 is found in England, this evacuation would necessarily make a deriva- 
 tion and endanger the stopping its progress j and, indeed, not only with 
 us but in Italy, according to Lancisi, " A looseness is an unfavourable 
 symptom and denotes the weakness of the subject." In Holland it is 
 frequent, and the cattle do recover with it. But where there is a dis- 
 position to it, or it is already begun, medicines which promote the same 
 evacuation are certainly not proper, as they either bring it on before the 
 due time or increase it, if already come on, to a degree that is beyond 
 what the strength of the beast can bear. This, though not, perhaps, in 
 every instance, must yet be the case in the greatest part. The most 
 judicious observers agree, moreover, in condemning the use of purges in 
 this disease, from an actual experience of their bad effects, and the 
 adopting it has been certainly one source of the ill success which has 
 resulted in the attempts made to cure the murrain. 
 
 ' Blisters have been also tried in this disease, but not in so extensive a 
 manner as to afford the means of determining how fir they may be of 
 
 ation on the real phenomena. What we have before quoted was tlie result of 
 theoretic reasonings founded on presumed principles, and the supj^osed aulhority 
 of Sydenham, <S:c., in points where in reality no just analogy subsisted. Professor 
 Camper wholly disapproves of bleeding in this disease from an extensive observation 
 of its effects.
 
 3^8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 any avail in it. By the apparent tendency to a paralytic state, which is 
 shown in the first period of the murrain, there is room to conclude 
 that such a stimulus might come within the intention of cure. But 
 whether it would be adequate to the indications, or trivial in its effects, 
 can only be known from a large basis of observations. At all adventures, 
 the difficulty attending the application of bhsters to the diseased cattle 
 by such persons as must have the treatment of them in general, ren- 
 ders their use a very untit means of relief in the murrain. 
 
 ' Rowels, setons, pegging, and caustics have been in their turn vainly 
 employed in the murrain. It must be admitted, nevertheless, that nature 
 sometimes throws the morbid matter on a part already diseased by a 
 wound so made, and in that case renders it the means of a critical 
 discharge, as we see happen in other contagions. But this will rarely 
 be the case, and where it may there is always a sufficient degree of strength 
 to produce an eruption, which would answer the same end. In any 
 other circumstances, the discharge from these drains can be of no serv- 
 ice towards the cure of the murrain. For they must know very little 
 ot physiology and the history of diseases, who imagine a purulent dis- 
 charge can be of any consequence in them, unless at the due period it 
 be converted into a critical one by a deposit of the morbid matter on 
 the part. In all other views this kind of evacuation rather impedes 
 than promotes the cure of the murrain, as it tends to weaken and ex- 
 haust the subject, and consequently to promote ihe prevalence of the 
 contagion over nature. 
 
 ' Munditication, performed by extraordinary cleansings and rubbing 
 the skin of the beasts, has had great stress laid upon it by some who 
 have undertaken the cure of the murrain. But it is admitted by Pro- 
 fessor Camper and others, who have seen it much practised, to be of 
 no avail. Indeed, the effects must be too minute to have any material 
 consequence in a disease of so violent a nature, and if such laborious 
 and constant cleansings, rubbings, &c., as are recommended were service- 
 able, the performing them would be impracticable where there are a 
 great number of cattle infected, without more trouble or expense tlian 
 the chance of benefit from them would countervail, 
 
 'The inefficiency of the above-enumerated various supposed remedies 
 for the murrain are less to be regretted, because a great part of them 
 would be attended with such expense and trouble as would render the 
 general use inexpedient. And indeed the same may be said of all of 
 them according to the manner they have been prescribed by those who 
 have recommended them, in which several always, and for the most part 
 many of them, have been combined together. Whatever method of cure 
 is proposed to be actually serviceable in this disease, it must be practicable.
 
 Histo7'y of Animal PI agues. 329 
 
 with a moderate share of expense and trouble, or it w ill never be put 
 in practice by the proprietors of cattle so generally as to save a sufficient 
 number of them to be of any moment to the public. Very lillle regard 
 has, nevertheless, been had to this consideration by the ph}sicians who 
 have taken in hand the discovering^ means of relief atjainst the murrain. 
 They seem only to have sought after what might be efficacious in nature, 
 and directed the use of what they thought so without calculating in the 
 least whether the consequence of its use could be lucratively of any 
 benefit to the private persons who might adopt it, or reflecting, that if 
 it were of no benefit to them they would not adopt it, nor the public 
 therefore reap any advantage from it. Even the most able of those 
 who have been engaged in this pursuit, have seemed to forget wholly 
 this circumstance, which is indispensably requisite to the forming an 
 effectual plan for the saving any material nvuiiber of the cattle, as it 
 would be more profitable to abandon them to the effect of the disease 
 than to incur a greater expense in attempting it than is balanced by the 
 value of the chance of savins; them.^ 
 
 o 
 
 * In calculating the advantage that is to be received from any remedy for the 
 murrain, the expense incurred by tlie use of it for the mumber of beasts actually 
 saved must not be considered alone, but that of all those with which it has been 
 used, in order to the saving such number, must be included likewise. In order, 
 therefore, to determine the value of the chance of saving the cattle by any 
 means of remedy comparatively with the cost of such means, it is proper to 
 state the circumstances in this manner : — It appears that at present in Holland 
 somewhat less than half the beasts which take the infection recover without the aid 
 of any medicinal assistance, and in our country, where, as we have before observed, 
 the beasts are stronger, we may safely reckon at least that proportion. But as it 
 is impracticable, when the signs of the distemper first appear, to distinguish with 
 any certainty those beasts which would die without aid, it is necessary all those 
 that are seized with the disease should be subjected to the curative treatment. Let 
 us further, in order to bring the v/hole matter into this point of view, suppose a 
 method proposed that would save one-half of the beasts which would die without 
 the aid of it. It will then result from these premises that, on the whole, to save 
 one beast the expense of the medicinal treatment must be incurred on four, as one- 
 half would recover if they were left to nature, and only one-half of the other is to 
 be saved by the medicinal aid. For a method which could effect that must be 
 justly deemed highly efficacious. In the methods which have been recommended, 
 and particularly that by the latest and best writer on this subject in our own country, 
 the expenses of labour, medicaments, the extraordinary diet would amount in the 
 treatment of each beast to at least one pound five shillings, and, according to some 
 prescriptions, they would rise to double that sum ; so that in any of these methods, 
 according to the manner of computing here laid down, the saving each beast would 
 cost at least five pounds, and in some of them ten. This great expense would not 
 only take away all inducements, in the view of gain from the owners of the beasts 
 to employ such means for saving them, but the greatest ]iart of such owners would 
 not be able to make the disbursements necessary to it in proportion to their stock
 
 33 o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 'The knowledge of the symptoms, which are easily discernible and 
 best distinguish' the murrain from other disorders incident to cattle, and 
 of the peculiar appearances that are produced in the inward parts of 
 beasts which die of it, make by far the most important object of the 
 communication of what regards this disease. It is extremely requisite 
 that all owners of cattle should have a moderate acquaintance with 
 these matters, in order they may as soon, and as certainly as possible, be 
 able to inform themselves whenever their cattle appear to be out of 
 order or die in a suspicious manner, whether they be infected with this 
 disease or not. Without such means of judging, they may either in- 
 advertently sutler the contagion to spread in their own herds or to those 
 of others, if it happens to be introduced to any of their beasts, or other- 
 wise be led, from a mistake of other distempers for it, to be at great 
 expense and trouble in trying to prevent it when there is no real occa- 
 sion. It is of equal consequence, both with respect to the public and 
 to themselves, that a certain degree of intelligence of the criterions by 
 which the murrain may be known from other disorders should be pos- 
 sessed by magistrates, constables, parish-officers, and inspectors of cattle, 
 particularly those near sea-ports, that they may, in some measure, be 
 enabled to put the Acts of Parliament and Orders of Council concerning 
 the disease into execution j as those Acts lay a task upon them, should the 
 occasion of their being enforced present itself, of a very nice and com- 
 plex, as well as momentous nature. I shall, therefore, first give an enumer- 
 ation of those symptoms of cattle diseased with the murrain, and a de- 
 scription of those appearances it causes in the inward parts of the bodies 
 of beasts that die of it, which are so simple and strong that they may be 
 readily perceived and distinguished by any persons, however little versed 
 in the observation of diseases or other subjects of medical concern. I 
 shall afterwards, for the use of others who may choose to carry their 
 speculations further and attempt the study or cure of the disease, point 
 out those more latent and less perceptible symptoms and effects of 
 it, which require a previous knowledge of physiology to their being 
 properly observed, and which are rather useful for investigating the 
 nature and kind of the disease, and the best method of curative treat- 
 ment of it, than for distinguishing it, by sensible marks, from other 
 disorders of cattle. I shall proceed also to apply the whole to that 
 purpose of examination, and to explain whatever can be at present 
 collected of the physiological principles of the disease, in order to as- 
 
 of cattle. As the whole must be provided and laid out in a short space of time, 
 it would therefore be more to their interest to submit to the present loss and 
 recruit their stock bv future resources.
 
 Histoiy of Animal Plagties. 331 
 
 certain thence the best means of prevention of the contagion, and the 
 proper intention of cure to be adopted in the medicinal treatment of 
 such as are already infected. 
 
 'The first apparent symptoms of the murrain are : a dry cough j a 
 shivering and gnashing of the teeth coming on at considerable distances 
 of time ; shaking the ears and hanging down of the head as if from weak- 
 ness 5 stretching out of the neck as when there is a difficulty of swal- 
 lowing 5 moving often slowly from place to place seemingly in a con- 
 stant state of uneasinessj decrease of appetite j diminution or, on the fourth 
 day, total loss of milk in cows which are in a milch state, attended with a 
 lankness of the belly and udder -, and sometimes costiveness. During 
 the time these symptoms only appear, the cattle will eat, chew the cud, 
 and at some times look brisk and lively 5 but after the third or fourth 
 days, the following symptoms come on gradually but quickly, except 
 in those beasts which have the disease in a very mild and gentle man- 
 ner : — A constant heaviness and stupidity ; a general weakness 3 a great 
 decline of the appetite and chewing the cudj a frequent trembling of 
 the whole skin, or of particular parts of it, especially about the flank 
 and buttocks 3 a purging in some, or a discharge from the nose and 
 ears; and a total loss of the milk in milch cows, if it has not come on 
 before. 
 
 ' Where the disease is not slight, the above-specified symptoms are 
 soon succeeded by these others : — A refusal of all food, and ceasing 
 entirely to chew the cud; an increase of purging; the excrement be- 
 coming of a very yellow or of a dark green colour, stinking, and, in 
 some cases, coming away of itself from the fundament, which seems 
 continually open and moving ; a difficulty and shortness of breathing, 
 accompanied with groaning, and an extraordinary distention and widen- 
 ing of the nostrils ; a scabbiness of the nose and lips ; a great swelling 
 
 ^ Doctor de ]\Ionchy, city physician to Rotterdam, in his ' Remarks on the 
 Mortality among the Horned Cattle,' mentions a decrease of milk and a lankness 
 of the belly in milch cows, and a drowsiness and cough in young beasts, as suffici- 
 ent signs to discover this disease in the cattle. Kut though they may be good 
 reasons for suspicion of it in places where the contagion is already in the neighbour- 
 hood, yet they are by no means alone just grounds to determine that cattle so 
 affected are seized with the murrain when there is no likelihood of tlie hifection 
 having been conveyed to them. The decrease, or even loss, of milk in cows, 
 and the consequential lankness of the belly, are attendant on any consider- 
 able feverish disorder, and the drowsiness and cough in young beasts may arise 
 from colds or other epidemic disorders. I have mentioned this, because Doctor de 
 Monchy's dissertation has lately been translated into English, and such a passage 
 in it may mislead and occasion false alarms respecting the introduction of the con- 
 tagion into our country.
 
 ^T,2 History of Animal Plagiies. 
 
 of the belly ; a restlessness, uneasiness on lying down, and defect of 
 power, through weakness, to stand, whence the legs are extended out- 
 wards, as it were, to prop the body j eruptions on various parts of the 
 body, but particularly about the flank and udder 3 miscarriage in preg- 
 nant cows 5 and, where the beasts are strong, hard tumours, like boils, 
 especially along the back on each side the bone felt under the pannicu- 
 lus carnosus, or outward skin, which frequently break and discharge 
 matter very fetid or stinking. 
 
 ' These symptoms go on, most of them augmenting, till the turn or 
 crisis of the disease. They then begin to decrease, and some degree of 
 appetite and chewing the cud to return, if the beasts recover. If other- 
 wise, the purging becomes greater, or, if there were none before, begins 
 with violence, and the dung passes off involuntarily, not only the anus 
 but the tail seeming to lose all power of action. The eruptions, if there 
 be any, flatten ; or the tumours, like boils, under the skin grow soft ; 
 and the strength seeming to be spent, the beast dies suddenly without 
 any other previous signs j or, in some cases, is violently convulsed, roars 
 loudly, throws out a large quantity of foam or froth from the mouth, 
 struggles hard, and tosses about the head with great force. 
 
 ' The second stage of the disease is seldom continued longer here 
 than three or four days, reckoning it, as above-mentioned, from the 
 fourth day after the first signs of the infection. So that the general 
 period of the distemper, from the first attack which was perceived to 
 the crisis or turn, according to the course of the distemper as it sub- 
 sisted here, may be accounted about seven or eight days.^ 
 
 ' The time of appearance of the first signs, after the infection is re- 
 received, is five or six days, rarely more, unless where the slightness of the 
 disease renders the symptoms so gentle that they do not become per- 
 ceptible till in an advanced period of it; but this cannot carry it beyond 
 the ninth or tenth day. 
 
 'It is not to be understood, nevertheless, that in every beast which 
 has the murrain, all the above-enumerated appearances will be found. 
 For as different parts are affected in different subjects, the symptoms 
 
 ' In Holland, the period of the murrain from the first sensible marks of it to the 
 crisis or turn, is much longer than it appeared to be with us, and is most generally 
 found to be aliout twelve days. The reason of the variation of the disease in this 
 point betwixt Holland and here, lies in the superior strength of our cattle, which 
 enables nature in them to bring the disease to a crisis in so much less time. This 
 greater degree of strength in our cattle manifests itself, as we have remarked else- 
 where, in their more frequently throwing out eruptions in this disorder here than in 
 Holland, and in their not being susceptible of the infection, except after very bad 
 seasons, though less injurious epidemic causes render them so in that country.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 2)'},'}) 
 
 vary accordingly, particularly in the last stage ; and the natural or casual 
 habit of the beast, as to strength, age, and pregnancy, makes likewise a 
 considerable alteration, both as to the kind and the degree of the effects of 
 the contagion. The symptoms of the first stage, except the costiveness, 
 constantly attend, however, in a greater or less degree j and the greatest 
 part of those of the second stage follow in a more or less violent man- 
 ner. The discharge from the nose and eyes is very general ; and 
 scarcely ever wanting in those beasts which recover. The purging and 
 swelling of the belly are also very frequent ; and almost always occur 
 in those beasts which die. The eruptions and hard swellings like boils 
 are likewise very common here ' in those which recover. 
 
 ' On the whole, 'therefore, by a due observation of the manner in 
 which beasts seem affected, when several are seized with an unknown 
 disease at nearly the same time and place, it may be determined, on 
 very good grounds, \\'hen the contagion has been introduced. The 
 hanging down of the head and stretching out of the neck, with other 
 signs of weakness, coming on in the first stage ; and followed by the 
 insensibility, tremblings, eruptions in the flank and udder, or hard 
 swellings like boils along the back, and breaking out or scabbiness 
 about the nose and lips, in the second stage j may be looked upon as 
 peculiar symptoms which characterize the disease, and leave little 
 room to doubt of its presence where they appear. 
 
 ' In order, nevertheless, to obtain a more positive certainty in any 
 case where there is reason to apprehend, from beasts having died in the 
 manner and with the symptoms above described, that the infection has 
 been brought to any place, it may be further proper to examine the 
 carcases of such beasts by opening them 5 and if it be as supposed, the 
 following appearances, or most of them, will present themselves. This 
 examination must, however, be confined to such as die from the natural 
 course of the distemper ; and not extended to such as are killed, or have 
 been subjected to medicinal treatment j because the disease has not 
 
 ' Tliough eruptions were very frequent in the murrain wliile it prevailed here, 
 yet they are much less common, as has been above intimated, in Holland, and other 
 low and damp countries, where the cattle are habitually weaker. When they do 
 appear there, they are also different, for the most part, from those found in our cat- 
 tle. For instead of lieing on the back, and large like other boils, they are generally 
 about the flank and udder ; and are less, flatter, and softer. The general crisis of 
 the disease, in such case, is not by eruiHion, but by diarrhtea or looseness, which 
 was found here, on the contrary, to lie mostly a bad symptom. This is not, how- 
 ever, constant. Kor there are instances of beasts which do well in I Icjjland w ithout 
 a diarrhoea ; and there were some here of those which recovered with il. But the 
 crisis, nevertheless, is here by far the most fre(|uently an eruption, either on the 
 back or about the nose and lips ; and in those countries a diarrhoea.
 
 334 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 then had its due and full effect on the parts j and the state in which 
 they will then be must proportionably fail to answer the description 
 above given. 
 
 ' A very stinking air, and sometimes matter, rushes out on piercing 
 the skin, or making an opening into the cavity of the belly; particularly 
 if there be swellings on the back, and the skin be pricked or cut in that 
 part. The mouth, throat, and gullet are red ; and full of small specks, 
 or ulcers, attended with the appearance of what is called the thrush in 
 children. The lungs are red, ulcerated, speckled with blackish spots, 
 and sometimes fraught with small bladders of fluid-like water. The 
 liver is swollen, full of dark yellow gall, and rotten, so as scarcely to 
 bear the touch ; and the gall-bladder is stretched to a large size by 
 greenish gall. The cud-bag, or paunch, is red and discoloured with 
 blackish spots, putfed up with air to a very great magnitude, and void 
 of any fluid, but containing a hard mass of cud, which has remained 
 there and is become dry, instead of passing to the other intestines to be 
 digested. The honey-comb, manilold, and curd-bag are in much the 
 same state with the cud-bag, except as to the various degrees of hard- 
 ness and dryness of the cud in the two first, and that the curd-bag is 
 empty. The smaller guts are spotted with red and black ; and the 
 end of the rectum or last gut, for some space above the anus or funda- 
 ment, is black, rotten, and foul with clotted blood on its surface. The 
 womb is red and enlarged in cows that are not pregnant, but in those 
 with calf it is blackish. The fat, where any can be found, is of a high 
 yellow colour and soft consistence. Collections or gatherings of matter 
 are frequently met with in the cavities of the horns and head. When 
 the greatest part of these appearances present themselves in the respect- 
 ive parts on opening the beasts which have died after the principal of 
 the above symptoms have been observed in them, there can be no room 
 to doubt but that they have had the murrain. Even where any accurate 
 information may be wanting of the nature of their illness, there is a very 
 strong ground of conclusion that it was this disease, if, on the examina- 
 tion of the carcases soon after the beasts are dead, the eruptions, par- 
 ticularly the hard boils along the back, the scabbiness on the nose and 
 barbs, the puffing up of the skin or belly with stinking air, the gathering 
 of matter in the horns and head, the dry mass in the cud-bag, the black- 
 ness of the womb, and the rottenness of the gut next the fundament, or 
 most of them, are found. 
 
 'The symptoms and eff^ects of the murrain, which may be deemed, 
 less properly than the foregoing, the subject of the examination of per- 
 sons not conversant in medicinal subjects, and less apparently the cha- 
 racteristic marks of the disease, but which may yet afibrd material lights
 
 History of Animal Plagues. o^'^^ 
 
 for discovering the true nature and the indications of cure of it, are 
 those which follow. 
 
 ' In the first stage, heat, but not great, in the head, and particularly 
 at the roots of the horns, attended with a coolness of the body and the 
 extremities 3 hot and stinking breath j deafness 3 pulse quicker than in 
 health, the strokes being from sixty to seventy, but irregular, though 
 without stated remissions. 
 
 ' In die second stage, sisrns of sickness : ' breath more hot and stink- 
 ingj fetid steams from the skin; respiration ditficult, particularly ex- 
 piration laboured and performed with groaning; urine high-coloured 
 and turbid, but generally without any deposit of sediment, or any bad 
 smell, and retained longer than in health, though not in the whole 
 much ditferent in quantity ; dung acrimonious or sharp to such a degree 
 as to leave a visible irritation for some time after in the anus ; blood 
 florid; seeming exacerbations of pain in the evening; a constant dis- 
 position to lie, but attended with such uneasiness in some that they 
 stand almost continually, though Mith great difficulty on account of 
 their weakness ; an absence of thirst throughout the whole disorder, 
 though with a willingness to drink in moderation ; pulse increasing in 
 quickness, according to the progress of the disease, from seventy to 
 ninety, and having periodical diurnal remissions as in the paroxysms of 
 fevers, but irregular, intermitting, and growing smaller as the velocity 
 becomes greater. 
 
 ' On opening the carcases of beasts dead of the murrain, these ap- 
 pearances will occur, together with those before enumerated : — In the 
 brain, the blood-vessels are found turgid and very red, and clots of 
 
 ' Doctor Layard has mentioned, along with the sickness, the throwing up of 
 bile as one of the symptoms of the murrain. He does not intimate that he has 
 seen it himself, but refers for it, in a note, to Aretseus 'De Morbis Acutis.' The 
 notion of such a fact was a most palpable error in the first broacher of it, whoever 
 he were ; and it is a great inadvertence in the Doctor to adopt it ; as he has him- 
 self, in more than one part of his treatise, insisted on the iinpossibility of neat cattle 
 vomiting at all, on account of the formation of their intestines. Professor Camper 
 has, indeed, seemed to contradict this opinion by the relation of a fact. For he 
 declares that giving a decoction of camomile has made the beasts vomit. If that 
 did happen, however, it cannot be supposed to be any other vomiting than the re- 
 turning the fluid into the mouth from the cud-bag only, by the same action as the 
 cud is brought back thither in order to rumination ; which could have no effect 
 towards forcing up bile. Whoever considers that the bile must pass through all 
 the four stomachs in its way from the duodenum to the mouth, must be satisfied 
 that it is next to an impossibility any such thing should happen. It is most rational 
 to believe that if a discharge from the mouth of anything reseml)ling bile, on a 
 slight inspection, has been observed, it was only of some yellow cud mixed with a 
 large proportion of fluid, and mistaken for bile in default of stricter examination.
 
 ^^6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 grumous blood, as well as a lymphous fluid, show themselves frequently 
 in the substance. On the membranes of the cavities of the nose, and 
 the whole extent of the frontal finus, the large glands, and the medul- 
 lary substance of the horns, marks of inflammation and excoriation will 
 be seen. The kidneys and bladder are inflamed and void of urine. 
 The flesh in some beasts is livid, in others of a lively red for a short 
 time after the death of the beasts, but soon changing to a green colour. 
 Appearances are found of emphysema, or vesicles of air, in the lungs, 
 mesentery, and cutaneous membranes in various parts of the body. 
 
 ' From the whole of the symptoms and appearances of the murrain, 
 we may draw these conclusions as to the nature and effects of the dis- 
 ease : — It is communicated from one beast to another by a contagious 
 matter or virus, that, acting as a leaven, produces a ferment in the 
 humours of the parts into which it is introduced, and either reduces the 
 nerves of such parts to a paralytic or inactive state, or renders them too 
 irritable and active, at the same time counteracting those natural fer- 
 ments in such humours which are requisite for the due support of the 
 animal economy. But when, from the strength of the solids giving 
 due motion to the fluids, the natural ferments are duly powerful, it 
 cannot prevail over them, and therefore has no morbid effect, as we 
 see in those beasts which escape the infection, though exposed to the con- 
 tagion. In those subjects where there is a default of such strength, it 
 goes on by the above-specified means to weaken the force of the circu- 
 lation and deprave the secretions ; whence also that putrescence or putrid 
 ferment to which all animal substances have a natural tendency, when 
 not superseded by the vital ferments, is at length brought on, and if no 
 critical expulsion be made in due time of the contagious leaven by the 
 fever induced by its effects, destroys the vital economy, and necessarily 
 causes the death of the beast. But if, by the inflammation produced, 
 the force of circulation, and consequently the pov^^er of the vital ferment, 
 be so increased as to overcome that of the contagious leaven, the morbid 
 matter in which it resides is expelled, either in eruptions on the surface 
 or by a discharge from the intestines. 
 
 ' The progress and the manner of the action of the contagious virus 
 in the murrain may, from the symptoms and the appearances in the 
 dead beasts, be deduced to be as follows : — The first effects of the con- 
 tagion appear principally in the head and the upper parts. It produces 
 a certain degree of nervous weakness or paralytic disorder in those 
 parts, as is shown by the deafness, dulness of the eyes, debility of the 
 neck, and shaking of the head. This disorder aff"ects also gradually the 
 glands which secrete the saliva and lymph of the stomach, as there is 
 found, in a more advanced stage of this disease, a total want of those
 
 History of Aiiiuial Plagues. 337 
 
 fluids, the cud forming a dry concreted mass. At the same time, 
 nevertheless, the ghuids of the nose and eyes are rendered more irrit- 
 able, and the humours are secreted in them much more copiously than 
 the natural degree. The paralytic disorder of the saliva! glands, and 
 the glands of the stomachs, extends itself frequently in the tirst stage to 
 those of the small guts, as may be inferred from the cos tiven ess observed 
 at that time. But this often changes afterwards into a great irritability 
 in the second stage, as is evinced by the profuse diarrhoea attending. 
 On the other hand, the irritability of the glands of the nose and eyes 
 seems to be continued to the membranes of the lungs by the cough, 
 which is almost a constant symptom. The stomachs seem also to par- 
 take of the paralysis of the upper parts, and this appears to be in pro- 
 portion to their nearer situation to those parts, as may be inferred from 
 the retention of the cud in the cud-bag and honey-comb, and the 
 emptiness of the cud-bag. There is an early etfort of nature to make 
 an expulsion of the morbid matter by the external parts of the head, as 
 may be collected from the signs of topical inflammation which show 
 themselves, and particularly about the horns, \\'here abscesses are after- 
 wards frequently formed. But this alone rarely proves a critical dis- 
 charge. 
 
 * After the first four days the contagion diffuses its eff'ects much 
 more generally, and frecjuently attacks the liver and the lower intestines, 
 which then become very irritable ; a great discharge of bile, and tlie 
 other humours secreted in them, ensuing. But the inactive or paralytic 
 state of the salival glands and those of the stomach yet goes on increas- 
 ing, till all secretion by them ceases. Hence the appetite and digestion 
 are entirely lost ; and the inanition, caused by the want of a due supply 
 of chyle to the blood, conspires greatly, with the nervous debility above 
 speciried, to bring on a great languor of the circulation and other vital 
 action. This necessarily induces a putrescence of the juices; whence 
 new sensible effects are produced, which may be deemed secondary 
 symptoms; being not the immediate consequences of the action of the 
 contagion, but the effects of the putrid ferment sutfered to prevail by 
 the suppression of the animal ferments, wdiich counteracted it while 
 they subsisted in the due degree. In this difference of the cause of the 
 symptoms, principally consists the difference of the first and second 
 stages of the disease ; the first exhibiting those alone which result from 
 the action of the contagion on particular parts, and may, therefore, be 
 called primary ; the second displaying not only a further extension of 
 such symptoms, but those others also that are caused by the general 
 depravity of the fluids, and the consequential disorder of the vital 
 economy, which arise frcjm the putrescence that prevails from the weak 
 
 22
 
 338 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 action of the solids in giving due motion to the fluids, and from the 
 defect or perversion of the glandular secretions. In this advanced state 
 of the disease a final period is soon brought on, either by a salutary 
 crisis or the death of the beast. The morbid matter falling on some 
 particular parts, and the general depravity of the humour causing ob- 
 structions in others, topical inflammations and a general irritation follow ; 
 whence, necessarily, a fever rises in a greater or less degree. By this 
 means the force of the circulation is increased, so that, where the habit 
 is strong, the natural ferments, being again revived by the accelerated 
 motion of the fluids, prevail over that of the leaven of the contagion ; 
 and the morbid matter is either thrown on the superficial parts, in case 
 of great strength, where it forms eruptions and tumours j or discharged 
 by the glands of the intestines, in case of a less degree of strength. 
 This constitutes a salutary crisis, in consequence of which the beasts 
 recover from the murrain, at least considered as an acute disease ; though 
 they sometimes die afterwards of the ulcerations or abscesses produced 
 then by it in the brain, lungs, or other viscera. But if the natural 
 strength be so defective that the irritation and consequential fever can- 
 not produce a sufficient force of circulation to give due power to the 
 vital ferments, the contagious leaven and putrescence overcome them 5 
 and an excessive evacuation is made by the liver and the glands of the 
 small guts, which exhausts the remains of that power on which animal 
 action depends 5 while the external and weaker parts suffer a gangrene 
 from the deposit of the morbid matter, and the want of due motion of 
 the vitiated and putrid humours. 
 
 ' This investigation of the progress and manner of action of the con- 
 tagion, according to the state of the subject in the murrain, affords a 
 clear view of the indications of cure. It is evident that the strugfele 
 here betwixt health and the disease lies, in fact, at first, betwixt the 
 vital ferments which support the animal economy and a preternatural 
 ferment which tends to destroy them ; and that consequently, if the 
 latter prevail, it introduces the putrid ferment to which all animal sub- 
 stances have a disposition when it is not controlled by the vital. It is 
 certain, also, that the vital ferments depend on the due commixture 
 of the several humours and their constituent parts by the circulative 
 motion of the blood, and those other motions of the animal juices 
 which are performed by nervous action, and that these motions are 
 more or less strong in proportion to the nervous strength of the subject, 
 or, in other words, that they are rendered vigorous or languid as that 
 strength is augmented or diminished. Whatever, therefore, increases 
 this nervous strength or gives tension to the fibres, increases those mo- 
 tions, and whatever adds to the force of those motions proportionately
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 339 
 
 increases the vital ferments, and consequently resists the action of the 
 contagion, which cannot take place while they maintain themselves in 
 their due power. Hence it follows that the way to assist nature against 
 the attacks of tliis disease, is to keep up the animal strength by such 
 invigorative means as are compatible in other respects with the salutary 
 economy.' 
 
 'To invigorate and strengthen by the administration of such medi- 
 cines as give force to the action of the nerves and tension to the fibres, 
 is the principal absolute intention of cure, which is dictated by the 
 general nature of the contagion and its mode of operation. But there 
 is, moreover, a palliative or secondary intention, which arises from the 
 consideration of a peculiar symptom. It appears from what is above 
 laid down, that the state of the parts subservient to digestion denies the 
 performance of that office on such food as requires the aid of saliva and 
 of lymphous juices secreted in the stomach, whence the power of the 
 contagion is increased by the weakness resulting from die inanition, and 
 the depravity of the humours in consequence of the want of a supply 
 of fresh chyle to the blood. It is, therefore, a just subservient inten- 
 tion to furnish a proper quantity of such food, of a fluid consistence or 
 divided texture, as can be digested under these circumstances, and 
 thence to support the strength of the subject, which must, otherwise, 
 sink from the concurrence of this additional cause of weakness with the 
 effects of the contagion and putrescence. 
 
 ' The primary intention of cure in the murrain, according to these 
 principles, is to be executed by the administration of such corroborative 
 and cordial medicines as give due tension to the fibres and vigour to 
 the nerves, removing the spasmodic insensibility or impediments to their 
 action, or their too great irritability, whence an irregular mode of action 
 is produced. 
 
 * There are various kinds of medicaments which have these powers. 
 But experience in the case of similar diseases, and the consideration of 
 general fitness to the peculiar circumstances of this, point out two 
 species, which are more peculiarly proper as well as efficacious. These 
 medicaments are the astringent, febrifuge, gummous parts of vegeta- 
 bles, and vinous liquors. 
 
 ' The same intention of cure, as is here proposed for tlic murrain, is now pur- 
 sued by all able physicians in the contagious and other diseases of mankind that 
 induce a putrescence, experience having shown that it is the only means which 
 avail in such cases. It is, therefore, demonstrated to be the proper method of 
 treatment of cattle in the murrain, not only by reasons deduced from the symptoms 
 of the disease and the observations of the cause why amongst the cattle left to nature 
 some escape and others are carried off, but also from analogy on comparison with 
 the facts respecting similar diseases.
 
 340 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 'It is found that various vegetable substances containina: the astringent 
 gums, and bitter juices, which possess the property of tanning leather, 
 have the quality of bracing the fibres in the living animal, assisting to 
 the due tone of the nerves, and thence checking the putrescence u'hich 
 would otherwise prevail in consequence of a certain degree of weakness. 
 
 'The Peruvian bark is the principal simple of this kind which has 
 been hitherto used, and experience has not yet evinced any other to be 
 in all respects an equal substitute for it. The efficacy of this drug in 
 intermitting fevers has been long known, and, more lately, its utility in 
 some contagious disorders, and all others where the weakness and re- 
 laxation of the fibres aggravate the effects, is equally ascertained. Nor 
 are there wanting sufficient trials, as was above intimated, to show that, 
 what might be well presumed from analogy, holds good in observation 
 on facts, as to its availing in like manner in the murrain, though it has 
 never, as far as appears from any reports made to the public, been used 
 with those advantages as to the collateral circumstances which would 
 most have contributed to render it effectual. 
 
 'There is, nevertheless, a great obstacle to the giving the Peruvian 
 bark alone to the cattle in such quantities as might be requisite in the 
 murrain. This is the high price of it, which would render the admin- 
 istering it, for the time and in the quantities necessary, a considerable 
 expense j and it is absolutely requisite to the using any remedies in this 
 disease with benefit to the proprietors of the cattle, that their cost on 
 the whole should be moderate. It has, therefore, with great reason, 
 been thought expedient to spare a part of the bark, and substitute for 
 such part some other cheaper simple more allied to it in its properties. 
 The white willow bark has been selected by some for this purpose, and 
 has, indeed, the tanning property in a considerable degree ; but there are 
 other simples which have that in a still greater, and also possess at the 
 same time additional qualities which materially conduce to the invigor- 
 ating effects. The tormentil root is peculiarly adapted to this intention, 
 as it has not only the due astringency, but the warming and cordial 
 properties of bitters and aromatics, whence it may check the profuse 
 diarrhoea, which, when it comes in the early period of the disease, so 
 frequently carries off the beasts by exhausting their strength before 
 nature can perfect a mature crisis. This simple may, moreover, be 
 easily obtained even at the slightest expense, being one of the most 
 common and general of the herbs which grow wild in these parts of 
 Europe. It may therefore be well substituted for at least one-half of 
 the bark where no early purging comes on, and for three-parts in four 
 where it does, as the quantity of it may then be increased with advan- 
 tage. It may be proper, likewise, to add a proportion of some warm
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 341 
 
 aromatic simple of the kind called carminative, and the carroway seed 
 is extremely well suited in all its qualities to that purpose. This will 
 invigorate the action of the stomachs, which appears evidently languid, 
 the stomachs themselves, as was above observed, participating in the 
 paralysis of the upper parts. 
 
 ' By vinous liquors, which are the other species of invigorating 
 medicines proper in the murrain, is meant any kind of fermented 
 liquors that contain vinous spirits. The late-acquired knowledge of the 
 efficacy of this kind of remedy in contagious and other fevers where 
 putrescence prevails, has furnished the means of aiding nature to resist 
 such diseases when the natural strength could not otherwise support the 
 vital economy against the elFects of them. The giving wine in our 
 country to the beasts in the murrain, would, however, be impracticable 
 on account of the expense, and perhaps good fermented malt liquor is 
 better adapted, on the whole, to the intention than wine. A proper 
 quantity, therefore, of ale that is not too new, or of that kind of malt 
 liquor called strong beer, should be given twice a day, and to render it 
 more cordial where greater symptoms of weakness appear, a proportion 
 of some distilled spirit should be added fo it. The kind called geneva 
 is the most cheap and easily obtained, and the ingredient, besides the 
 vinous spirit, being terebinthinate essential oils, are by no means im- 
 proper in this case. 
 
 ' The secondary intention of cure above mentioned, by the supply of 
 diet suitable to the disordered state of the digestive faculty in the mur- 
 rain, may be thus provided for : — The beasts may be fed on hay. so long 
 as it appears to agree with them. Though, as there is always a defect 
 of the saliva, and the lymphous juices of the stomach, as well as a con- 
 sequential weakness in the digestive ferment, it may be proper to mix 
 some proportion of green herbage with the dry fodder. But when the 
 hay or herbage cannot any longer be digested, as will be indicated by 
 the beasts' refusal of it, and their ceasing to chew the cud, it will be 
 requisite to have recourse to such other food, as is either fluid, and 
 consequently does not demand the dilution of the saliva and lymph, or 
 such as is of so divided a texture and so yielding to maceration, that it 
 may not need the strong action of a digestive ferment to its resolution, 
 or reduction to that state of chyme which tits it to pass into the smaller 
 intestines. Milk is the most nutritive of any fluid which can be ad- 
 ministered in this case, and, if its coagulation be prevented by the 
 addition of alkalies to counteract any accidental acid in the other 
 stomachs that might otherwise have that eflect, it will of course pass 
 forward to the curd-bag, which, from its emptiness in the dead beasts, 
 appears not to have lost its action as the higher stomachs, but to pro-
 
 34^ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 pel duly the chyme or digesting matter into the lower guts. In order 
 to make a saving in the quantity of the milk which, if used alone, 
 would be considerable, it may be expedient to add some water and a 
 proportion of solid food of the nature above prescribed. The most tit 
 kind of such solid food is corn in a farinous state — -that is, reduced to 
 meal 5 which may be of any sort that is cheapest and most conveniently 
 to be obtained. This will be macerated so as to mix with the fluid 
 given with it if the digestive ferment be ever so weak, and will pass 
 with it forward into the small guts, if the action of the stomachs be 
 ever so slight. By these means proper alimentary matter will be con- 
 veyed into the lower intestines and there digested, as they and the 
 curd-bag are not, at least in the earlier stages of the disease, so disordered 
 and rendered incapable of their office as the three upper stomachs, the 
 default of the action of which will, nevertheless, in this method, be 
 made of much less consequence. 
 
 'The nutrition of the beasts in the latter stage of the murrain will 
 be thus provided for, notwithstanding the impediments which the effects 
 of that disease otherwise produce to digestion, and the inanition thence 
 resulting, which conspires powerfully with the other causes of weakness 
 and putrescence to render the disease fatal, will be, in a considerable 
 degree, prevented. 
 
 ' The alkalies, which may be used to hinder the coagulation of the 
 milk given as food to beasts in the murrain, may be a small proportion 
 of soap or chalk. ^ The latter of these may be used more copiously 
 where a looseness comes on too early or too profusely, as it will check 
 such an evacuation without the danger of stopping it in case it be 
 critical. 
 
 ' By a proper use of these medicines and regimen it may be presumed, 
 
 ^ Tlie use of alkalies has been exploded by some eminent writers in all cases 
 where a putrescent disposition prevails from the notion of their promoting it, and 
 some of the most sensible of those who have treated of the murrain have adopted 
 the same opinion. But this objection to alkalies is not justly founded, as they have 
 not, when taken in moderate quantities, such an effect in the habit. The propor- 
 tion of them given medicinally is far too small to have any immediate action of this 
 kind on the whole mass of fluids, and in their consequence, from the operation they 
 may have in the intestines, they produce often the contrary effect. For by destroy- 
 ing the acescent ferment which prevails in cases of weak and disordered digestion, 
 they promote the proper digestive ferment, and prevent that increase of debility 
 and general injury to the habit which the faulty digestion would produce. It may 
 seem a paradox according to the effects of experiments made on the relative sub- 
 stances out of the body, but it is, nevertheless, absolutely true that alkalies check 
 also the putrid ferment of the digesting matter in the intestines, as is plainly evinced 
 by their removing almost constantly that species of heart-burn which arises from 
 the putrescence of animal food in weak and depraved stomachs.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 343 
 
 on the justest ground of trial and observation, as well as of speculative 
 reasons, that a considerable number of the cattle, which would die of 
 the murrain if left to the natural course of the disease, would be saved. 
 It is not to be nnagined, nevertheless, with the least shadow of reason, 
 that there is any method of cure which would avail in every instance, 
 the very weak or disordered habit of part of the beasts subjecting them 
 to the violence of the distemper in a degree beyond the power of those 
 practicable means that can support their strength. But if such a num- 
 ber be preserved from destruction as overbalances, on the whole, in any 
 material proportion,^ the expense of the treatment of the cattle by the 
 method proposed, the proprietors will find an adequate inducement to 
 put it in practice, and the public will in sev^eral ditferent manners 
 reap great advantage from it if extensively adopted. 
 
 * I have, for more than one reason, omitted, at present, the giving 
 formal prescription for the medicines or rules for the regimen, as there 
 will be a more proper season for it if the occasion for the practice of 
 them should ever again occur in our country. The knowledge of the 
 symptoms and appearances by which the disease may be distinguished 
 are alone all that is necessary to be generally taught now, but that 
 knowledge certainly ought to be diffused as universally as possible. The 
 explaining at this time a method of medicinal treatment, in such a way 
 
 ^ On a modern computation, the treatment of a beast conformably to the means 
 of cure above recommended would not, on an average, cost the owners of cattle 
 above eight shilHngs in the course of the disease. So that if, according to 
 the principles above premised, it were necessary to practise it on four beasts in 
 order to save one, the actual expense incurred for each beast so saved would 
 not amount to above thirty-two shillings, which is not more than one-third of 
 the price of neat cattle, taken one with another, at a lime when the disease pre- 
 vails. But the advantage to the public would be in much greater proportion 
 than merely this gain, from the effect the saving one-half the beasts that otherwise 
 would die would have in keeping up the national stock, and preventing the scarcity 
 from becoming greater, the mischiefs of which, when it goes beyond a certain de- 
 gree, augments in much larger than an equal proportion to the scarcity itself To 
 the proprietors of cattle, moreover, the advantage of every beast so saved would be 
 far beyond the common price of one in other respects equal. For after the disease 
 has had some duration in any place the value of the cattle wliich have had it rises 
 very considerably on account of their future security from tin- infection. In tlie 
 latter part of the time when it last raged here a cow, which could be well certified 
 to have had it, was deemed to be worth sixteen pounds, near London, and the 
 same holds good now, as to the price of such a cow in Holland. Tliis circumstance 
 not only yields an additional motive to the proprietors of cattle to pursue an effica- 
 cious method of cure, but it is pregnant with great advantages to the community, 
 as the recovered cows must here, where a fresh supply cannot be had by land, as 
 on the Continent, make the principal dependance for breeding to keep up the stock 
 and for obtaining milk.
 
 344 History of Aniinal Plagues. 
 
 as to render it easily practicable by the common owners of cattle, would 
 be rather injurious than benelicial in its efiects to the public. "What 
 constitutes the great object of care and attention at present is the ex- 
 cluding the contagion from our country by the immediate slaughter of 
 the beasts infected or exposed to the hazard of being so, and not the 
 attempt of cure.' Reason and the legislature both decree that measure j 
 and in order that what is ordained by authority respecting this slaughter, 
 
 ^ As the means which ought to be pursued for the national security, according 
 to the present circumstances, in case the murrain should break out anywhere with 
 us again, are the killing immediately the cattle infected, and the preventing the 
 removal of those exposed to be so, or of anything that can convey the contagion, 
 the publishing at present directions for the cure of the cattle in so explicit and 
 familiar a manner as might be easily put in practice by the common owners of 
 them, would probably have mjurious consequences to the public, as it might pro- 
 duce motives to neglect destroying the beasts under the hope of saving them by 
 cure. It is, therefore, more proper while the disease is confined to one spot only, 
 or to a few with narrow limits, to furnish every assistance to the quick and certain 
 discovery of the disease if it should be brought over to us, in order to suppress it 
 instantly by those means which are ordained by law, than to encourage any en- 
 deavours to save such beasts as are infested with it. If after these means of extir- 
 pating the contagion have been duly tried, they should be found to have failed of 
 success, so that the infection has been spread over a large extent or diffused into a 
 great number of places, as happened in the former invasion of our country by It, 
 the case would be quite altered, and the supplying then as extensively as possible 
 the best means of saving the cattle by medicinal aid, would be a great benefit to 
 the public, because the destroying them under those circumstances would be very 
 detrimental instead of advantageous, as it could not possibly produce the intended 
 effect, but would co-operate with the disease itself in causing a scarcity of cattle. 
 The continuance of the orders for destroying the cattle after the murrain was ex- 
 tensively spread over the country had a very apparent bad effect the last time it 
 raged here. The visible constant decrease of the cattle as well from the number 
 slaughtered as from those which died of the distemper, the great room which it was 
 found the bounty offered at large gave for impositions and frauds, and the heavy 
 expense on the public in providing for the bounty, afforded therefore the strongest 
 reasons for retracting the orders for killing the cattle. This instance, as well as 
 obvious deductions from the subject itself, evinces it is only when the murrain first 
 breaks out, and the infection is confined to narrow boimds, that the means and 
 regulations at present provisionally ordained by Act of Parliament can possibly 
 avail and be proper. For afterwards the killing those beasts which might other- 
 wise recover would be a palpable loss, not only of so many cattle, but of those that, 
 as we have seen before, are, from their future security against the infection, of far 
 greater value than others, and the restrictions with regard to the driving and remov- 
 ing the cattle, the proliibitions of fairs and markets for the sale of them, &c., would 
 cause such a defect in the supply of the capital city as would be attended with very 
 embarrassing and distressful circumstances. There is another reason why I have 
 deferred giving a formal description for the medicinal treatment of the cattle. It is 
 that though I am convinced from trial and observation the practice recommended 
 is good in a general view, and I could point rules for the conducting the particulars
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 345 
 
 and the other regulations for the keeping out and stopping the progress 
 of the infection, may be rendered more effectual, I shall here subjoin a 
 few hints relative to some defects and errors in the present plan of 
 measures which, as they now stand, may prevent its being effectual to 
 the purpose. 
 
 ' The tirst and greatest defect attending what is ordained by the 
 Government for the suppressing the contagion of the murrain, in case it 
 should be brought hither again, is the general want of due knowledge 
 for discovering the disease early on its first breaking out, or distinguish- 
 ing it with some degree of certainty in each particular beast from other 
 disorders incident to cattle. It is in vain that private persons should be 
 enjoined by the Government to destroy their cattle and magistrates to 
 compel them to it, and return them a satisfaction, provisionally tlie in- 
 fection be actually in the place, if they be wholly ignorant of any cer- 
 tain signs by which they can distinguish it. Yet this is almost univers- 
 ally the case at present, there being scarcely any but persons applying to 
 medical speculaticms, and some few others, who may remember what 
 they observed during the time of its prevailing here formerly, that are 
 in the least acquainted with the nature of the disease or its appearance. 
 Moreover, the far greatest part of those who may be desirous of acquir- 
 ing a due information in this matter are almost entirely destitute of the 
 means, as there is no method generally known of gaining any satisfac- 
 tory intelligence relating to it j and such lights as might be obtained, if 
 the means were better known, could not be procured occasionally in 
 case of an alarm in any particular quarter before the opportunity of 
 their being serviceable was over, and either the contagion, if it had been 
 really brought, was propagated too widely to admit of a suppressive 
 remedy or a needless expense incurred by the neighbourhood if any 
 other disorder of the suspected beasts had been mistaken for it. Many 
 important acts are by the late statute required to be done by the magis- 
 trates, inspectors, Sec, conditionally that they shall believe the distemper 
 to be in any suspected place, or within a certain distance of it. But on 
 what shall they ground such a belief on a subject of which they have 
 
 which would be efficacious, yet there are several circumstances with respect to which 
 it is not hitherto ascertained by a sufficient field of experience what precise degree 
 or mode would be most effectual and best. Proper measures are therefore taking 
 for having such trials made in Holland, where a too fair opportunity is at present 
 afforded, and the result of them when they are completed will afford the means to 
 lay down liereafter with more certainty those rules and directions as to each par- 
 ticular, which may be most effectual with regard to the cure, and advantageous 
 with regard to the expense. In the mean time the generals here presented may 
 enable any person versed in medicinal subjects to give direction for the putting the 
 cattle under the due regimen if a just occasion should demand it.
 
 34^ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 no means of judging ? or who shall be qualified to certify sufficient 
 matter of evidence to them, when everybody around them are equally 
 in the dark with themselves as to those principles which furnish such 
 means ? This seems to be a difficulty in the due execution of the 
 Orders of Council for destroying the suspected cattle, and laying restric- 
 tions on the removal of those probably exposed to the contagion, which 
 renders their operation extremely uncertain, and may cause great in- 
 conveniences from conscientious and zealous attempts to enforce them 
 where the facts on which the right determination of measures wholly 
 depends are so easily to be mistaken. The method to remove this dif- 
 ficulty is suggested by the very nature of the subject itself It is ob- 
 viously the providing the proper means of information of the character- 
 istic signs of this disease, and circulating the intelhgence of them as 
 generally as of the Orders of Council themselves, in the doing which the 
 following manner seems most easy and efl:ectual according to the pre- 
 sent state of thing's : — 
 
 ' A brief account of the most discernible and peculiar symptoms of 
 the disease and of the appearances in the inward parts of the beasts 
 which die of it should be procured. This account should be drawn up 
 in the most clear and simple manner, and expressed in the most clear 
 and simple language, divested of all terms of art, and accommodated to 
 persons of ordinary capacity. It should then be transmitted to every 
 parish, and disposed of there in such manner that all the inhabitants 
 may be apprized of, and have easy means of recourse to it whenever 
 they may have occasion, and more particularly those who are officially 
 concerned in the execution of the Orders of Council. In order to do 
 this most conveniently, it may be proper to follow in some measure the 
 same method which is taken to promulgate the late Act of Parliament 
 and the Orders of Council. It is ordained by that Act, a printed copy 
 of the same, together with any Orders of Council made in pursuance of 
 it, shall be provided by the churchwardens, &c., of every parish with 
 intent that they may be read by the minister the next Sunday after the 
 receipt of them, and afterwards on one such Sunday in every calendar 
 month as he shall think proper j and also tliat they may be kept by 
 him in order to his permitting every person residing in his parish to 
 read the same during the time tlie respective Orders of Council may be 
 in force. Now it would be expedient to join a printed copy of the ac- 
 count of the signs of the disease with those of the Act of Parliament 
 and Orders of Council, that it may be always ready to be consulted 
 along with them, or separately, by all persons who may have any need 
 of such information. 
 
 'It would likewise be very expedient, in order to the rendering
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 347 
 
 more general a due knowledge of this disease, to have a copy of the ac- 
 count of the signs of it, being printed on an open sheet of paper, hung 
 up in a proper frame in the market-house, town-house, or any other 
 pubhc building in each parish, where the people may constantly have 
 recourse to it, without troubling the minister, which would induce 
 them to take more readily the pains to obtain the requisite information 
 from it. Another copy should be always in the possession of every 
 magistrate, inspector, or other person who has any otficial concern in 
 tlie execution of the Orders of Council, that they may have the neces- 
 sary means at hand of enabling them to judge how far, in any suspici- 
 ous case, there is just ground to conclude the actual presence of the 
 disease. 
 
 'As the greater or less success of the injunctions or regulations or- 
 dained by the Government for the preventing the bringing into our 
 country the contagion of the murrain, or for suppressing it if brought, 
 depends on their being more or less generally known, it seems that the 
 present means of publication of them are defective, as it is certain that 
 by such means only a small part of those, whose conformity to them is 
 requisite to the end, can be possibly thence apprized of them. A pro- 
 clamation of all Orders of Council respecting the disease is inserted in 
 the Gazette ; and the last Act of Parliament directs them, as above- 
 mentioned, to be read one Sunday of every month in the parish church, 
 or other place of public devotion. But few of the common people, and 
 perhaps even the magistrates, &c., constantly read the Gazette in the 
 country ; and there are many parishes into which it never comes at all. 
 Numbers of persons, being of other sects of religion, do not go to the 
 parish church at any time ; and others are very liable to be absent on 
 the particular days when these Orders are read. The churchwardens or 
 other officers, moreover, who are to provide the copies of them, not 
 having an opportunity of seeing the proclamations in the Gazette, are 
 sometimes entirely uninformed of them, and therefore do not provide 
 the printed copies of them as directed. For these and other reasons 
 the reading them duly in the church is often neglected, and conse- 
 quently the whole or a great number in every parish are left ignorant 
 of what is ordained. It is necessary hence that some more etfectual 
 method of publishing the contents of the proclamations should be pur- 
 sued ; and it would be, therefore, right that the contents of them 
 should be printed in the manner before proposed for the account of the 
 signs of the disease, and hung up with it in the most public place in 
 every parish, which could not fail to make them much more generally 
 and perfectly known than they can be at present. This should be, 
 under the circumstances now sul)sisting, particularly attended to with
 
 348 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 regard to the seaports, and parishes adjacent to them, of the eastern and 
 southern coasts of the island, where the danger is by far the greatest of 
 the distemper's being now conveyed to us from the shores of the op- 
 posite countries, where it rages with great violence. To obtain the 
 greatest security, it would be expedient that the printed copies ot both 
 these kinds should be actually sent to every such parish to be disposed 
 of as above advised, and the procurement of them not solely intrusted 
 to the churchwardens, by whose ignorance of the proclamations, or in- 
 advertence, it will be frequently omitted. Or at least, notices ot the 
 Orders of Council, &c., and the injunctions on the churchwardens to 
 procure them on each occasion, should be advertised in all the principal 
 newspapers, as well in town as country. In order that the whole of 
 this should be duly executed, it seems further requisite that some proper 
 officer should be appointed by the Crown to take the charge of doing 
 it on him, and to see that what is ordained may be duly complied 
 with. 
 
 ' Some measures of the kind here pointed out are indispensably 
 necessary to give us any hopes of the good etfects of the ordinances of 
 the late Acts of Parliament respecting the prevention of the murrain, 
 which can yield but little safety from it unless generally complied with. 
 For if, from want of due conformity to them, the disease should lind 
 its way into this island in any one place, and spread itself thence widely 
 to others, as may in such case quickly happen, it will not be ot the 
 least avail that the strictest observance of them has been practised in a 
 thousand others, since the dreaded mischief may as well diffuse itself, 
 with all its calamitous consequences, over the whole of our country 
 from one single original source as from any multiplicity whatever. 
 
 ' There seems to be a very material error in the regulation ordained 
 in the late Acts respecting the prevention of the removal of such cattle 
 as may possibly have been exposed to be infected by the murrain, or to 
 contract contagious matter on their skins from being near other beasts 
 seized with the disease, which error may be productive of great incon- 
 veniences if the regulations be duly observed, or raise motives in those 
 whom it concerns for not paying due obedience to the ordinance. This 
 is the too great length of time required when the infection is supposed 
 to be in the neighbourhood, for the purchasers of cattle to keep them 
 before they sell them again. Forty days is the time prescribed, and 
 when all the facts from which the determination of the proper period 
 must be deduced are duly weighed, it will appear to be at least two- 
 thirds longer than is necessary. The only reason that can be assigned 
 for the expedience of a restriction as to the time of selling cattle in these 
 cases is, that the seller may be able to give such a certificate to the
 
 History of Annual Plagues. 349 
 
 buyer as affords the best assurance possible that the beast has not taken 
 the infection, nor is likely to convey the contagion by any infectious 
 matter adhering to its skin, though not affecting itself, from any diseased 
 beasts it may have approached to others which may come near it. This 
 j)eriod of forty days is allotted because such a certificate could not be 
 made by the owner unless the beast had been long enough in his pos- 
 session to show it had not been infected before it came into his hands, 
 and to afford time for the infectious matter, if any had been contracted 
 by its skin, to have lost its virtue or been worn off, and because it was pre- 
 sumed a less space of time would not have been fully sutHcient for this 
 effect. As to what respects the having actually received infection, forty 
 days' possession is much longer than is needful to manifest whether or 
 no such infection was taken by the beast before became into the seller's 
 hands, since the symptoms would have shown themselves, and the beast 
 would have died of or recovered from the disease long before half that 
 time was expired.' As to what respects the contagious matter that 
 may be contracted by the skin of the beast from others infected, the 
 time in which such matter may lose its contagious power, or the skin 
 become free from it, cannot possibly be ascertained, and there is 
 reason to believe it might go much beyond forty days, but there are 
 easy means to be employed of taking away the hazard of conveying 
 the disease to other beasts in that way, with far greater certainty than 
 can result from the waiting even a much longer space than forty 
 days without the use of such means. 
 
 ' The time in which the symptoms appear to come on in the murrain 
 after the taking the infection is, as we have above observed, almost 
 generally on or before the tifth day.^ But as there may be, though 
 
 ' It appears, from the experiments made at Utrecht in 1769, as above mentioned, 
 and from others, of the inoculation of the cattle for the murrain, that the longest 
 period in the case of beasts so treated betwixt their receiving the infection and their 
 death was not more than fourteen days. The observations on the same period, 
 with relation to such beasts as have taken the disease from others without inocu- 
 lation where it could be ascertained by the known time of their coming within the 
 reach of the infection, show the longest extent of it in such cases to be about seven- 
 teen days. But this must be understood to be according to the course of the disease 
 in Holland. For in our country the death of the beasts taking the disease naturally 
 was found to happen almost always within twelve or thirteen days after the infec- 
 tion, the crisis or turn of it, as we remarked before, being about four or five days 
 earlier here than in the United Provinces. It must be comprehended, also, that 
 this period of death regards beasts which are carried off by the murrain, considered 
 as an acute disease ; for where they die, after their recovery from the proiicr symp- 
 toms of the distemper, of ulcers or abscesses in the viscera produced by it, no 
 regular period can be fixed on, as those accidents or their consequences differ in 
 every subject where they happen. 
 
 " There is a remarkable uniformity in the operation of the contagion of the
 
 ^^o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 rarely, a variation that requires some latitude, we may rate the longest 
 time to be the seventh day. In a very few beasts, however, which 
 have the disease in the most mild and gentle manner, we may also allow 
 time for the aggravation of the symptoms, till they become strong enough 
 to be so clearly perceptible as to leave no room for doubt, and suppose 
 in those instances they may not be very observable till the tenth day. 
 But this is the utmost concession as to the extension of the time in 
 which the infection can lie concealed without sensible effects, that facts 
 will admit us to make ; and if no appearances of the disease be found at 
 or before that period, it may be very safely concluded the beast had not 
 taken the infection before the commencement of such time. If, never- 
 theless, we should go somewhat further to satisfy all scruples as to the 
 inaccuracy of these observ^ations, and stretch our caution to the utmost 
 that can be deemed reasonable, the keeping the beasts twelve days after 
 they are purchased is fully sufficient to determine with the most 
 positive certainty that they were not infected before such purchase. 
 There cannot be the least reason, therefore, to keep the beasts longer 
 than twelve days before they are sold in order to avoid the hazard of 
 their having received the infection before they came into the hands of 
 the owner. 
 
 ' The other more specious reason for restraining the sale of cattle 
 during so long a period has not, at the bottom, a more solid foundation 
 in the reality of foots than the preceding. No precise limits can be 
 assigned to the time that beasts, having the infectious matter of the 
 murrain lodged on their skins in consequence of having come near 
 beasts seized with disease, may communicate it by that means to 
 others. 
 
 murrain as to the time it produces sensible effects when communicated by exterior 
 infection. In the above-mentioned experiment made at Utrecht, twelve cows were 
 put to six others that were inoculated, and kept with them in a confined place from 
 the time of inoculation. The twelve were all seized with a cough and gnashing of 
 their teeth the seventh day after the inoculation of the six, and did not exhibit the 
 least difference in the period of their being affected by the infection, which may be 
 concluded to have been taken five days before, as at that time, though it was but 
 the second day after the operation, febrile symptoms began to appear in some of 
 those inoculated, one of which, indeed, was so weak on the third day that she fell 
 down, and had not strength to rise again. The same uniformity is not in the least 
 found in the inoculated beasts, but in most of them the symptoms come on with 
 much more celerity and violence than in those which have the disease by casual in- 
 fection. Many other facts confirm this observation of the almost constant equality 
 of time in which the visible effects are produced in the cattle which have the mur- 
 rain by natural means, and they leave us no room to suspect that the infection ever 
 lurks after it is taken without revealing itself more than six or seven days, even 
 where its action is the weakest.
 
 History of Animal Plagiies. 351 
 
 ' The contagious matter will preserve its infecting quality for a long 
 space of time, as we have reason to conclude, as well from facts respect- 
 ing the transmission of it into distant countries, and some experiments 
 regarding inoculation with it, as from its analogy to the variolous matter 
 of the small-pox, which retains its virulent power for many months. 
 There is room to conclude that the contagion of the murrain has been 
 conveyed by the raw hides of beasts in particular, to places where it has 
 taken elFect at a considerable space of time after its production 3 and if 
 it can be so preserved in the skins of dead beasts, why not in the hair 
 of those which are living ? It must be granted, indeed, that in the skins 
 of the living it is more exposed to be accidentally carried off than in those 
 of the dead j but there is no certainty, nevertheless, that it will be entirely 
 cleansed away thus under a long time. Even forty days, therefore, do 
 not give a security against the danger of a conveyance of the infection 
 that way, where beasts are removed from the diseased cattle to the sound. 
 I am aware it will be advanced, in contradiction to this, that the skin 
 of a living beast being exposed to the air, the contagion will be dis- 
 sipated in the forty days, and not preserved, as in the parts of the hides 
 of dead beasts, to which the air may not have had a like access. But 
 I deny the truth of the principle on which this conclusion depends. It 
 has, I grant, been a prevailing notion, borrowed from ancient writers, 
 and delivered down by those of succeeding times without any examin- 
 ation of the relative facts, that the contagion of the febrile diseases 
 resided in volatile effluvia, which exhaled in the air, and flew off in a 
 short time from bodies that had received them. There is not, how- 
 ever, in reality a greater error subsisting than this established notion. 
 Many experiments on the variolous matter have evinced the contrary 
 by showing that it will keep its virtue, and serve for the purposes of in- 
 oculation, for a great length of time, though exposed to the air, 
 provided it be defended from excessive cold, and such moisture as 
 would render it mouldy. A less extensive field of observation, but 
 sufficient to verify the principle, confirms to us that the analogy 
 holds good as to this point, on the contagious matter of the murrain, 
 and others of a similar nature. If, therefore, the virulent matter will 
 not with certainty be taken off by accidental means from the skins of 
 beasts, nor lose its infecting power by exposure to the air under a long 
 time, the preventing 'for forty days the communications of cattle whose 
 skins may have some share of it on them, with any others, is not a full 
 security against their conveying the infection, if afterwards they be suf- 
 fered to mix with the sound. The establishment of this species of 
 quarantine or prohibition of removal for forty days is consecjuenlly in- 
 sufficient to the end in that view. But, besides the uncertainty of its
 
 ^^2. History of A^iinial Plagues. 
 
 effects, and the great inconveniences to particulars it may produce, it is 
 less proper and expedient in this intention, because there is another 
 method by which the same end may be answered in a much more easy 
 and effectual manner. The method I mean is the cleansing the beasts 
 by artificial means, which should always be practised where there is 
 the least danger of their transmitting the contagion from those infected 
 to the sound without having taken the disease themselves. This may 
 be commodiously and efficaciously performed by scouring the skins of 
 the suspected beasts by a proper brush with fine sand and water, and 
 afterwards thoroughly washing off the remainder of what may adhere 
 by water and a mop. By these means the skin of any beast will be 
 more perfectly freed from infectious matter that was lodged in it than 
 by the accidental wearing off^ in a very long space of time ; and if it be 
 duly executed there can be no reason to put the sale of cattle under 
 any restriction on this score. The practice of it should, however, be 
 strictly enjoined by authority, if the time of restriction of sale be reduced 
 as proposed, and the performance of it should be also made a part of 
 the matter of certification. 
 
 As twelve days appear, from the above-given reasons, to be fully 
 sufficient to show that beasts have not received the infection before, 
 and as the keeping them much longer is not so effectual a means of 
 taking away the hazard of their transmitting the disease by contagious 
 matter adhering to their skin as artificial cleansing, the term of forty 
 days' restriction from sale ought most evidently to be changed to that 
 of twelve days, which saves more than two-thirds of the time. This 
 shortening the term will be found a matter of very great moment, if 
 ever the occasion 'for such a restriction shall again offer. The great 
 inconveniences and embarrassments that would attend the obligation to 
 keep cattle, however detrimentally to the owner, for so long a time as 
 forty days, would, if it were largely extended, besides the injuring in- 
 dividuals, conduce, along with the other necessary regulations respect- 
 ing the removal of cattle, to the causing a scarcity of them in the 
 London markets, and others which are supplied from distant places. 
 But, what is of still greater consequence, the loss and trouble that would 
 result from it to individuals in some cases would furnish such motives 
 for a non-compliance with the injunction as would in all probability 
 defeat the intention of it. It therefore highly merits the consideration 
 of those on whom the direction of this matter depends, to weigh well the 
 premises, for a few failures of obedience to the Orders of Council respect- 
 ing this restriction may render them wholly ineffectual.' There is no 
 
 ^ It may be speciously said that in a case of so much moment as the prevention
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 353 
 
 maxim more true than that a law of this kind should be void of every- 
 thing strongly repugnant to its own operations, or it will prove a dead 
 letter. 
 
 *To evince more forcibly the extreme great consequence of guarding 
 against the introduction of the murrain into our country, I will here 
 subjoin an account of its late etfects in the United Provinces, whence the 
 deplorable havoc it makes there will appear in the most striking man- 
 ner. The source of the information respecting the facts I shall advance 
 is the registered lists' of the cattle in the south and north divisions of 
 
 "O 
 
 of the murrain, the interest of particulars must give way to the good of the pubhc, 
 that it is best to err on the safe side by taking a full scope of time, which has been 
 deemed forty days, to render the matter entirely clear, and that if the cleansing be 
 a further security it should be added to the restriction of sale for that term. This 
 way of reasoning must be allowed to be right as to the general principles, and ought 
 to be adopted where the facts give just occasion for it, but it fails in that point to 
 be applicable to the present case. The extending the length of time of the restric- 
 tion so much as forty days, does not render the effect of the prohibition more cer- 
 tain, but evidently the contrary. It is shown above, that if the cleansing be put in 
 practice along with it, twelve days will be as effectual as forty, and there is a 
 great probability, when the time is not required to be longer, it may be complied 
 with, there being few cases where it would there be considerably detrimental to 
 the owners of the cattle. Whereas there is the strongest reason to apprehend the 
 longer term would not be generally complied with, and therefore the ordaining 
 it must counteract its own purpose, as the security proposed from it wholly 
 depends on a general conformity to it. When obedience to any matter or- 
 dained is enforced by a penalty, such penalty will ever fail of its full effect 
 when the gain accruing from disobedience is more than equivalent to the 
 risk of the forfeiture, as we daily see in the 'great multiplicity of contraband 
 trade. But this principle must hold good still more strongly here, where num- 
 bers of persons are unavoidably subject to loss without disobedience, than where, 
 as in the case of smuggling, the occasion of it arises only from a voluntary pursuit 
 of profit. The obliging people to keep their cattle so long as forty days, when the 
 injunction suddenly and unexpectedly takes place in cases when they are not pro- 
 vided with fodder to maintain them, nor possibly may be able to procure it without 
 the most distressful difficulties, or where they may lie under a necessity of selling 
 the beasts to raise money they instantly want, will of course create temptations to 
 risk the penalty that can scarcely be withstood by the weaker part of those who 
 may lie under these circumstances ; whence it is both against reason and observa- 
 tion to form expectations of a' general conformity to such an injunction. But if the 
 chance of the loss and inconvenience that may casually attend the keeping the 
 cattle be almost wholly taken away, by reducing the forty to only twelve days, the 
 motives will be proportionably removed for running the hazard of incurring the 
 forfeiture by z. non-compliance with what is required, and there is just ground to 
 hope that the regulation would be then fully effectual. 
 
 * The copies of these lists did not come to my hands till after most of llie fore- 
 going part of this dissertation was printed, otherwise I should have made use of 
 the contents of them in support of several matters I have advanced there, which the 
 inferences to be drawn from them greatly tend to confirm. 
 
 23
 
 354 
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Holland, which I shall incorporate, and these provinces taken to- 
 gether are nearly eqnal to one-half of the whole United Provinces. 
 In order to give this account in the most clear manner consistent 
 with brevity, I will enumerate all the particulars of the state of 
 the cattle for the nine months preceding the ist of July last, be- 
 cause they are completely exhibited in the registers during that term. 
 To this I will annex the total numbers of those that died and recovered 
 in one year, commencing the ist of April, 1769, and also the number 
 which died and recovered in each of the three svicceeding months, as 
 this latter detail leads to some as well curious as useful conclusions : — 
 
 ' Persons keeping cattle in South Holland and North Holland 
 during the term of nine months, commencing the ist 
 
 of October, 1769 
 
 Cattle in the possession of those persons during that term 
 
 „ infected with the murrain , . 
 
 „ died of the murrain 
 
 „ recovered after taking the infection^ 
 
 „ escaped the infection 
 
 „ died of other diseases and casualties 
 
 ,, remained ill of the murrain at the end of the term 
 
 17.379 
 224,999 
 
 141.273 
 
 98.995 
 39.613 
 
 77.850 
 6,488 
 
 Cattle infected in the term of a year commencing the ist of 
 
 April, 1769 . . . . . . . . . . . . 210,819 
 
 „ died of the disease during that term . . . . . . 159,128 
 
 „ recovered in that term . . . . . . . . . . 61,691 
 
 „ infected in the summer season of that term, com- 
 mencing the 1st of April and terminating the 30th of 
 
 September, 1769 . . . . . . . . . . . . 86,423 
 
 ,, died in the summer season . . . . . . . . 63,281 
 
 „ recovered in the summer season . . . . . . 32,142 
 
 ^ It may be inferred from this account, that considerably more than half of all 
 the cattle in the United Provinces took the infection of the murrain in nine months, 
 and that almost two-thirds of those which were infected died. The number, both 
 of those which caught the disease and of those which were carried off by it, is pro- 
 portionably far greater than was found here, while the disease raged most, and 
 even than has been usually known in Holland, at least one-half of the infected 
 having generally recovered. This evinces the present excess of power in the pre- 
 disponent cause, or disposition of the cattle to be affected, and verifies by glaring 
 facts what I ventured to assert relating to it, from theoretic reasons, in the fore- 
 going part of this dissertation, which was printed some months ago, before I had 
 any particular information respecting these facts, and, indeed, before the report 
 of them could be made and registered.
 
 Hisfojy of Animal Plagues. o^^^ 
 
 Cattle infected in the winter season ; ^ commencing the ist of 
 
 October, 1769, and terminating the 30th of April, 1770 134,696 
 
 „ died in the winter season . . . . . . . . 95,947 
 
 „ recovered in the winter season . . . . . . . . 38,749 
 
 „ infected in the term of three months preceding July, 
 
 1770 ■ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,912 
 
 ^ The number of cattle infected in the winter is, in this account, above two- 
 fifths more than in the summer. The reverse of which appears with respect to the 
 plague in the eastern countries, where the contagion of it, for the most part, ceases, 
 or at least greatly abates, in that season. But the principle whence this seemingly 
 great variation arises does not, nevertheless, lie in the nature of the diseases, nor 
 even in that of the predisponent cause of infection in the subjects, which is in fact 
 the same in both, but in the local difference of circumstances with respect to the 
 production of that cause. It is the weakness of the subject in both cases that con- 
 stitutes the susceptibility of infection, and that weakness is induced in different sea- 
 sons from each other by a diversity in the climate and other circumstances attend- 
 ing the places in which the respective disorders, as here compared, prevail. In 
 those eastern countries where the excess of temperature lies in the heat of the sum- 
 mer, mankind, the subject of the plague, are in a too relaxed state, and the juices 
 so putrescent in many individuals as to render them much weaker than in the win- 
 ter, which is there mild and salutary. In the United Provinces, on the contrary, 
 the excess is in the cold of winter, which, being attended with great moisture in the 
 air, makes the cattle, the subject of the murrain, much weaker than in summer, to 
 which the housing them, as is there practised from necessity during that season, 
 much contributes. The increased violence of it in winter and remission in sum- 
 mer, did not subsist here while the disease prevailed in our country in any pro- 
 portion to what it now does in Holland, the less damp state of the air, and the 
 keeping the cattle more out in the fields, having prevented them from being weak- 
 ened by the inclemency of the winter, as there. On the contrary, this was so far 
 from being the case, that Dr Lcgard says : ' This disease being a contagion of the 
 pestilential kind, is susceptible at all times and seasons. In autumn and summer 
 it will rage most, in spring and winter least, according to the alterations commonly 
 happening in those seasons.' He carried it much too far, as is evident by the facts 
 here exhibited, in saying generally the disease will rage most in summer and least 
 in winter, but he spoke from theory only. For supposing, as he intimates, the 
 murrain to be analogous to the plague, he concludes the same effects would always 
 attend the contagion of both without considering the predisponent cause on which 
 the operation of it depends may vary in different places. A more close inquiry, 
 perhaps, into the course of the distemper here would have prevented this error. The 
 whole, however, concurs to demonstrate there is no intrinsic difference in this point 
 betwixt the contagion of the plague and that of the murrain, but that the variation 
 of the effect of them depends on the variation of circumstances respecting the pre- 
 disponent cause in different places. 
 
 * The number of cattle infected in these three months is only in the proportion 
 of about an eighteenth part of those in the winter season, and yet of them near four- 
 fifths died. These beasts may, therefore, be jjresumed to be such as laboured under 
 some constitutional or other peculiar cause of weakness, from which the favourable 
 temperature of the weather could not free them. In June the number infected was
 
 3S^ 
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ttle died in that term . . 
 
 . . 3,048 
 
 „ recovered in that term . . 
 
 864 
 
 „ died in April of that term 
 
 • • 1,2^4 
 
 „ died in May 
 
 . . 1,325 
 
 „ died in June 
 
 469 
 
 „ recovered in April of that term 
 
 452 
 
 „ recovered in May 
 
 303 
 
 „ recovered in June 
 
 109 
 
 ' It appears from the finance accounts that the province of Holland, 
 if the two divisions of north and south, from the separate lists of which 
 this account is formed, be taken together, may, as was before intimated, 
 be considered as one-half of the Seven United Provinces, at least with 
 respect to the cattle. So that if we admit the supposition, for which 
 there is good ground, that the ravage made by the murrain was nearly 
 the same in the other six provinces as in that, we may conclude that 
 the loss of cattle destroyed by it in the whole was not less, in one year 
 commencing April ist, 1769, and ending March 31st, 1770, than three 
 hundred and eighteen thousand beasts. And there is little room to 
 hope from appearances that the disease will be less violent this year 
 than it was the last. 
 
 ' If we reflect that this immense loss is, in some degree, annual at 
 present in the United Provinces, we cannot but deem the being 
 afflicted with the murrain a most deplorable calamity, and this uncom- 
 monly strong prevalence of the contagion there ought to be equally an 
 object of our dread as of our compassion. It shows a very great pre- 
 disposition in the cattle to be affected by this disease j and that predis- 
 position is owing to causes which, from their very nature, are extended 
 over all the neighbouring countries in some proportion, as is further 
 
 not one-sixth part of that of either of the two preceding months, nor consequently 
 in the proportion of so much as one-hundredth part of those of the winter season; 
 the number which died were, nevertheless, still more in proportion than in two pre- 
 ceding months. This evinces that the heat of the weather, though favourable to 
 the beasts in health as to preserving them from infection, was injurious to those 
 whose weakness made them take it, which may be easily accounted for from the 
 greater tendency that the animal fluids have to putrefy in hot seasons. Whence it 
 may be inferred that it is not a greater disposition in the humours to putrefy inde- 
 pendent of weakness, which causes the susceptibility of infection, but weakness 
 only ; and that, therefore, unless the degree of this disposition be such as induces 
 weakness, it does not contribute to the recejition of the contagion, though to its 
 stronger operation when received. This confirms what I have above advanced, 
 that putrescence has not primarily any concern in the cause of the murrain, but in 
 the consequences of it ; as, being either before subsisting or produced by the opera- 
 tion of the infection, it aggravates the fatal effects as a secondary cause.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 2>S7 
 
 manifested by the actual progress the contagion i.s now making in parts 
 where there is no epidemic or local cause in the cattle of the suscepti- 
 bility of the infection. We see, by his Majesty's late proclamation, 
 that it has passed into Flanders, and is now spreading thence to jhe 
 adjacent countries of France, ' where there are no unfavourable circum- 
 stances, as in tlie United Provinces, for the beasts to be more particu- 
 larly subject to tlie disease, unless, in common with those of the neigh- 
 bourins countries, from the accidental influence of bad seasons. This 
 cause subsists alike with us, and we are equally exposed to all the mis- 
 chievous consequences of the contagion if it be introduced into our 
 island J which, without the greatest care in the exercise of due preventive 
 means, is extremely liable to happen from the proximity of the place 
 where the infection now prevails, conspiring with the susceptibility ot 
 it that attends the cattle at this period. It therefore highly behoves 
 every individual to exert his utmost endeavours, according to his situ- 
 ation, to avert this impending danger of one of the most heavy calami- 
 ties that can befall any European country, and more especially our own, 
 where the luxurious habits of the common people, the difficulty of ob- 
 taining a supply of cattle from other places, and the high prices of the 
 necessaries of life, would render the 3tfects of a scarcity of horned 
 beasts, and consequently all other provisions, peculiarly grievous and 
 intolerable.' '^ 
 
 ' This rapid progress of the contagion, and extending of its effects into places 
 where it spontaneously extinguished a considerable number of years ago, and has 
 never before revived since, is, together with the great epidemic prevalence of the 
 disease in Holland, displayed in the above-given account, a strong confirmation of 
 the truth of the principles, whence I formed a judgment a priori of the present 
 susceptibility of the infection in the cattle throughout all these parts of Europe. As 
 my prediction relating to the consequences of it, given in the foregoing part of this 
 dissertation, is verified by these facts, which have happened since the printing it, the 
 certainty of those principles ought to excite the greatest apprehension of our danger 
 from them, and the most powerful motives for our veiy earnest attention and care 
 to guard against this menacing evil. 
 
 ^ R. Dossie. ' Observations on the IMurrain or Pestilential Disease of Neat 
 Cattle.' Memoirs of Agriculture, vol. ii. 1771. Dr Darwin, writing in 1796, thus 
 speaks of the Cattle Plague : ' The pestis vaccina, or disease amongst the cows, 
 which afflicted this island about half a century ago, seems to have been a contagi- 
 ous fever with great arterial debility ; as in some of them, in the latter stage of the 
 disease, an emphysema could often be felt in some parts, which evinced a consider- 
 able progress of gangrene beneath the skin. In the sensitive inirritated fevers of 
 these animals, I suppose about sixty grains of opium, with two ounces of extract of 
 oak-bark, every six hours, would sujijjly them with an efficacious medicine; to which 
 miglit lie added thirty grains of vitriol of iron, if any teinlcncy to bloody urine 
 should appear, to which this animal is liable. Tiic method of preventing liie in- 
 fection from spreading, if it should ever again gain access to this island, would be
 
 ^^S History of Aniinal Plagues. 
 
 We have already traced the disease on the Continent of 
 Europe. In 1740^ Hungary and Bohemia were suffering from 
 it, and the whole of Germany participated in the invasion; 
 through the south it passed into Switzerland, Piedmont, Tranche 
 Comte, and Dauphine ; northwards, it spread from Poland to 
 Courland, Livonia, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and England. 
 In 1742 it was imported into Lorraine and the Vosges, and, ac- 
 cording to Courtivron, it followed the army in 1743 from Bavaria 
 into Alsatia. The same year it again entered the Dauphine and 
 Franche-Comte from Switzerland, and continued to commit 
 great havoc among the herds in France during the years I745> 
 1746, and 1747. The Plague entered Italy both through Pied- 
 mont and through Venice. It passed into Piedmont during the 
 war of 1744, and led to terrible losses in Upper Italy. Speaking 
 of the misfortunes of war in 1745, Muratori says: ^ And they 
 were not all the misadventures of Piedmont. In the preceding 
 year the Cattle Plague had penetrated in these parts, and it was 
 calculated that about 40,000 oxen and cows had died. A potent 
 means of spreading any pestilence is war, which breaks through 
 every precaution or measure suggested by human prudence. It 
 was owing to this that the malady extended its deadly influence 
 in the preceding year, through Monferrato and other parts of the 
 Sardinian kingdom, and thence passed to the districts of Milan 
 and Lodi, reaching Piacentino, beyond the river Po, winding its 
 course along the rivers in the Bresciano, and spreading alarm 
 through Lombardy. The destruction was beyond description ; 
 and what may be the consequences of so serious a catastrophe, I 
 need not teach those countries which have been desolated, and 
 which have been at the same time oppressed by the weight of 
 war. It has been estimated that 18,000 head of cattle perished 
 in the States of Milan.-" ^ 
 
 immediately to obtain an order from Government to prevent any cattle from being 
 removed, which were found within five miles of the place supposed to be infected, 
 for a few days, till the certainty of the existence of the pestilence could be ascer- 
 tained by a committee of medical people. As soon as this was ascertained, all the 
 cattle within five miles of the place should be immediately slaughtered, and con- 
 sumed within the circumscribed district, and their hides put into lime-water before 
 proper inspectors.'— -Z^'cwcw/V?, vol. ii. p. 249. 
 1 Muratori. Op. cit., vol. xii. p. 345.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 359 
 
 In the month of October^ 1745? ^^^ Steppe murrain penetrated 
 the Tyrol ; from Carinthia it once more travelled to Venice, and 
 only ceased in that State in 1749. In Northern Germany, 
 Prussia appears to have suffered most severely; but it did not 
 appear in Saxony, it seems, until 1746.^ In Prussian Lithuania, 
 according to Gallesky, more than 145,000 cattle were swept 
 away in 1750. It passed through Germany to Holland in 
 1744, and in two years destroyed in that country upwards of 
 200,000 head of cattle. The faculty of medicine at Leyden was 
 at this time consulted as to the means whereby the Plague misrht 
 be abated, and its report was published in Dutch by Lucht- 
 mans. In 1745, Professors de Haen, Ouwens, and Van Velse, 
 and Dr Weiterhof, wrote a dissertation on the subject, which 
 was published at the Hague, and M. Engleman contributed an 
 essay to the Seventh Volume of the 'Acts of the Society of 
 Haarlem/ From 1745 to 1749 it killed 280,000 animals in 
 Denmark. '^ The 14th of January, 1746, was appointed a day 
 of public fasting and prayer to be observed all over Denmark on 
 account of the mortality among the cattle through that king- 
 dom. It is reckoned to have carried off" no less than 60,000 
 before the middle of December. It advanced likewise in Jutland, 
 and the apprehensions of it engaged most people to kill their cat- 
 tle.'^ It entered Sweden, and, according to Linnaeus, in the 
 province of Schonen alone 32,584 oxen and cows died, leaving 
 alive only two per cent, of the entire horned stock of the pro- 
 vince.'' In the little island of Oesel, in 1750-51, no fewer than 
 20,000 cattle succumbed. From Holland the disease penetrated 
 Austria and French Flanders, reaching Laon, and in Artois and 
 Picardy destroyed 11,000 animals.* 
 
 Between 1740 and 1748, it was estimated that Western 
 central Europe had lost no less than three millions of cattle. 
 
 The Continental authorities who have observed and described 
 the disease at this time, as will be seen by a reference to the 
 foregoing essay, are very numerous, and nnich dilliculty is ex- 
 
 ' Rnnipelt. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Vieseucheii. Dresden, 1776. Vol. 
 i. p. J 1 7. 
 
 - Scot's Magazine, vol. xvii. ji. 605. 
 
 ^ LinitiEus. Schonenschc Reise. * jf. Gamgee. Op. cit.
 
 360 History of Animal PlagiLes. 
 
 perienccd in making a judicious selection from among them to 
 illustrate what was then believed to be the pathology and nature 
 of the plague, or the measures, medical and legislative, most 
 appropriate for its cure or prevention. However, a brief notice 
 will be offered of some that now come to hand, and the student 
 desirous of learning more can refer to the works, the titles of 
 which are given. 
 
 We will commence with Holland, 
 
 The physician Clerc,^ who was in that country when the 
 disease raged there in 1744-5, and at the commencement 
 of ^46, informs us as to the character presented by it at that 
 time. 
 
 The symptoms were : staring of the coat, universal shiver- 
 ings, the eyes red or yellowish, and looking as if buried in their 
 orbits. Tears ran from them, and mucus from the nostrils, which 
 were in many cases swollen, and in others constricted and very 
 red, without discharge; sometimes convulsive tvvitchings were 
 noticed about them. The upper lip appeared tumified, the under 
 one pendant, the gums were often red and inflamed, and the 
 veins in them enlarged ; there were also small yellowish pustules, 
 ulcers, and aphthae over the gums and palate as well as the 
 tongue ; these increased before death. There appeared buboes 
 or inflammatory swellings about the dewlap and the flank. The 
 hind quarters could not support the least touch, they were so 
 painful. The throbbing of the arteries was strong and frequent. 
 The labia of the vulva were tumified, and secreted a virulent mat- 
 ter. Towards the end of the second day, the respiration became 
 difficult; this difiiculty increased rapidly. The animal gave 
 utterance to deep sighs and groans, and saliva flowed from the 
 mouth. This matter became bloody on the approach of death. 
 The animals never slept; and they died on the fourth, the fifth, 
 or the sixth day, as if they been slain by the stroke of a polcaxe. 
 The urine was not much altered, but the faeces were yellow- 
 coloured, purulent, and fetid shortly before they perished. Un- 
 
 ' Le Clerc. Verhandeling van de tegenwordige, &c., door vier Geneesheeren. 
 Hague, 1 745. Essai sur les Maladies Contagieuscs du Betail, avec les moyens de 
 les prevenir et d'y remedier efficacement ; par Clerc, ancien Medecin des Armees 
 du Roi en Allemagne. Paris, 1766.
 
 History of Animal Plagiies. 361 
 
 like Boerhaave, he could not perceive any difference between the 
 milk of a healthy and diseased cow. 
 
 These symptoms agree with all those which were noticed in 
 cattle in the neighbourhood of Haarlem^ and those described by 
 the physicians of Konigsberg. In ordinary cases, it was only 
 necessary for some of them to be present to warrant the steps 
 which he recommends, and he begs of every one who mav read 
 his work to be persuaded that every contagious poison^ although 
 transmitted in a very small dose, yet produces rapid and murder- 
 ous effects in destrovino" the organs essentia! to life. 
 
 A large portion of the book is taken up with hypothetical 
 reasonings on the phenomena observed. 
 
 Seventy animals which had died of the disease were examined 
 by him. These are the results. The eyes were spread over by 
 livid and brown-coloured veins. The matters in the nostrils, the 
 mouth, and elsewhere, were bloody and very putrid. The rigidity 
 of the limbs, the hind ones especially, was very great. The 
 subcutaneous cellular tissue was black, dry, and inflamed; the 
 flesh brownish-coloured. There was little alteration in the brain : 
 its vessels were often varicose, and its membranes offered traces 
 of inflammation, especially in those which had been continually 
 comatose. The lungs were not always healthy, but often red, 
 livid, or gangrenous, and covered with black patches. The 
 membrane lining the windpipe was easily detached. The heart 
 bore traces of the contagion. The diaphragm, pleurae, and peri- 
 cardium were always inflamed or gangrenous. The cavities of 
 the heart were always filled with a burnt-looking blood or a 
 brown sediment. The liver and spleen were of a black colour, 
 and distended with blood like ink. It was danoerous to ex- 
 amine too closely the stomachs and other viscera, for the stench 
 would induce syncope. The bile was caustic and burning. The 
 stomach was inflamed, and the third compartment contained 
 black dry food, looking as if it had been baked. Its lining 
 membrane was very easily separated. The fourth compart- 
 ment was of the colour of red lead, and contained ncIIow 
 matters having a most offensive odour. Boerhaave found ex- 
 travasated blood of a black colour, and burning and fetid. 'Hie 
 intestines were much distended with "as, and variegated bv livid
 
 362 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 spots. Clerc has observed inflammation of the uterus, and re- 
 marked that even the foetus contained in it had not only the in- 
 testines diseased, but that the thorax and abdomen were filled 
 with a bloody-coloured humour of a bad smell. 
 
 With regard to treatment, it is here, says the author, 
 that art is rigorously limited, and is obliged to confess that it 
 possesses no certain remedy for the contagious poisons. Their 
 elements are so subtle that they have escaped analysis. It is 
 this which opposes our discovering a preservative or an efficient 
 specific. But treatment might nevertheless be tried on reason- 
 able principles. Plentiful bleedings should be resorted to before 
 the third day, after which they were useless, if not mortal. 
 Purgatives were of little service, in general doing more harm 
 than good. The diet should be barley-meal boiled in skimmed 
 milk. No hay was to be given. As the animals recovered the 
 p;ruel was to be increased in allowance. The diseased were to 
 be currycombed twice a day. The stables were also to be 
 cleaned out twice a day, and perfumed every six hours with 
 vinegar thrown on hot bricks. Gunpowder was also to be burnt 
 in them. Setons he much lauded, especially when put in the 
 dewlap. The simplest means of treatment were the best, and 
 far to be preferred before the irritating, acrid, hot, and incendi- 
 ary remedies so much in use. Animals are composed of the 
 same elements as men, therefore do the same curative principles 
 apply to them. 
 
 In the precautions taken to prevent contagion, it is expressly 
 laid down that all communication be immediately cut off be- 
 tween the infected and the healthy. Setons should be em- 
 ployed in the healthy animals, and they should be currycombed 
 every day. Horses should be kept in the cow-houses, as the 
 soil of these animals prevents the contagion reaching cattle. 
 The dew is regarded as a mass of vapour, which, raised from the 
 earth, is condensed by the cold at night and descends again. 
 The plants which then become charged with it may transmit 
 deadly principles. Animals must not, therefore, be sent to the 
 pasture when there is dew, but only after it has been dissipated. 
 Above all things, it is necessary to kill the first beasts attacked 
 with the plague; then to take them to a place altogether
 
 History of Animal Plagues. o^d^) 
 
 apartj and burn them. But if a great number are attacked 
 at the same time, this means of smothering the disease will 
 be no longer practicable. It is then necessary to separate the 
 animals vet healthy, and keep them as far as possible from 
 the diseased; and no intercourse of any kind should be per- 
 mitted. 
 
 He founded his medical treatment of the malady on the sup- 
 position that it was due to the presence of an animated or ver- 
 minous matter in the blood, similar to that which Pere Kircher 
 had asserted to exist in the plague of man, and Cogrossi and 
 Valisnieri in that of animals. 
 
 Grashius wrote an excellent treatise on the Cattle Plague, in 
 which he asserted that he knew of six cows which had recovered 
 from the disease for more than fifteen days, and yet four of 
 them were attacked a second time and died.^ 
 
 Mauchart writes from Tubingen in 1745 : ' Until this time 
 the disease has abated but little. It appears to be confined to the 
 bovine species alone, and does not aflect goats, horses, pigs, sheep, 
 or fowls; at least, very few examples to the contrary have occurred 
 in our locality; indeed, the only exception I heard of occurred 
 at Tubinsren, where it is said the disease was communicated 
 from a cow to a goat which was stabled with it, and which, after 
 a violent death, on being dissected, exhibited the gall-bladder 
 enlarij-ed and verv much distended. A certain man named 
 Respondens, remembers a similar incident which occurred at 
 Rcutlingen. Some fowls died in a very short time in one 
 house, and on their being examined it was reported that they 
 had greatly-distended gall-bladders. In the beech forests of 
 Wyliae, in a former winter, when the Cattle Plague raged there, 
 a certain man having slain his cows, which were seized with the 
 disease, threw the corrupted intestines to his pigs ; these likewise 
 became affected, and died of the disease. While this malady 
 raged, we were informed by credible authorities that wild beasts 
 had been found dead from this disease in the neighbouring 
 \\(jods. Wild boars, and, indeed, some of the deer tribe, were 
 
 ' Grashius. Uitgczote Verhand. uit dc nicuwste wcrkcii van do Socielcilcn 
 van Wctcnschappcn, 1758.
 
 364 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 also observed to have perished.^ During almost the whole time 
 of this plague amongst cattle diseases were very rare in man- 
 kind, and neither by endemic nor epidemic maladies were they 
 increased whatsoever. Only here and there one or two died 
 from various sporadic affections. Strange to remark^ of all the 
 men who were engaged in tending and nursing the sick cows dying 
 from the epizooty, and of those employed in moving, flaying, 
 and burying them, and breathing the thick, foul-smelling vapours, 
 each and all remained safe and healthy.^ ^ This was written at 
 Tubingen, where the disease raged. 
 
 The same author, in another work,^ has given a good de- 
 scription of the maladv. He alludes to goats being susceptible 
 to its influence, and recommends their separation from the dis- 
 eased cattle. 
 
 The physician Ens* gives a description of the Cattle 
 Plague as it appeared at Halberstadt, in Lower Saxony. It 
 differed slightly from the disease elsewhere in being more acute, 
 and accompanied by more inflammation. It manifested itself at 
 first by an acute fever, marked by a hard pulse, an ardent heat, and 
 excessive thirst ; the breath was fetid, the urine high-coloured 
 and in small quantity, the blood fluid and black, the nose dis- 
 charging mucus, and all the body agitated ; the walk unsteady, 
 and the limbs vacillating. The animal carried its head low, and 
 bellowed frequently. The secretion of milk w^as suppressed in 
 the cows. The diseased creatures died tranquilly on the third, 
 fourth, fifth, or sixth day ; some few in two or three weeks. A 
 small number had dysentery. This author appears to have 
 established the prognosis of the malady principally on the 
 nature of the intestinal discharges. If the evacuation of the 
 excrements, which diminished always at the commencement, 
 became established again, all the symptoms ceased in a short 
 time ; but when dysentery complicated the symptoms, the result 
 
 ^ This disease of the porcine tribe may have been an epizooty of inflammatory 
 fever or anthrax— not the Cattle Plague. 
 
 2 Haller. Disput., vol. iii. p. 846. ^ Bucard-Maitchart. Med. de lue 
 
 vaccarum Tubingensi. Tubingen, 1745. 
 
 * Abraham Ens. Disquisitio Anatomico-Pathologica de Morbo. Boum. Hal- 
 berstadt, 1746.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. ^6^ 
 
 was always fatal. It was remarked that all the cattle attacked 
 were fat, in good condition, and vigorous, and that the lean and 
 feeble were seldom affected. 
 
 The examination of twelve oxen which had died proved that 
 it was an inflammatory disease, in which the digestive passages 
 were principally attacked. The omentum was found inflamed ; 
 the first and second divisions of the stomach were full of food 
 slightly moist; the third was more inflamed and distended than 
 the two first; the leaves were black and sphacelous, and between 
 them the food was found hard and dried ; the fourth division was 
 empty, contracted, and inflamed; the intestines in the same state; 
 the rectum, in some cases, contained mucus mixed with blood. 
 Tn general, all the viscera connected with the intestines par- 
 ticipated in their inflammation, particularly the gall-bladder. The 
 viscera in the thorax were scarcely altered. In the brain there 
 was congestion of the vessels; the eves were inflamed; neither 
 the integuments, the tongue, nor the mouth exhibited any 
 eruption of vesicles, pustules, or tumours; but the tail was 
 rotten, for as soon as its enveloping skin was removed, it broke 
 in many portions. 
 
 Ens, in seeking for the cause of this outbreak, remarks that 
 the pastures in the neighbourhood had been flooded in August 
 by great quantities of rain-water from the adjoining mountains, 
 and which was charged with mud that corrupted the herbaije ; 
 besides, the pastures contained many poisonous weeds. In the 
 month of September a sharp frost suddenly set in, accompanied 
 by a blight of rust on all the plants. The cattle which had 
 passed the night in their stables were turned out in the mornings 
 hot and perspiring, and fed on the tainted herbage, which, he 
 maintained, was assuredly the cause of this very acute inflam- 
 matory epizootic fever. 
 
 In the North of Europe, the Danish physicians gave the dis- 
 ease their serious attention. In the Memoirs of the Royal 
 Scientific Society of Copenhagen for 1746, we find the results of 
 their observations in curious, but yet interesting, details. From 
 the moment, it is recorded, tli;it an ox was attacked, it carried 
 its head low, and its horns were cold; the tongue and the palate 
 became blanched; the respiratory movements precipitous and difli-
 
 ;^66 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 cult; the appetite disappeared, and rumination became suspended; 
 and if death did not suddenly take place, the symptoms be- 
 came more serious ; the breathing became more troubled, the 
 prostration more marked ; the extremities began to experience 
 nervous twitchings and spasmodic movements, which appeared 
 to be accompanied with pain, and prevented their free extension. 
 The thirst was sometimes intense, and when so the animal often 
 had a suppression of urine and faeces. Usually, however, there 
 was diarrhoea, and the matters were tinged with blood. 
 Some moments before death the animal fell as if apoplectic, and 
 lay without feeling or without movement; a thick, adhesive 
 mucus flowed from the mouth and the nostrils ; an aphthous- 
 like appearance showed itself about the tongue; and those 
 animals which resisted the violence of the early sym ptoms, towards 
 the third week became covered with an eruption of pustules 
 about the neck and the back, which degenerated into mange. 
 
 On opening the dead bodies, gangrenous patches were ob- 
 served in the abdominal viscera, and particularly on the spleen 
 and the third stomach [pmasas). Traces of inflammation, of 
 putridity, and of gangrene were always present. The blood con- 
 tained in the spleen was darker than in health; the gall-bladder 
 was always full of bile, and in it were frequently found calculi 
 of various sizes ; in some cases small worms were lodged in the 
 biliary canal ; in others the brain was softened, and the surface 
 of the lungs speckled with livid gangrenous spots. What was 
 reckoned the most extraordinary circumstance in these examin- 
 ations, was the great quantity of black bile constantly found in 
 the gall-bladder, and the calculi which they contained. In the 
 third compartment of the stomach there was nearly always pre- 
 sent a hard, arid, brown mass of food, looking as if it had been 
 baked and hardened by the intensity of the malady. The heart 
 was sometimes filled with polypoid concretions. ^ 
 
 For France, out of the many writers at this period who de- 
 scribed the malady, I will only select a few. 
 
 Chomel" regarded the disease as a malignant, pestilential, and 
 
 ^ Acta Havniensia, vol. ii. 
 
 - Lettre d'un Medecin de Paris a un Medecin de province sur les Maladies des 
 Bestiaux. Journal des Savans. 1 745.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 367 
 
 ExAXTHEMATOUS {pourpreuse) fever, in fact, a true pest, mani- 
 fested by gangrene, lividity of the viscera, and a dreadful 
 stupor. He believed it to have taken its rise in Bohemia, while 
 that country was the seat of war. From thence it passed to 
 Hungary, Bavaria, the Tyrol, Alsace, and Upper Burgundy. 
 Flanders did not escape, and it is truly fearful, he says, to 
 think of the immense numbers of cattle these different countries 
 have lost. 
 
 The symptoms were heaving at the flanks and hurried breath- 
 insj. On makino; pressure over the loins, a crackling was heard, 
 as if of dry parchment. They died at various periods — three, four, 
 five, or eight days. Some were seen to die in four hours which 
 had no external symptom of the disease, and yet when opened 
 they exhibited all the pathological evidences of its presence — 
 such as gangrene of the true stomach and the viscera covered 
 with purple spots. The signs which preceded death, and which 
 this writer had ample opportunity for observing, were as follows: 
 the fever had been latent for a number of days before it 
 showed itself, this period varying according to the disposition 
 of the animal ; indeed, it was observed that in some cows which 
 the country people thought quite healthy, and which gave their 
 usual quantity of milk, an attentive examination could discover 
 considerable fever, with the heart's action doubled in movement 
 and intensity, and often a slight cough. The symptoms de- 
 veloped all at once were : tremblings recurring two or three 
 times during the day, the eyes red and tearful, the horns and the 
 ears cold, the head hanging low, a thick and glutinous mucus 
 flowing from the mouth and nostrils; rigors over the whole 
 body, or confined to the thighs; the secretion of milk diminish- 
 ing; frequent cough, heaving deep sighs, and a melancholy and 
 languid appearance, accompanied by great insensibility. In the 
 excrements, which were fluid, were seen, even during the first 
 days of illness, streaks of blood. There was considerable diar- 
 rhoea, and sometimes the ejection of these matters was accom- 
 panied by colic. Sometimes there was remarked a convulsive 
 twitchino; extendinjr from the head to the termination of the 
 spine. The paroxysms of fever resembled those of intermittent 
 fever in man. While the exterior of the body was cold, the breath
 
 368 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and the interior appeared to be burning. The rumination en- 
 tirely ceased. In cows the lips and the vulva were swollen, and 
 from them came a virulent humour. On the teats appeared 
 purple patches. Pustules often appeared in the mouth and on 
 the tongue. The animals which recovered passed through several 
 periods or stages. At first their eyes lost their redness, and the 
 tears ceased. Their backs were covered with scabs or scales ; the 
 udders and teats were covered with small tumours or hoiitons. 
 About their necks there were a great number of these pustules 
 covered with scabs, which fell ofi' after some days, and the beasts 
 began to lick their nostrils and skins. This was particularly 
 observed at Paris, in Burgundy, and in Franche-Comte, and was 
 only noticeable in the few which recovered, and these were only 
 oxen, or emaciated cows. The hair grew stronger and smooth, 
 the milk returned, the faeces were more solid, and never any of 
 those recovered had a relapse. Some had pustules on their 
 tongues, which were scraped to the quick and then dressed with 
 vinegar and salt. 
 
 The post-mortem appearances were : in the rumen a great 
 quantity of moist food, possessing a disagreeable odour, although 
 the animals had not eaten anything for three, four, and even 
 eight days. The leaves of the third section of the stomach 
 were black, gangrenous, and easily torn. The alimentary 
 matters between them were hard, and similar to peat ready 
 for burning ; the fourth division of the stomach {caillette) 
 was throughout of a reddish purple, mixed with patches of 
 a deep or ijright violet tint. Pus was also found in it. In 
 many subjects there were dark spots on the liver, with hydatids 
 and traces of gangrene in the lungs. The udder and adjacent 
 integument had also livid blotches. The gall-bladder was 
 generally full, and the contents were very fluid, though the 
 colour was not altered. The rectum was frequently noticed 
 to contain a little black blood. Sometimes the heart was 
 dotted over with these patches ; the uterus was affected in the 
 same way, and if it contained a foetus this was found suffocated 
 by the blood. The larynx, the pharynx, the base of the tongue, 
 the oesophagus, and the trachea had like stains of ecchymosis; 
 the cavities of the nose were filled with a purulent matter.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 369 
 
 In some dead bodies no palpable alteration was discovered 
 in anv of the viscera, — nothing save extreme distention of the 
 gall-bladder. 
 
 The malady was excessively contagious, and it was in vain 
 that the magistrates could prevent its diffusion by the wisest 
 measures ; the greed of gain of some, and the poverty of others, 
 broke through all the bounds which had been made to restrain 
 the pestilence. The remedies employed became impotent against 
 so violent a disease; suspected animals were sold at a low price, 
 and consequently those which were diseased spread the malady. 
 It was a true plague, which, after passing from province to pro- 
 vince, at last entered the capital. The magistrates of Paris, learn- 
 ing that, notwithstanding all the precautions taken by the police, 
 the disease appeared at the same time in different parts of the 
 city, held a meeting; at which, being determined to know every- 
 thincT concernino; the nature and treatment of the affection, it 
 was resolved to consult the faculty of medicine. Many doctors 
 were sent to the infected quarters, and there beheld the awful 
 ravages wrought by the plague. Day by day it increased in 
 violence, and no one can imagine the number of dead and dyina: 
 seen every day in Paris. Well known and well characterized, 
 every effort was made to cure the scourge. But what obstacles! 
 what difficulties ! There were two principal indications to 
 fulfil — unload the stomach of the enormous quantity of aliment 
 it contained, and prevent the inflammation or arrest its pro- 
 gress. To meet the first indication, it was necessary that the 
 diet should be of the most trifling kind — that which could never 
 be enforced, however. Lastly, it was observed that all medicines 
 such as brandy and gunpowder, and all the cordials, were injurious 
 in this malady, though the proprietors of cattle always flattered 
 themselves that marvellous results would ensue by eivincr lar<rc 
 doses. In this way people have expended 350 bottles of wine 
 on five or six cows in a very short time. Medicines were of no 
 avail. External remedies, such as setons and the use of the actual 
 cautery, were in most request, and were believed to have done 
 some service in effecting cures. It was thouffht to be a "ood 
 sign when these critical depots, as they were termed, suppurated 
 freely. Bleeding usually accompanied these remedies. In the 
 
 24
 
 37° History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 mouth was put, twice a-day, a masticator {mnst/cadour), composed 
 of salt, peppercorns, and a little garlic and honey. The ears 
 and nose were rubbed many times a day with aromatic vinegar. 
 The stables were fumigated with burning junipers, sage leaves, 
 and rosemary and absinthe. The nourishment was light ; a few 
 herbs, bran, or barley, or rye meal were given in very small 
 quantities. 
 
 Sauvages, a celebrated physician of Montpellier, is the next 
 authority who has written on the disease, as he saw it in Lan- 
 guedoc.^ The pest having been carried by Forez and Dauphine 
 into Velay and Vivarais, the Archbishop of Narbonne, fearing 
 lest it should spread to mankind, sent Sauvages to inquire into 
 its nature, and to suggest means for preventing or curing it. 
 His description is as follows: — The syn)ptoms were nausea, loss 
 of appetite, and no desire to drink. Some of the cattle about 
 the third day refused water, or drank very little. There was an 
 extreme degree of uneasiness or heaviness, which made the 
 affected beasts hang their heads and look troubled. But on the 
 third day they wandered about here and there, as if to get out of 
 their stables, and seemed pleased when allowed to go at large. 
 When they were prostrated by the malady, they lay down from 
 lassitude, and often got up again. The cow-men said that this 
 disease made the cattle imbecile. Nearly all of them had shiver- 
 ings over the body, but especially at the flanks and thighs. 
 The hair was upright from the head to the croup. The roots of 
 the horns were cold, but the rest of the body was of a natural 
 temperature. The eyes were tearful, and at last purulent, and 
 the effusion from them traced a furrow over the skin, from the 
 eyes to the nose. There were worms between the eyes and the 
 eyelids, but the cow-herds assured him that these had been ob- 
 served long before the disease appeared. The nose was purulent, 
 and as if suffering from glanders, the discharge being often 
 mixed with blood. This was supposed to come from the mucous 
 glands; the saliva was abundant, and streaming to the ground; 
 the tongue whitish, and without pustules. The stench from the 
 stomach was insupportable when the animals breathed. The 
 
 1 Af. de Sauvages. Memoire sur la Maladie Epid. des Boeufs du Vivarais. 
 Montpellier, 20 Decembre, 1746,
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 371 
 
 brcathino; was very uneasy, especially about the third day. The 
 diseased beast sighed, and breathed with a noise which could be 
 heard twenty jKiccs off. When the flank was watched, it was 
 found that the respirations were jerking. The sort of vertigo 
 which sometimes caused the animals to run about, and which 
 was observed by Lancisi in 171 1, was also observed by Sauvages. 
 The most constant symptom was the purging, which began 
 between the second and fifth day. It was preceded by straining, 
 and very often the matters were ejected for some distance, and 
 were of adeep green colour with a very bad odour. This odour 
 did not prevent other cattle from seeking and sniffing the faeces 
 of the diseased, and dogs and pigs licked them up when permit- 
 ted. This diarrhoea was, about the fifth or sixth day, mixed 
 with blood, and on the surface looked like thick oil enclosing 
 bubbles of air. This flux generally carried the animals off" in the 
 first week. Entire stables have been depopulated the same day 
 on which the malady has appeared. 
 
 The unfavourable symptoms were: an invincible loathing, 
 a copious discharge from the nostrils, and, above all, the diarrhoea 
 largely mixed with blood, or even simple diarrhoea. The favour- 
 able symptoms were: the disease continuing till the second week; 
 the animal eatinscand drinking; a little, and the skin of the nose 
 peeling off, or the hair of the croup being shed, and pustules in 
 the mouth. If an abscess appeared in the dewlap or on the limbs, 
 it was accompanied by another symptom : the dorsal spine became 
 so sensitive, that a little pressure with the hand would make 
 tlie beast fall on its knees, and if more forcible make it rim 
 away. Emphysematous swellings, very painful and diffuse, but 
 not much elevated, formed at the flanks and thighs; these dis- 
 charged a quantity of air when incised. When these swellings 
 occupied the genital regions the prognosis was unfavourable. 
 
 There was not much derangement noticed in the viscera of 
 those animals which were examined after death, especially if the 
 disease had lasted for three or four days only. There was no- 
 thing carbuncular about them. That which passed for anthrax 
 [vkarioti) was marked by great emi^hvsematous swellings. True 
 anthrax had not manifested itself in a single ox durinfj this 
 epizocity, neither had it been seen for three or four years. The
 
 37^ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 rumen was filled with a great quantity of stinking, yellowish, 
 and very dry food ; and the second, but above all the third, com- 
 partment contained the driest matter, which was of a dark 
 colour and like a cake. The lining membrane was livid, but this 
 lividity was not accompanied by any softening which could be 
 construed as marking gangrene. The fourth compartment, with 
 its velvety lining membrane, was of a rose colour and slightly in- 
 flamed; and from thence to the rectum the contents were liquid 
 and tinted from green to black. Livid stains were observed in 
 the rectum. The gall-bladder was two or three times larger 
 than in health. Nothing was observed in the spinal cord. The 
 lungs were the organs most affected ; for besides some redness of 
 the lobes, their texture was sometimes so distended that they oc- 
 cupied after death the whole capacity of the chest. Air had 
 filled up the interlobular space to such an extent that the veins 
 were as large as the little finger. Microscopic examination of 
 the blood did not show any insects. Nothing unhealthy was 
 noticed in the brain. 
 
 This mortality amongst cattle, he says, had ravaged Europe 
 for thirty-four years before it had got so far as Vivarais. Sau- 
 vages was one of those deputed to examine into the nature of 
 the disease, and to propose means for its cure or prevention. It 
 had depopulated in Aunonay more than forty-three parishes. 
 One in particular had lost a hundred and thirty-four cattle in 
 fifteen days. It was communicated from one cow to another, 
 A butcher of Villeneuve de Berg had brought to Beage in Upper 
 Vivarais some infected cattle, and these left the infection in the 
 stables in which thev had halted when on the road. Some of 
 them died, but he slaughtered the remainder, and sold them as 
 food to the inhabitants of Villeneuve. The dogs and pigs 
 which had eaten portions of the carcases and the excrements 
 were not affected, neither were the people who had eaten the 
 flesh. 
 
 Sauvages solemnly assures us that it is useless to seek in 
 vitiated pastures, in the air, or in stagnant water, for the 
 causes of this epizooty, when we see it spread step by step, but 
 only amongst those animals which had communication with the 
 diseased. Different seasons, or a diversity of climates, do not
 
 History of Animal PlagiLes. 373 
 
 appear to exercise much, if any, influence on it. The poison 
 weakens the movement of the blood, as in scurvy and the plague. 
 The disease itself has a great resemblance to the dysentery pre- 
 valent in camps, and which the soldiers acquire from the exhala- 
 tions of latrines. In like manner cattle contract the disease by 
 inhaling the stench from the excrements, healthy animals having 
 a great tendency to smell these. The two affections present 
 somewhat similar symptoms. 
 
 It followed from the observations of Sauvaaes, as had been 
 already noticed by Lancisi, Ramazzini, and others, that eigh- 
 teen animals died out of every twenty attacked ; that there had 
 been found no specific remedy to cure the epizooty; and that 
 the only means of guaranteeing the safety of the unaffected was 
 not only to prevent the communication of the contagion from 
 one beast to another, but also to hinder the approach of dogs 
 which had been in infected neighbourhoods, and also the men 
 who had been in charo;e of the diseased. 
 
 In Aunonay, as before mentioned, the disease had cleared 
 out every parish ; but in Vivarais, by the extreme precautions 
 which the people took to prevent communication, not so many 
 were destroyed, and it soon disappeared there. In Italy it was 
 observed that the fat animals suffered most ; in Vivarais this 
 distinction was not observed, but a dozen oxen became affected 
 very quickly, and the cows not for a month afterwards. In Dau- 
 phine the disease was remarked to be latent for a month, but in 
 Vivarais it showed itself on the day of communication. 
 
 The human plague does not attack animals, Sauvagcs re- 
 marks, neither does this of cattle extend beyond the bovine 
 species; at least, he adds, I cannot altogether think that the 
 disease actually raging amongst small animals in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Lunel can be quite the same as that affecting the 
 cattle. 
 
 A most notable circumstance observed by Sauvages at this 
 time, however, was the fact of goals ami sheep suf!'ering from a 
 disease very similar to, if not identical with, that of the cattle. 
 Paulet remarks on this in the following words: ' Whether it was 
 that the disease in cattle in France had passed by communication 
 from these animals to others of a diflfercnt species, or whether it
 
 374 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 was that another special cause was in operation; certain it is that 
 a malady accompanied by dysentery, and all the symptoms which 
 characterize a putrid, pestilential, and exanthematous fever, such 
 as that which had prevailed among horned cattle, was observed 
 in Languedoc at the same time by M. de Sauvages^ in the goats 
 and sheep. The most favourable crisis for these animals was an 
 eruption of small pustules about the nostrils and the other parts 
 of the head, which became converted into scabs. As in the 
 cattle, after death their lungs were found emphysematous, and 
 their viscera bore the same marks of disease. It appears that 
 these animals were treated in the same manner as the cattle, 
 modifying, however, the doses of the remedies according to the 
 age, the natural feebleness of the creature, and other circum- 
 stances. In general, the moiety of a dose of medicine suitable 
 for an ox was that which sufficed for a sheep, if the remedy was 
 not a violent one; when it was, a third, or even a fourth part 
 was sufficient. M. Hastfer, in his" Instructions for the Improve- 
 ment of Sheep," p. 154, strongly recommends a preservative 
 powder for these animals, in all cases of pestilential or epizootic 
 diseases; it consists in taking two ounces of crude antimony, 
 the same quantity of nitre, four ounces of sulphur and laurel 
 berries, mixed with ten pounds of common salt. This mixture to 
 be put in the mangers so that the sheep may lick it at pleasure/^ 
 
 Amongst the precautions taken by the States and the Parlia- 
 ment to arrest the spread of the infection, it was ordained that 
 the dead should be interred in their skins; but they did not sus- 
 pect the cupidity of the merchants, who purchased at a low price 
 the hides which the farmers could smuggle away, and thus was a 
 most important object frustrated. 
 
 Much that is interesting will be found in the Journal of the 
 Marquis de Courtivron, some of whose observations have been 
 already alluded to.^ He saw the malady in Burgundy, Eastern 
 France, in 1747. 
 
 Blondet" thought the disease was due to bad food and a low 
 
 ' Nosologia Methodica, vol. v. p. 88. "^ Paiilet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 256. 
 
 ^ De Courtivron. Journal sur la Naissance, le Progres, et la Terme de la 
 
 Maladie du Gros Betail a Is-sur-Tille, ville du Duche de Bourgogne. Paris, 1747. 
 
 * Blondd. Dissertation sur la Maladie Epidemique des Bestiaux. Paris, 1749.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 375 
 
 temperature. The symptoms indicated by him have nothing 
 worthy of remark. On opening the dead animals small tumours 
 were found beneath the skin, and on the breast abscesses or 
 lare:e tumours like carbuncles. The skins of those which re- 
 covered were disfigured by a kind of miliary or scabby eruption. 
 He named the disease an ardent, pestilential, eruptive fever. 
 
 Camper^ reports an outbreak of the disease in 1768 and 
 1769 in the province of Groningen, Holland; he imagined it 
 to have become naturalized in the country, the same as small-pox 
 in mankind. The symptoms are very accurately given; and from 
 their perusal it is obvious that the lungs were somewhat severely 
 implicated. The duration of the malady was from twenty-four 
 hours to eleven days, though the last-named period was very 
 rarely attained. In some cases the body was covered with spots^ 
 especially near the flanks, a symptom to which the peasantry 
 gave the name of 'mange,' and which some of them regarded as a 
 favourable prognostic. Camper, however, remarks that the 
 buboes and the eruptions some have observed are uncertain cha- 
 racteristics. Nearly all cows in calf aborted. Passing over the 
 post-mortem appearances of the abdominal viscera, which are re- 
 markably well described, the respiratory apparatus is next ex- 
 amined. The lungs were found in a reddened, livid, inflammatory 
 condition, flecked with purple spots, one lobe being usually more 
 affected than the other; when incised, they were observed to con- 
 tain black blood, which concealed their structure. In many in- 
 stances air was found in the cellular tissue, between the lobules, 
 which produced an emphysematous condition of the lungs. The 
 lining membrane of the trachea was red, purple, and gangrenous, 
 and this conduit was filled with a white frothy mucus, which ex- 
 tended to the bronchial tubes; this state accounted for the plain- 
 tive groans of the beasts. The fauces and back part of the throat 
 was inflamed in all, but most in those which had the air-pass- 
 ages choked with mucus. The nasal apertures and the tongue 
 showed sometimes traces of inflammation. In its nature the 
 malady was thought to be a contagious putrid fever, which caused 
 a great inflammation in the viscera of the chest and abdomen, the 
 
 ' /'. Camper. Lc9ons sur rEpizootie f[ui rcgna dans la Piovincc dc Gronin- 
 gen en 1769. raris, 1803.
 
 37^ Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 throat, the tongue and nostrils^ and at times even the brain. 
 The third compartment of the stomach was always particularly 
 affected. The disease never varied in its character in attacking 
 one part of the animal more than another, and it was always ac- 
 companied by very great prostration of strength. It differed from 
 the measles and small-pox of man, and Camper asserted that it 
 should always be treated as a putrid fever. Jt was not a simple 
 * inflammatory fever ; if it were, soothing remedies would be salu- 
 tary. Bleeding was always injurious. A singular circumstance 
 noted, was that cattle which had recovered were not ao-ain 
 affected by it. 
 
 The only means of averting the contagion was to prohibit 
 the introduction into the country of diseased or suspected cattle 
 from those regions where the malady prevailed, as well as hay, 
 straw, or other matters, and even men and animals. 
 
 Inoculation was extensively resorted to by Camper, and 
 many able men have asserted that to the adoption of this remedy 
 and the other experiments by which this physician undertook to 
 cure the disease, Holland was longer in getting rid of the plague 
 than any other country.^ 
 
 It may be remarked that Engelman, in Holland in 1763, 
 treats of the malady in a similar manner to Camper, and the 
 'fact that sheep and goats were liable to the contagion did not 
 escape him ; so that we have three observers at this period 
 who mention such an occurrence. He says : ' It is not with- 
 out danger that we allow sheep and goats to run about the con- 
 taminated stables or pastures, because these animals themselves 
 can readily be affected, and at any rate the virulent element 
 may attach itself to their wool and hair, and in this way be 
 transmitted to the herds of cattle.^ ^ 
 
 In Franche-Comte the disease was named miirie^ (murrain). 
 Each writer designated it after his own ideas as to its nature. 
 
 ^ Some excellent letters on this invasion of Cattle Plague appeared in the 
 French Newspapers during the progress of the disease. 1 woidd particularly re- 
 commend to the attention of the student those which were inserted in the Meiriire 
 de France for June, 1 745, April, 1 747, and at other times. 
 
 - Engelman. Verhandlung uitg. door de HoU. Maatsch. van Wetenschappen, 
 1763, p. 280. 
 
 2 Registres de la Faculte de Paris,' 1 745.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 377 
 
 Some thought and named it a malignant fever, or a pestilential 
 and exanthematous fever ; others as an ardent or eruptive fever;^ 
 and others again as a simple dysentery.^ 
 
 There were so many points of resemblance between this 
 malady and that of 171 j and 1714, that all those who com- 
 pared them were unanimous in saying it was the same pest 
 which had broken out anew, or had not ceased to ravage Eu- 
 rope and Asia, and had only been roused again by some cause to 
 renewed fury.'' Paulet, writing in 1775^ remarks: '■ If we atten- 
 tively compare the symptoms one with another, we will find that 
 the diagnosis, prognosis, the progress, and the crisis, are all nearly 
 the same; there is the identical pestilential character, and the 
 same unsuccessfulness in treatment. If there is little difficulty in 
 pronouncing a certain judgment in this comparison, there is more 
 in deciding affirmatively as to the identity of the symptoms of 
 1745. Although it is evident that the disease is the same, never- 
 theless we can distinguish many symptoms which were not equally 
 apparent in all the places where the epizoiJty was observed, 
 either because each author has his particular manner of seeing 
 and describing such things, or that the difi'erence of climates and 
 seasons has a real influence in modifying these symptoms. It is 
 certain, for example, that the epizocity in cattle observed in 
 Denmark, Franche-Comte, Burgundy, and Paris presented nearly 
 the same characters; while that of Holland and of Vivarais 
 diflered from these, and appeared to have a great resemblance 
 between them. MM. de Sauvages and Leclerc scarcely mention 
 a slight pustular eruption observed in the interior of the mouth 
 and about the muzzle of the cattle; whereas all the other 
 authors speak of a general eruption of pustules {boutons), which 
 rendered the skin quite mangy, and on whose appearance were 
 founded all hopes of a cure. The pestilential buboes in the 
 groins and in the glands of the neck, which M. Clerc mentions, 
 scarcely find a place in the descriptions of the other authors, 
 unless we accept the natural or artificial depots of which M. de 
 Sauvages speaks. In this way we may say that the epizocity 
 
 ' M. lUondd. Dissert, sur la Maladie Kpidc'iiiique dcs Bestiaux, p. 20. 
 * Nosologia Mcthodica .Sauvagii, class ix. p. 89. 
 ^ Mem. de TAcademic de Berlin, 1768.
 
 378 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 in Holland approaches nearest to that of Vivarais; and that the 
 others resemble each other in a great many respects. It would 
 be superfluous to seek the reason for this. 
 
 'There were two opinions with re2;ard to the origin of the 
 disease. Some people pretended, and especially the Danish phy- 
 sicians,^ that after having taken its rise in Tartary, where it 
 committed twice the damage of an ordinary plague, it at first 
 penetrated Russia, from whence it extended on the one side 
 into Poland, Livonia, the Duchy of Courland, Prussia, Pomera- 
 nia, the Duchy of Mecklenburg, and Alsace, and afterwards 
 passed to Holland and England; while towards the east, having 
 penetrated Turkey, it spread into Bohemia, Hungary, Dalmatia, 
 Austria, Moravia, Styria, and at length, by the Gulf of Venice, 
 to Italv, Spain, and France, from whence it was carried to Ger- 
 many, and finally to Denmark, where it was seen in I745- ^"^ 
 the opinion most generally entertained in Europe was, that after 
 having broken out in Bohemia during the siege of Prague, it ex- 
 tended on the one side into Hungary, Bavaria, Styria, Carinthia, 
 the Tyrol, Italy, and by the Alps into Provence; and on the 
 other side it penetrated Alsace, Luxembourg, Franche-Comte, 
 Lorraine, Flanders, the Low Countries, and Picardy, from 
 whence it came to Paris, and from thence to many provinces of 
 France. Whatever may have been its primary cause, it was gen- 
 erally attributed in Europe to nothing else than the use of rotten 
 leaves of trees, which the cattle of Bohemia were compelled to 
 eat during the siege of Prague, for lack of the forage which had 
 all been taken possession of to feed the horses of the French army.' 
 M. Paulet continues his summary of this malady to the follow- 
 ing effect: — 'There are few epizootic diseases the symptoms of 
 which have been described with so much care and sagacity. 
 Writers of the highest merit, such as MM. de Sauvages, 
 Chomel, Blondel, Le Clerc, and Randot, employed their pens in 
 this work. Notwithstanding the ride that we imposed on our- 
 selves not to deal in any hypothesis, we are unable to resist the 
 temptation of citing two brilliant theories to which the disease 
 has given rise, and which are capable of throwing much light on 
 the treatment. 
 
 ^ Acta Havniens, vol. ii.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 379 
 
 'On one side^ it is said, a virus of a caustic, acrid, and in- 
 flammatory nature, received into the air and digestive passages, 
 corrupts the juices and infects the chyle; this milky liquid, 
 carried into the mass of the blood, can only reach it by passing 
 through the principal channels which nature has destined for 
 the lymph ; these necessarily contract the taint, from whence 
 the engorgement of the vessels which contain it, as well as the 
 conglomerate glands, Sec. If this virus is of a character to become 
 thickened and consolidated, the engorgement augments, the 
 lymph becomes depraved by its ceasing to flow, and irritates 
 and inflames the tunics; when carried in this state into the 
 mass of the blood it corrupts it; and from this arises the general 
 depravation of the humours, and the swelling of the glands; a 
 symptom which always indicates that the mass of the humours 
 has received the leaven of contagion. If the action of the virus 
 is limited to the digestive tract, it produces difierent symptoms 
 throughout the whole of the intestinal canal, such as colic, spas- 
 modic tensions, a contraction in the mouths of the lacteal ves- 
 sels, diarrhoea, dysentery, &c., symptoms which are oftentimes 
 observed at the commencement of the disease; and dead bodies 
 have been opened in which all these viscera, with the excep- 
 tion of the third division of the stomach, have been found 
 healthy; in this part the poison appeared to have concentrated 
 its effects. In other subjects, no sensible alteration was found save 
 excessive distension of the gall-bladder. But this often sufficed to 
 produce death ; a circumstance which proves the malignity and 
 the subtilty of the contagious ferment, which was capable of de- 
 stroving vitality, even before it perceptibly infected the humours. 
 All observers agreed that its deleterious action on the nerves, 
 and on their oritiin, was the first and the most danirerous effect 
 it produced in the animal economy; it is that which is always 
 the characteristic of the most dreaded diseases of men and 
 animals, and which often decides their nature, 
 
 ' On the other side, according to Boerhaave^s theory of in- 
 flammation, it was admitted that the indirect as well as im- 
 mediate cause of the disease was the arrest and stagnation ot 
 the blood In tiit: extreme cai)illaries of tiie vessels, followed by 
 sudden inflannnation and rapid gangrene. 'I'lie Ijjood engorging
 
 380 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the extremities of the arteries caused their contractions to be- 
 come augmented bv reason of the obstacle opposed to the cir- 
 culation, then the lymphatic vessels became dilated, and received 
 the red portion of the blood ; this bloody thus conveyed into 
 vessels having an extremely delicate texture, stagnated, dilated 
 them, and caused a true inflammation. If this inflammatory 
 condition is not promptly remedied the circulation becomes more 
 embarrassed, the principal viscera are Involved, and particularly 
 those which hav^e a thin and delicate texture, which causes them 
 to give way more easily to the impulsion, and to the disturbance 
 of the fluids. The digestion being troubled and deranged, only 
 furnishes imperfect chyle, that, mixing with the blood, aug- 
 ments still more the depraved condition of that liquid. The 
 humours, in becoming stagnated, contract a putrid fermentation. 
 In this state of universal engorgement, all the functions languish; 
 the glands no longer separate their customary secretions from 
 the mass of the fiulds, and become swollen ; the liver secretes 
 an excessively acrimonious bile, a part of which is retained in 
 the gall-bladder in consequence of the inflammatory engorge- 
 ment of the biliary canal, while the remainder enters the blood, but 
 only to augment the heat and burning. The Inflamed intestines 
 are so irritated that their capillary vessels are ruptured, and permit 
 the blood to escape, which thus constitutes a true dysentery. 
 
 '^M. Randot^ especially patronized this theory, which he 
 thoucrht he had verified in the results of his examinations of 
 dead cattle. In these he always found traces of inflammation, 
 suppuration, or gangrene; and he sought to prove that a general 
 inflammatory condition being the most constant in these 
 animals, which always died of inflammation or its degenerate 
 stage — gangrene, the principles of treatment should be solely 
 directed to remedying this state. This author differed from 
 De Sauvages on the prognosis founded on the presence of 
 diarrhoea; that physician declaring that a simple purging, once 
 established, was always unfavourable; whereas Randot pretended 
 to have observed the contrary result; but he acknowledged that 
 the dysenteric flux was always mortal. 
 
 ' The symptoms having been explained in so clear a manner, 
 ^ Randot. Dissertation sur la Maladie Epid. des Bestiaux. Dijon, 1745.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 381 
 
 there was no want of modes of treatment founded on the best 
 principles. But unfortunately, in order to combat with advantage 
 a disease the effects of which were so rapid and so dangerous, 
 and the care of which was chiefly confided to the country people, 
 who were but httle adapted to receive these truths, there was not 
 always the time nor the power to follow these indications. In 
 France nothing was neglected which was likely to preserve such 
 useful animals. The Faculty of Montpellier having been consulted 
 on this subject, and having before them the report of M. de Sau- 
 vages, gave it as their opinion that it was best to ward off the at- 
 tack of the malady by preservative remedies before it declared 
 itself, than by curative measures when it had already involved 
 the vital principles. To this effect, they wisely concluded it 
 was necessary to treat healthy cattle which had cohabited with 
 the diseased as if they were already infected, ''We must begin, 
 then, to separate the healthy from the unhealthy. Every day 
 they ought to be cleaned and wisped, and not allowed to stand 
 in the humidity of their excrement, as was allowed in Vivarais. 
 Every day their litter should be changed frequently, and the 
 stables ought to be perfumed by burning in them juniper-wood, 
 laurel, and odoriferous herbs, but above all, by throwing vinegar 
 on a red-hot shovel, Sec." Notwithstanding all the re- 
 medies proposed and tried, M. de Sauvages came to the conclu- 
 sion that no specific could be found, no certain remedy could be 
 discovered for this disease, and that out of every twenty infected 
 cattle nineteen would die.^ ^ 
 
 From 1750 to 1769, the pestilence was not so deadly nor so 
 generally diffused over Europe, and the afflicted countries began 
 to recover from its terrific effects; but towards the termination 
 of this interval, it re-assumed its former virulency and mortality, 
 as it spread far and wide over the old, as well as comparatively 
 new, tracts of territory. This resuscitation, however, will be re- 
 ferred to hereafter; in the mean time we may, I think, accept as 
 worthy of credence the conclusion arrived at by a competent au- 
 thority, to the effect that, from 171 1 to 1769, this awful scourge 
 could not have destroyed less than 200,000,000 head of cattle in 
 the various countries to which it had been carried. 
 
 > Paula. Op. cit.
 
 382 
 
 ~ CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1 746 TO 1 774. 
 
 A.D. 1746. In Beauvais, sheep small-pox did great mischief 
 among the flocks.^ The two following years were very dry, and 
 locusts were causing consideral)le damage to the crops in Poland, 
 Silesia, and Brandenburg, extending their ravages even as far 
 north as Sweden. In 1749, these creatures were so numerous as 
 to stop the army of Charles XII. of Sweden, which was then re- 
 treating in Bessarabia after the disastrous battle at Pultowa.^ Every 
 country was desolated by them, and Europe suffered severely. 
 In England, in 1748, they were observed in considerable num- 
 bers all over the land, ' but providentially they soon perished 
 with propagating. These were evidently stragglers from the 
 vast swarms which did such infinite damage in Wallachia, Mol- 
 davia, Hungary, and Poland.^ ^ 
 
 Rutty noticed their arrival in Ireland, where, he tells us, 
 'In May several inflammations and abscesses in ears occurred, 
 and chincoughs were very epidemic among the children. There 
 was also among the horses an epidemical cough, which proved 
 fatal to them.^ * 
 
 A.D. 1747- Rot in sheep in England, after a wet spring suc- 
 
 ' Barbaret. Maladies Epizootiques, p. 16. For a detailed and very interesting 
 account see also Paulet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 267. 
 
 2 L. Figuier. Les Insectes, p. 366. ^ j^i-,-i,y and Spence. Entomology. 
 
 * Rutty. Op. cit.
 
 History of Anhital Plagues. 383 
 
 ceedinga very mild winter. The raiu began to fall at the bejrin- 
 nino; of May, and continued^ with but few intermissions, throiu'-h- 
 out the month, as well as in June and part of July. ' From all 
 which, I would observe to my readers, that a midsummer rot 
 ensued, and great numbers of Vale (Aylesbury) sheep became 
 tainted by it, as did many also in the Middlesex 2;rounds.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1748, The summer was intensely hot, and the ther- 
 mometer was hisrher in Paris than it had been for a hundred 
 years previously. 'Some horses dropped down dead by means 
 of the violent heat.^^ 
 
 A.D. 1749-53. These years were remarkable for the great pre- 
 valence of disease affecting the animal and vegetable kinjjdoms. 
 For 1749, Rutty observes : 'There was no rot among the sheep, 
 notwithstanding a like wet winter and cold spring succeeding 
 (as in 1735); so that it should seem that wet seasons, though 
 they may promote, do not, for the most part, generate this dis- 
 order, but that it is owinsT to some latent causes.'^ 
 
 A physician at Caillan, in the Gulf of Forez, says of the year 
 1750 : 'The majority of vegetables and of animals have par- 
 ticipated equally in the unseasonable weather; the leaves of the 
 trees have faded and become yellow before the autumn set in; 
 those of the mulberry trees were stained by black patches, which 
 proved a real poison to the silkworms, these nearly all dying. 
 The wheat crop was an utter failure because of the blight of 
 rust, which, fastening itself on the stalk, completely withered it 
 before the grain was ripe. Fruits were very dangerous to those 
 who did not eat them with discretion ; and the greater portion 
 of the flocks died from a disease of an equally putrid nature as 
 that which affected all things.'* 
 
 At Toulouse the seasons presented the same unfavourable 
 character, and silkworms perished in great quantities. 'Sheep 
 have been attacked in the months of January, February, April, 
 and November, with a disease which is named Picotte {variola 
 ovina). Many of them, esjiecially those attacked in the month of 
 January, died.' ^ 
 
 ' Shepherd's Sure Guide. London, 1749. ^ Kulty. Op. cit. ' Ibiil. 
 
 * Darliic. J<jiirnal dc Medccine de Vandermondc, vol viii. p. 56. 
 
 * MarcordU. Mum. dc I'Acadcmie dcs Sciences, vol. ii. p. 622.
 
 384 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Schnurrer, for 1754, writes: 'The diseases in corn, which 
 had been observed in the few past years, were now also noticed 
 in Switzerland. There was seen on the ears a grey and rough 
 substance, from which a yellow-coloured sap exuded ; this black- 
 ened the whole plant within eight days/ ^ A very extensive 
 epidemy of ergotism prevailed in France, nearly approaching in its 
 ravages those of the Middle Ages. It began at Sologne, its tra- 
 ditional birth-place, and spread through the Llandes, Flanders, 
 and Artois. The ergot was so abundant that it formed one- 
 third of the rye. The animals fed on it contracted the same 
 gangrenous diseases as afflicted the human species.^ 
 
 For 1752 it is recorded : 'In our time, the year 1752, there 
 was observed a plague among fowls here at Vienna, by which 
 an immense number were destroyed.'^ 
 
 Epizootic anthrax was prevalent in Switzerland, coinci- 
 dently with gangrenous sore-throat* and malignant pustule^ in 
 mankind ; and epidemic diseases, such as small-pox, scarlatina, 
 and anginas were common in the human species. 
 
 A.D. 1750. In Ireland the spring was dry and backwards. 
 ' Summer, except a few excessively hot days, cold, moist, and 
 winter-like,' but some days in June were the ' hottest in the 
 memory of man.' The same was recorded of July, when 
 Fahrenheit's thermometer, as on the former occasion, rose to 
 76°. A memorable fall of snow occurred on the 23rd of October. 
 November cold. ' About the middle or latter end of December, 
 the most epidemic and universally-spreading disease among 
 horses that any one living remembered, made its appearance in 
 Dublin, which seems to have been nearly analogous to the in- 
 fluenza and catarrhal fever which seized mankind in the years 
 1737 and 1743, but now particularly attacked the horses in 
 their turn, as may appear by a comparison of their respective 
 histories. It had appeared in England in November, and spread 
 through all England almost in an instant, and towards the end 
 
 1 Schnurrer. Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 316. 
 
 2 Verheyen. Diet, de Med. &c., Veterinaires. 
 •^ Plcnciz. Opera Med. Phys., vol. i. p. 15. 
 
 ■* Heckcr. Geschichte d. Neuern Heilkunde, p. 259. 
 
 * Langhans. Beschreibung Ver.sch. merkwiirdigk. d. Siementhals. Ziirich, 
 1753-
 
 History of Aninial Plagues. 385 
 
 of the month beijan to abate. It rao;ed in Denmark at the 
 same time, but it did not reach our horses in Dubhn till its de- 
 chne in England at the time before-mentioned, havinn; probably 
 been imported, and was nearly of the same duration here as in 
 England; however, it afl'ected the horses in Munster and Ulster 
 almost, if not quite, as soon as in Dublin, and there was scarce 
 an instance of a horse in town or country but had it.' It seized 
 the animals 'like a violent cold, with heaviness, loss of appetite, 
 cough, and laborious breathing, and then a profuse running at 
 the nose and mouth of a digested, or thick, yellow, greenish 
 matter, upon which they grew better. In England, as well as 
 here, it did not prove very mortal, though some died of it. The 
 death of our horses in the city was imputed rather to the use of 
 medicines and too high a diet, than to any malignity in the dis- 
 ease ; for it was observable that very few died in the country, 
 and, particularly, none that were kept at grass. It vanished 
 about the middle of January, 1751.'^ 
 
 Osmer,^ who wrote a treatise on the diseases of the horse 
 shortly after this period, alludes to the epizooty of 1750. 'Va- 
 rious were the syn)ptoms, and different the degrees of illness 
 amongst different horses. Some had a discharge of matter from 
 their eves, nose, and mouth; others had none; but in all there 
 were great tokens of inflammation, attended with a fever and a 
 violent cough. . . . Most of those horses which had a plentiful 
 discharge of matter from the nose, &c., lived ; and where such 
 discharges did not happen, nor a critical abscess fall on some 
 part, most of them in London died. . . , On many of these I 
 made several incisions in the skin, on various parts of the body ; 
 and wherever an incision was made, I found in all of them 
 a quantity of extravasated serum lodged between the skin and 
 the membranes. . . . Since the year 1750, this disease has visited 
 by turns each shed and stable, has fallen on horses of all ages at 
 various seasons of the year, and in different shapes; wherever it 
 comes I believe none escape ; and when it falls on sucking foals, 
 they are generally stunted and spoiled.' 
 
 ' Kulty. Op. cit. 
 * A Treatise on the Diseases and Lameness of Horses, 3rd edit. London, 
 1766. 
 
 25
 
 386 Histo7y of Animal Plagues. 
 
 In a later edition (the 5th), he devotes much care in describ- 
 ing the ' maHgnant fever and epidemy/ or 'distemper/ among 
 horses. He says : ' From the close observations I have possessed 
 the means of making on the various diseases of horses for many 
 years, and taking into consideration the nature, sameness, and sim- 
 plicity of theirybo^, I was long inclined to think that horses were 
 not subject to malignant disorders as men are ; but the epidem- 
 ical disease that has occasionally raged amongst them for several 
 years, and which still shows itself at short intervals, has taught 
 me the contrary. For I notice, in this disease which, I own, is 
 new to me, since the publication of my second edition, that the 
 horses so seized are attacked with a variety of symptoms that re- 
 quire each a very different treatment from every other. The 
 symptoms: The commencement of the disease is marked by great 
 debility of the limbs, so much so in some cases, that the weak- 
 ened patients reel and stagger about when led along, and that 
 almost as soon as they are taken ill. Loss of appetite comes on 
 2;enerally with a short dry cough ; the eyes become suddenly 
 dim and glazed, and lifeless; they are also particularly free from 
 all inclination to drink. Besides those general symptoms of the 
 distemper, some of which prevail more than the others, that are 
 otherwise indicative of the disease having fixed on particular 
 parts of the animal, I shall endeavour to distinguish them as 
 near as I can for the reader^s further guidance when this distem- 
 per again makes its appearance among us. First. — Besides the 
 symptoms already described, some horses are seized with coldness 
 of the external parts, are chiefly affected with a weakness behind, 
 but have no fever or other tokens of inflammation : there seems 
 to be a tendency towards a general stagnation of the fluids. 
 Second. — \x\ this class are great tokens of inflammation, the 
 fever is high, and the external parts are hot and burning; the 
 sight is affected, and the head generally so. Third. — The disease 
 falls mostly on the throat in the third species of attack, with 
 manifest tokens of great soreness there. These seldom have any 
 feverish heat, are not so much affected in their limbs or sight as 
 thoseof the frst and second classes; their appetite and inclin- 
 ation to eat, also, seems better than in these two classes. Before 
 this soreness goes off, however, the patients become miserably re- I
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 387 
 
 duced, thoujrh this fallinsi; awav oucrht not to be imputed solelv 
 to their fasting, because all horses in this disease that are at- 
 tacked severely, are thereby reduced^ in a very few days, almost 
 to the dco-ree and leanness of a do^-liorse. Foiirth class, or the 
 mild attack. — These are seized at first with a cough only, and 
 show little or no symptoms of illness, nor of any unusual heat 
 or cold, in general a discharge of a serous fluid from the nostrils 
 comes on, as in the inflammatory fever. As the patients of this 
 class are the least affected, so they recover soonest of any, and 
 that, too, with little or no assistance. Fifth. — Along with the 
 cough of the last description, some are troubled with a phlegmon 
 or boil on some part of the head or body. In such cases, if the 
 heat of the patient's body and strength be sufficient, the tumour 
 comes on to ripeness, when its bursting, or being let out with a 
 lancet, is criticalli/ a cure of the disorder. But in some poor 
 creatures, whose system mav be in a low state, the vital heat is 
 so little that their lives are manifestly endangered before the 
 tumour can be brought to a head sufficient to open by the usual 
 assistance of poultices and cherishing diet, ntal heat, however, 
 upon which depends the spontaneous termination of a large 
 class of distempered horses, deserves a moment's consideration 
 here, inasmuch as the different progress of the critical boil or 
 tumour in different horses, is owing to difference of their fuids, 
 and the more brisk or languid circulation thereof, as they happen 
 to be more or less viscid. If this be not the true cause, I beg to 
 ask from whence should arise the two extreme sensations of cold 
 and heat in different horses affected with the same epidemical 
 disease in the same stable, and, of course, under the same man- 
 agement? It may also- be here instructively remarked, that 
 those horses are most affected with cold and shivering (the pres- 
 age of death) in whose blood is found the least proportion of 
 serum.' ' 
 
 A.D. 1751. In Ireland, about December, ^ there prevailed 
 again among the horses an epidemic catarrh, being attended with 
 a running at the eyes and heaviness, with a tumour of the head, 
 limbs, and sometimes scrotum, not so general as last year, though 
 some few died.'^ The spring had been stormy and cold ; sum- 
 
 ' ly. Osmcr. A Treatise on Horses, 5t]i edit., p. 103. " Kiitty. Op. til.
 
 388 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 mer wet, except some days in June. ' The bad weather in July 
 and August was common to us and England and Germany.'^ 
 Autumn variable; winter open and foggy, 
 
 A.D. 1752. In Ireland, ' spring cold and dry, except a moist 
 May. Summer extremely wet, the herbs were remarkably larger 
 than usual, from the excessive moisture of the season. Several 
 of the grains were lean and poor, but the potatoes were good. 
 A rot appeared among the sheep at the latter end of the season, 
 and became general in the low and moist lands through most 
 parts of the kingdom.^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1753. In Ireland the weather had been very wet, and 
 caused great destruction of sheep throughout the island. 
 
 A.D. 1754. In this year glossanthrax, or a form of gangren- 
 ous sore-throat, presented itself as an epizooty among animals 
 in Hanover. 'In the year 1754, during the winter, the sheep 
 and swine, and also the geese and ducks, were attacked by dis- 
 ease and died. Their flesh was found black and loosened from 
 the bones. The intensity of the cold, which only lasted for two 
 days, was, by some people, blamed for this ; others, however, 
 blame the grass of the previous year, which the geese ate equally 
 with the cows, and the latter died in great numbers at that time. 
 The ducks certainly ate little grass, and perhaps in their case the 
 cold was the immediate cause.' ^ In Manilla, there was a severe 
 eruption of the volcano of Taal, accompanied by an earthquake, 
 which inflicted an immense amount of damao;e. The whole 
 country was enveloped in darkness, and there fell alternately 
 quantities of water and showers of calcined matter, which de- 
 stroyed plants and trees. Animals suffered greatly, and it was 
 reported that the monkeys which were not destroyed took 
 refuge in the villages.* 
 
 A.D. 1755- Earthquakes in various parts of the world. In 
 Peru, the city of Quito was destroyed in April. In May, the 
 islands of Mitylene and Madeira were much damaged, and in 
 November the great earthquake at Lisbon took place, the 
 
 ■> Rutty. Op. cit. 2 iijjjj 
 
 ' Hannov. Gen. Anzeig., 1754, also /^r'jc/^^r. Lieflandisches Landwirthschafts- 
 buch, p. 625. 
 
 * Haussniatm. Voyage en Chine, &c., vol. ii. p. 251.
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 389 
 
 distant effects of which were perceived five thousand miles 
 awav. In December other shocks were felt, and in the follow- 
 ing January these were repeated.^ From 1754 to 1757 locusts 
 swarmed in Portugal and Spain. There appears to have been 
 an epizooty among horses in Austria. 'A plague here, in 
 Austria, amongst horses, but particularly at Vienna, increased 
 during this year. It was a kind of suffocative catarrh and in- 
 flammation of the lungs, and killed a prodigious number of 
 horses.' ' In this and the following year, a cattle epizooty 
 was prevailing in Croatia and Krain.^ From the month of 
 May untd the month of September ^ekzema epizootica,' or 
 aphthous fever, was present amongst all the domestic animals 
 in Franconia. ' For several months — July, August, and Sep- 
 tember — an epizooty raged among the cattle in Bamberg, Nu- 
 remburg, and their neighbourhoods. To all appearance it was 
 not infectious. The exciting causes appeared to be general, 
 each animal being attacked independently. This malady not 
 only affected horned cattle, but also horses, swine, and sheep. 
 This was specially remarkable : the feet of the affected animals 
 became swollen, and the hoofs sloughed off". The feathered 
 tribe was not free from this malady ; the turkeys had their feet 
 so diseased that they could not walk ; they were obliged to crawl 
 on the backs of their legs. By the use of soothing remedies, 
 the feet which were before deformed and sore, so far recovered 
 that these creatures began to walk ; they regained the flesh which 
 they had lost while so crippled, notwithstanding their feeding 
 with undiminished appetites.'"* There is another description of 
 this disease. 'The first marked symptom in the affected beast 
 was a lameness or halting in the fore or hind feet, and on ex- 
 amining these the hoofs were, so to speak, under-run by matter, 
 ulcerated, hot, and swollen. The same appearances were ob- 
 served in the mouth, both sides being covered with vesicles 
 which became confluent, and left them swollen and ulcerated. 
 The tongue was covered with what seemed to be a large blister. 
 Besides these symptoms, there was marked internal fever, a great 
 
 ' Plenciz. De Terra; Motu. Vienna, 1762. 
 
 * Ibid. 0pp. Phys. Med., vol. i. p. 15. De Contagio ad finem vcrt^cnte. 
 
 "• Bottani. Op. cit., vol. vii. pp. 8, 9. * Frankisciic Sammlungcn, vol. i. p. 349.
 
 390 * History of Animal Plagices. 
 
 inclination to drink frequently, and profwse salivation. The 
 lameness and the other symptoms disappeared as the contents of 
 the vesicles was discharged, and the ulcerated surface had grown 
 healthy. Where the disease became more virulent, there also 
 appeared on the udders of some cows vesicles and abscesses, 
 and these animals recovered more slowly than the ones which 
 had been less severely attacked in the feet and mouth. The 
 most favourable circumstance connected with this disease lay in 
 the fact that no animals died from it/ ^ From the same source, 
 we learn that the inflammatory symptoms were more urgent than 
 usual, pigs in particular suffering severely, and frequently losing 
 their hoofs. ^ 
 
 At Bale, in Switzerland, sheep small-pox was prevalent. 
 ' From autumn until winter a pestilential disease .of sheep in- 
 creased in the village of Reichen. Bv inoculation, such as is 
 practised as a prophylactic in the small-pox of the human 
 species, a flock much exposed to the contagion could be rescued 
 from danger and destruction.^ ^ 
 
 This is the first time, I think, that we have a notice of 
 inoculation being employed to mitigate the effects of ovine 
 small-pox. Gasparin,* however, writing in 1821, remarks: ' In 
 Languedoc, where this malady is common, the people have 
 resorted to inoculation from time immemorial, to prevent exten- 
 sive epizootics. To this end, in September of every year, when 
 the hot weather is nearly over, and the temperature is most 
 favourable for the purpose, they take the skin of a sheep that 
 has died from small-pox, and hang it in the sheep-fold. All the 
 year's lambs, already six or eight months old, and in a condition 
 to withstand the disease, acquire it by rubbing themselves 
 against this skin ; and by this means the whole flock is insured 
 from the malady in future. 
 
 It may here be noted, that the value of inoculation was at a 
 later period frequently and carefully tested. Venel, Professor of 
 JVledicine at Montpellicr, Chretien, Thorcl,^ Tessier,*^ Coste, and 
 
 * Hoffman7i. Frankische Sammlungen, vol. i. p. 384. ^ Reuss. Ibid. p. 462. 
 ^ Zuinger. Acta Helvetica, vol. iii. p. 301. 
 
 * Gasparm. Des Maladies Contagieuses des Betes a Laine. 
 
 ^ Avis au Peuple sur le Claveau. '' Mem. de la Soc. de Medecine, 1 786.
 
 History of Anivial Plagues. 391 
 
 Lullin,^ had given their attention to it in the eighteenth century; 
 and Chaptal, Pessina, Holmaistcr/ Barbangois,^ Voison, Gueri- 
 neau/ and Grognier,^ in the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 had fully demonstrated the usefulness of this practice in certain 
 circumstances. When vaccination was introduced as a preventive 
 of human small-pox, the resemblance between the two diseases 
 led many experimenters to try its effects on sheep. Godine 
 the Younger,® and Husson,'' Gohier,* Brugnone,^ Valois,^" 
 and Chancey," all conducted careful experiments which de- 
 cisively proved the inutility of this operation as a prophylactic 
 measure. 
 
 A.D. 1756. Anthrax declared itself over a large extent of Eu- 
 rope. The winter had been mild, and the spring and summer very 
 dry and hot. In June heavy storms had been frequent. ' About 
 the middle of the past June (in Franconia) it was reported from 
 Culmbach, that in that neighbourhood a disease had appeared 
 among the game, and also extended to horned cattle. The ac- 
 counts which soon after were sent in by the local medical men, 
 conveyed the information that the cattle sickened suddenly in the 
 pastures; in some, tumours appeared in the feet, flank, neck, and 
 breast, and spread rapidly ; in others, however, swellings upon 
 the head manifested themselves, and these died in six or eight 
 hours; the others died in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. 
 The game, horses, and swine had all the same disease. Although 
 the malady had rapidly destroyed the stock, yet one could not 
 say with certainty whether it was contagious or not.' ^^ Mt was 
 not alone the game, such as deer, roes, wild boars, or hares that 
 died, but four hundred of the larger venison were found, some 
 in ditches, others in corn-fields, and some in spinnies. I have 
 
 ' Bibl. Britann. art. ' Sciences,' vol. ix. p. 398. 
 
 * Ibid. vol. xlv. p. 189. ^ Annales d' Agriculture, vol. xlvi. p. 187. 
 
 * Ibid. p. 193. ' Ibid. p. 319. 
 
 * Bibl. Britann. vol. viii. p. 204, ar/. ' Agriculture.' 
 
 ' Apnales d' Agriculture, vol. xxi. p. 73, ' Rapport de la Soc. Centrale de 
 Vaccine, 181 1.' 
 
 * Memoire sur la Vaccination, p. 94. 'Memoires,' vol. i. p. 40. 
 ' Memoria della Soc. Agraria di Torino, 1812. 
 
 '" Annales d' Agriculture, vol. iii. p. 60. 
 
 '• Bibl. Britann. art 'Agriculture,' vol. x. p. 216. 
 
 '2 IVagner. Frank. .Saminl., ii. p. 102.
 
 392- History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 myself opened one of these dead roes, and found nothing very 
 particular besides a swelling in the left hind foot or leg. These 
 animals had been known to bellow loudly and go away from the 
 forests, seeking ditches and morasses, where they lav down and 
 remained from sheer exhaustion. With the wild boars this was 
 a common occurrence, and fourteen have been found dead in one 
 place. The hares were stricken by the pest in the midst of their 
 course, and fell and died. Horses had the same symptoms as 
 the horned stock, the swellings appearing upon the thighs 
 and flanks, the breast and the head. The disease has gradually 
 disappeared, and for five days (on the 21st July) we have not 
 heard of any loss among the cattle.^ ^ This author speaks of a 
 carbuncle in a peasant. Another writer mentions what he con- 
 siders to be the causes of this epizooty. ' To my knowledge, the 
 causes of the disease may be ascribed to the perturbations in the 
 physical world. Immediately after the first thunderstorm and 
 the succeeding rain, of which there had been a dearth for some 
 weeks, this plague very generally declined, and at last disap- 
 peared The said disease spread itself from Culmbach to 
 
 Coburg, but' did not visit all the villages. From Coburg I am 
 credibly informed that a person there was attacked on the fore- 
 head by a large tumour or carbuncle, and his life was barely 
 saved by the immediate opening of the swelling.' Many people 
 were affected, and some authorities thought the malady was 
 orimnated by the bites of insects.^ 
 
 At Suhl, in the forest of Thuringia, it also caused much de- 
 struction among wild and domesticated animals.^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague appears to have been introduced into 
 Eichsfeld this year, if we may judge by the following account. 
 ^ The second misfortune for the burghers was in 1756, when a 
 destructive cattle plague {e'lne starke Fiehseuche) broke out, by 
 which most of them lost their cows. There were some who 
 lost from ten to a dozen head. The homebred cattle were in- 
 fected by beasts from Friesland which the people are accustomed 
 to purchase in the autumn. It raged until Christmas; and to 
 
 ^ Wagner. Op. cit., p. III. 
 
 2 Schmiedel. Act. Phys. Med. CoUeg. Onold. Onolzbach, 1754. 
 
 ^ Glaser. Die Knotenkrankheiten, p. 10.
 
 History of Aiiimal Plagues. 393 
 
 prevent its spread, all infected cattle or those which were sus- 
 pected, were killed immediately and deeply buried/ ^ 
 
 Sheep small-pox was prevalent in Saxony. It was noted as 
 a curious circumstance, that a flock affected with the disease was 
 turned into a garden and kept there to prevent the contagion 
 from reaching other flocks; in this garden grew a quantity of 
 pepper plants {capsicum ludicnm), and the diseased sheep feed- 
 ing on these, all recovered.'^ 
 
 In the island of Minorca, in the Mediterranean, an epizooty 
 appeared among the cattle, which caused much loss. Large 
 numbers of cows and oxen had been carried thither from Au- 
 vergne, in France, and landed in the burning months of July and 
 August. Obliged to drink tepid brackish water, these animals fell 
 into a languid and feeble state, and became rapidly emaciated ; 
 their breath felt hot, and they had sanguinary emissions with 
 their urine. When their bodies were opened, nearly all the 
 viscera of the abdomen were found in a state of inflammation or 
 gangrene. The majority of the shepherds who had charge ot 
 these herds were sick; but those who had the imprudence to 
 eat the flesh of the diseased animals were attacked by a malig- 
 nant fever, accompanied by gangrene, which manifested itself on 
 the second day at the elbows and heels.^ 
 
 A.D, 1757. A long and cold winter, succeeded by a wet 
 spring, abruptly ushered in an unusually hot summer. An 
 earthquake was felt in the island of Malta. Dysentery and 
 putrid fevers were very common in mankind in many countries. 
 In this year a small beetle, named the 'Bostrichos typographicus,' 
 made its appearance in the Hartz forests, and it is calculated 
 that, up to 1783, it destroyed a million and a half of trees — a 
 destruction of timber which nearly ruined all the inhabitants. 
 Cold damp seasons setting in, however, these insects were soon all 
 swept away.* 
 
 In Saxony, in this and the two following years, ovine 
 small-pox was yet very common and fatal ; loss of the eyes 
 
 1 y. Wolf. Geschichte u. Beschreib. dcr Stadt Duderstadt, p. 207. 
 
 2 Pnulet. Op. cit., p. 289. 
 
 ' Barberet. Memoire sur les Malad. Epizootiques, p. 27. 
 * Latreille. Nat. Hist., ch. xi.
 
 394 History of Animal Plagties. 
 
 and the lips from gangrene were quite frequent concomitants.^ 
 According to Camper,^ the French army operating in West- 
 phalia introduced the Cattle Plague to Minden. Avery peculiar 
 carbuncularepizooty appeared in France, in the province of Brie, 
 at the end of the summer and commencement of the autumn, 
 among horses, cattle, deer, asses, hogs, dogs, and fowls, and even 
 in fish.^ The malady appears to have arisen in the marshy forest 
 of Crecy, and to have raged in its vicinity to such an extent that, 
 from the 15th of June to the 31st of July, 490 animals were 
 attacked, of which 390 (162 horses, 80 oxen, 38 asses) died. 
 Many flocks of sheep perished in various cantons of Brie. Hu- 
 man beings were also affected by the disease being transmitted 
 to them. 
 
 In some places asses, in others horses, and in others, agam, 
 only cattle were affected. At one place the reporter, M. de 
 Chaignebrun, observed that bulls were more commonly affected 
 than cows; and that usually in the stables or cow-sheds where 
 the people were not careful to separate the diseased from the un- 
 affected, these became ill. The premonitory symptoms were a 
 heaviness of the head, the eyes somewhat closed, heavy, and 
 dull; pain and difficulty when at work, or in walking; suddenly 
 stopping in progression ; a particular way of turning the head ; 
 feebleness of the limbs; lassitude; a diminution of milk in cows; 
 diflficulty in breathing ; the cessation, partial or complete, of 
 rumination, &c. The disease when fully declared was marked 
 by stupor; the eyes were extremely sunken, dull, purulent, and 
 tearful ; the ears more or less drooping, the head carried near 
 the ground, and the body unsteady and sinking. They 
 flexed the thighs; pawed, and appeared uneasy and in pain. 
 The respiration was hurried ; the flanks beat violently ; they 
 either lay down or attempted to do so ; the beatings of the heart 
 were loudly heard ; some had symptoms of colic, moaned, and 
 refused to eat their food. The most remarkable symptom, and 
 that which characterized this disease in particular, was the form- 
 
 1 Fink. Pockenkrankheit d. S chafe, p. i. 
 - Camper. Von der Viehseuche, p. 67. 
 
 ^ A. de Chatgneb>-un. Relation d'une Maladie Epidemique et Contagieuse, 
 &c. Paris, 1762.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 395 
 
 ation of large swellings or tumours — two, three, four, five, or six, 
 and even more — on diflbrent parts of the body. These tumours 
 either adjoined each other, or communicated by a kind of cord. 
 They ordinarily appeared on the throat, the neck, the breast, or 
 the inferior parts of the chest and belly, the scrotum or sheath, 
 or within the thighs. They also appeared about the eyes, the 
 jaws, on the lips, the shoulders, the haunches, and on the 
 sides of the chest and abdomen. They were more or less indo- 
 lent, and so little endowed with sensibility that in handling them 
 the animals exhibited no pain. The impression of the fingers 
 remained on them for some time, and when they were opened a 
 serous fluid, more or less abundant, and of a reddish yellow or 
 bloody colour, escaped. The subcutaneous cellular tissue was 
 spongy and distended with a yellow glairy matter resembling old 
 and rancid lard. It was also sometimes of a pale red tint, similar 
 to the feeble granulations of certain ulcers; and showed hydatids or 
 small vesicles. The cellular tissue, and with it the adipose layers, 
 were the textures chiefly affected, and after them the glands. This 
 accounted for fat animals being more commonly attacked than 
 lean ones, and for the tumours appearing so often in certain situ- 
 ations ; it was not because the humour gravitated to the depend- 
 ent parts, as the vulgar and the farriers supposed, but because the 
 cellular tissue contained more fat, was more elastic, and less 
 compact and resisting than other textures; this also explained 
 the sudden formation of these tumours, as well as their metastasis 
 from one part to another. After the excision of these swell- 
 ings, the flesh, of a bright red colour at the time of extirpation, 
 became in some days yellow, then dead livid, blue, or black, form- 
 ing a large eschar without caustic. They were regarded as buboes 
 if they attacked the glands, and as carbuncles when they appear- 
 ed elsewhere. The blood drawn from the animals attacked, or 
 even from those bled as a precautionary measure, bubbled more or 
 less, and was thick and viscid ; its colour varied much. The dis- 
 tress the animals manifested was very great; notwithstanding 
 tluMr violent throes, they yet seemed, by their agony, their moans, 
 and their docility, to ask assistance. The majority of them in- 
 dicated the seat of pain by turning their heads towards the af- 
 fected side. Some of the attacked died all at once, or in less
 
 39^ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 than twenty-four hours. The result of numerous autopsies 
 showed that in those which had been diseased in the breast and 
 which had died^ the greatest changes were found in the chest; 
 that in those which during Hfe had been affected on the exterior 
 of the abdomen, about the generative organs, or inside the thighs, 
 the interior of the abdomen exhibited these alterations more par- 
 ticularly ; while in those animals which had succumbed, but in 
 which no tumours had been visible, engorgements and effusions 
 in different cavities were discovered. The author of this report 
 very sensibly draws a distinction between this epizooty and the 
 Cattle Plague. The majority of the creatures affected by this 
 malady did not cease eating or drinking until they were very 
 ill, or nearly dead; usually there was no discharge from the mouth 
 or nostrils, and these parts were in their natural condition; there 
 was no diarrhoea nor dysentery ; no fever was perceptible until the 
 malady was far advanced and death near; sometimes the urine 
 was high-coloured and bloody. 
 
 The causes of the epizooty were supposed to be these : The 
 winter of 1756 was boisterous and long; the spring of 1757 was 
 very wet; and when the disease showed itself in the summer, the 
 heat had been sudden and excessive, the water in the ponds warm, 
 muddy, and corrupted. It manifested itself in the parishes 
 nearest to the forest of Crecy; this forest is very marshy and full 
 of insects. Saddle-horses were less exposed to attack than others. 
 The hay and oats of 1756 were bad. The disease first showed 
 itself among the animals depastured among the ponds, marshes, 
 and stagnant waters in the forest, which was regarded as the 
 primitive source of the pest. The real or exciting cause, how- 
 ever, was not so easily made out. 
 
 The remedial measures adopted do not offer anything worthy 
 of notice. The preservative ones were those applicable to a 
 contagious disease. 
 
 The same kind of maladv which had reigned in Franconia the 
 preceding year had disappeared very suddenly in this; neverthe- 
 less, this class of epizootics appears to have been very frequent 
 during the year. Esthonia and Livonia were so visited. ' In the 
 middle of July, intelligence was received from the circle of Dorpat 
 that there, as well as in the circle of Revel, a virulent disease
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 397 
 
 among horses had shown itself, and which in the Dorpat district 
 alone had destroyed 1500 horses in the course of eleven weeks. 
 After rain had fallen the malady ceased. What is more, about 
 the beginning of August the cattle there began to sufi'er, and 
 soon after we had tidings from the town of Riga, and from the 
 district of Kirchholm, that a cattle plague had broken out there, 
 but it differed from that of 1748/ ^ 
 
 Finland was also subjected to the ravages of a similar malady, 
 though the reporter confounds the disease with the Cattle Plague ; 
 but the description of the symptoms, as well as the fact that many 
 men were infected by the sick animals, shows this opinion to be 
 erroneous. 'There died, apparently from the intolerable heat of 
 the weather and from the dry summer, an incredible number of 
 horses, and some cattle, especially around Tawastehuus, as also 
 in the parishes of Janacala, Wana, Huttula, and Sekmake, where 
 many hundred head perished in each. Here around Abo it was 
 most severe amongst the cattle, particularly in the parishes of 
 Vehmo and Virmo. The greater the drought and heat of the 
 summer, so the more deadly was the malady. If the cattle were 
 deprived of water in the fields where there was no shelter, and 
 exposed to the heat of the sun, or kept on marshy pastures where 
 the water was corrupted, and where their food was covered with 
 mud or slime, then the plague was all the more dangerous. 
 When healthy cattle were put on pasture where others had died 
 and lay exposed or were improperly buried, they became stricken. 
 It has been observed, that on those pastures which for some parts 
 of the year are submerged, and have afterwards been dried up, the 
 herbage is covered with mud ; this is very obnoxious to health, 
 and causes dysentery in the animals eating it. It is also well 
 known what a stench meadow-caterpillars {grasrmipen) cause, and 
 they were very common here; besides, it is a matter of observa- 
 tion that myriads of vermin take up their abode in marshes and 
 quagmires, which in long-continued drought are dried up and 
 leave all these creatures to rot on their surface, and to taint the 
 air as much as the stagnant water does. In addition to all this, 
 such creatures as aphides and catcrj^illars, which so increase 
 
 ' Fischer. Op. cit., p. 447.
 
 398 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 in dry hot summers, exaggerate the general unhealthiness. This 
 accounts for the plague not being in all places a contagious dis- 
 ease; for it was proved that cattle were not attacked where they 
 had shelter, good pasture, and good water, of which this year 
 in many places there was a great scarcity.'^ It was most severe 
 in July, the hottest month of the year. 
 
 The malady passed from Finland to Russia. Its contagious 
 properties, in passing from one animal to another of the same 
 species, were very marked; but still more so was the facility with 
 which it could be transmitted to beings of quite a different 
 species. Hartmann enters fully into details concerning cases 
 in which men who had imprudently come in contact with the 
 diseased beasts, or wore articles which contained the virus from 
 them, were seriously affected. 
 
 A.D. 1758. In England the winter was very severe, and 
 a comet was visible. A shock of earthquake was experienced 
 in the Azores. On the Continent the winter was mild, and the 
 summer damp in Germany and the South ; in northern countries 
 the same season was very hot. Mankind suffered from catarrhal 
 and petechial fevers, and in France and Ireland from gangrenous 
 sore-throat. According to Albrecht, in Cobur'g and Franconia 
 an epizooty of gastro-enteritis appeared in the bovine species, 
 caused, it was surmised, by the bad quality of the forage.^ The 
 previous year a cattle epizooty had appeared in Austria, and on the 
 26th of April this year glossanthrax was announced in Verona, 
 from whence it soon spread. The Sanitary Council of Venice 
 notices it as follows : 'This disease, which is always preceded by 
 the formation of one or more vesicles at the internal orifice of 
 the anus, demands the inculcation of the strictest attention on 
 the part of the villagers, in order to avert fatal consequences, 
 such as have followed its appearance in the Valley del Sole, 
 Pieve di Ossana.' On the 22nd of June it had reached Ge- 
 novesato. For the i6th of December it is noticed : 'The diffu- 
 sion of the cor/'o/?^ volante, or "black disease" [mal nero), called 
 
 1 Hartmann. Abhandlung die Kon Schwed. Akad., vol. xx. p. 47. A brief 
 noticeof this epizooty and Hartmann's observations will be found in the Annual 
 Register {qx 1761, p. 122. 
 
 2 Albrecht. Nov. Act. Nat. Cur., vol. ii. p. 2S9.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 399 
 
 also morlnno, has extended to the district of Borgo Taro, on the 
 borders of Parmegiano and Fiaccntino. Should there be ob- 
 served at anytime the slightest sign of lameness, or if the disease 
 should manifest itself along with this symptom, it may be the 
 more readily recognized by a swelling which soon spreads, and 
 in the middle of which is discovered a tumour the size of a nut, 
 soft to the touch, and disappears on pressure;' On the 29th of 
 March, 1759, there is mention of its presence. 'A joint notice 
 has been given to every town and village in the Valley of Telina, 
 and latterly the district of Tirano, that there has manifested 
 itself a disease similar to that of 1732, and which consists in 
 vesicles or ulcers above and below the tono-ue of the cattle, and 
 which maladv is named cancro volante (or flying cancer), be- 
 cause of the velocity with which it travels from one rejiion to 
 another. Should it appear, with the help of Providence it may 
 be made to pass lightly by ; for if not able to prevent its attacks, 
 we may at least, by judicious treatment, cure that which, if 
 neglected, would produce the most sinister effects.' ^ 
 
 The reindeer in Lapland appear to have suffered from a kind 
 of aphthous disease in the feet. ' The reindeer have at this time 
 (July) suffered from a disease which is called ''Slubbo,'' and 
 which showed itself during the whole summer, but not so gen- 
 erally. The feet become enlarged, swollen, and suppurate. The 
 disease is not in itself very deadly, but it is dangerous, inasmuch 
 as the animals are so lame that they cannot escape from the 
 destructive claws of the wolves.'^ 
 
 But at this time, another more deadly pestilence appears t(^ 
 have decimated the herds of these most useful animals, and 
 which there can be no doubt was the Cattle Plague, trausmitted 
 from the bovine to the cervine species, as that contagion was 
 then raging in Sweden and Norway. The coincidence of the 
 two diseases — ekzcmatous fever and Cattle Plao;ue — as we will 
 see hereafter, has been often observed. Among the Lapps, the 
 Plague was named ' Radok tauta' or ' Radok mainc.' It spread 
 over the whole south-western portion of the country, and caused 
 such havoc, that many of the people, who jireviously were very 
 
 ' Botlaiii. (Jp. cit., vol. iii. p. 12— 14. 
 ' Weglius. Abhandl. der Schwed. Akad., vol. xi. p. 226.
 
 400 
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 wealthy In possessing immense herds of these creatures, were 
 reduced to extreme poverty. The writer who describes it was 
 perfectly convinced that this reindeer plague was the same as 
 that which attacked the cattle in 1750-51, and which came by 
 infection from Norway to Jemtland. He gives the following 
 account of it: 'The symptoms are — the head is drooping, the 
 mouth feels dry, the horns are cold, and sometimes there is 
 great shivering or nervous twitchings; the eyes are watery, 
 and the tears flow; there is a watery mucus discharge from 
 the nose ; the saliva is viscid, profuse, and dribbling from the 
 mouth, which is covered internally with dark-blue or black 
 spots, and its whole lining membrane is of a dusky colour. 
 The animals have constipation. When the disease has reached 
 its heio-ht the eyes becjin to suppurate, and the mucus is viscid, 
 purulent, and foul-smelling, and sometimes tinged with blood; 
 the mouth becomes perfectly black, with spots, bladders, and 
 pimples, and the odour from it is very offensive; the breath- 
 ing is slow and heavy, and the desire to eat and to ruminate 
 is lost; they stand trembling upon their feet; the eyeballs be- 
 come green, and the beasts stagger and drag themselves along 
 the fields without eating or drinking; they cough and snort a 
 good deal, until at last, after a few weeks, they die. On an 
 examination of those which perish in this way, the throat, 
 bowels, liver, and other viscera are found black and red- 
 coloured, from gangrene. The lungs are observed to be 
 wasted.'^ 
 
 Its contagious properties were undoubted, and it sufficed to 
 put a healthy reindeer in the harness of a diseased one, or to 
 milk a female deer, yet unaffected, with the same hand which 
 had milked a sick one, to produce the malady. Even those deer 
 which happened to smell at the urine or the excrement of the 
 infected were promptly attacked. It was then important, accord- 
 ing to this author, to keep apart the healthy, and to burn around 
 them juniper branches, taking care even to exclude the people 
 who looked after the sick animals. It was also necessary to inter 
 the dead in deep pits without skinning them, and to have these 
 graves far from the roads pursued by reindeer yet unaffected. 
 1 Gissler. Abliandl. der Schwed. Akad., vol. xxi. 286.
 
 History of Anivial Plagues. 401 
 
 Influenza appeared in Stirlingshire, and in the north of 
 Scotland^ in the months of September and October, and horses 
 seem to have been affected ^ with a cold and a cough ' at the 
 onset of the attack in nian.^ Vast numbers of horses died 
 during this year in London and neighbourhood, from an epi- 
 zooty." Probably it was this ' influenza/ 
 
 It has been remarked that in these years the Cattle Plao;ue 
 was repeatedly imported into the Prussian States, but without be- 
 coming general.'' 
 
 A.D. 1759. Three comets were seen this year, and an earth- 
 quake was reported, which was severely felt at Balbek, and 
 destroyed Tripoli, in December. An epidemy in Peru, com- 
 mencing in the same way and place as that of 1720. 'Dogs 
 partook of the disorder, and they might be seen stretched in the 
 streets without ability to stand on their feet; yet it was observed 
 of them, as of well-con stitutioned men, that though many 
 sufl^ered, few dicd.'^ 
 
 From the 3rd of September of this year to the 9th of April, 
 1 761, an epizooty appeared amongst cattle in Austria, and 
 gradually extended through the whole of the provinces of the 
 State of Venice.^ Heusinger thinks that it was in all probability 
 a pulmonic affection.'' 
 
 A.D. 1760. An eruption of Mount Vesuvius and an earth- 
 quake in Syria. The winter was extremely cold, especially in 
 the north, and the summer was very hot and dry. Pestilence in 
 mankind raoed in Cartha2:ena in the form of tertian fever. The 
 Ottoman empire also suffered severely from plague. In the river 
 Dive, in the department of Calvados, France, an epizootic dis- 
 ease was observed amongst the fish. ' Since the year 1760, there 
 have been observed two or three kinds of epizootic diseases amongst 
 the fish in the river Dive. The mortality has not been general, 
 it is true; but besides those which have perished, the greater 
 portion were sickly and weak, and floated on the surface of the 
 
 1 R. Whytt. Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. ii. p. 192. 
 
 2 Bascome. Op. cit., p. 128. 
 
 * Beitrage z. Gescliichte d. Viehs. in d. Mark. Brandenburg, p. 31. 
 
 * Dr Unanue. Sobre el Clima de Lima. Trans. Epid. Soc, vol. ii. 
 
 * Bollani. Op. cit., vol. iii. p. 21—64. 
 
 * ITeushigcr. Rcchcrches, &c., vol. ii. p. 234. 
 
 26
 
 402 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 water, where they were easily captured. Their gills were pale, 
 and the flesh of those which were cut up was of the same colour. 
 This epizooty may have occurred oftener than once without at- 
 tracting much attention. It was manifested at the end of the 
 summer over a space of from four to five leagues from HofFot, in 
 Auge, to Froarn, and exclusively below that village; there were 
 found dead salmon here and there, as well as pike, and the banks 
 of the river were covered with plaice and other fish. It was easy 
 to find the cause of this mortality in the bad quality of the water, 
 which, after having lain stagnant in the neighbouring marshes, 
 and having become corrupted, communicated its bad qualities to 
 that in the river. For it is worthy of remark, that this diseased 
 condition of the fish only takes place in those years when, in the 
 month of August, there are abundant showers, and when the 
 superabundance of water causes the Dive to overflow its banks. 
 In addition to this, the surface of the adjoining prairies is very 
 low, so that when they are flooded the plants growing on them 
 become macerated, and the heat of the season adds to these cir- 
 cumstances a new intensity ; it is not to be wondered at, then, 
 that this putrid liquid should communicate to the waters of this 
 river unhealthy qualities when it begins to flow back to its original 
 channel, and render them so poisonous as to occasion the death 
 of the fish.^ ^ 
 
 In Switzerland, an epizootic disease of a carbuncular nature 
 appeared amongst cattle and horses, and which the people termed 
 'Louvet' or 'Lovet.' It caused much loss. Whenever an ox 
 was seized with the disease it lost its strength, began to tremble 
 and lie down, not seeking to rise but very rarely. The head 
 was carried low, and the ears were pendulous ; there was great 
 dulness; the eyes were red and tearful; the skin hot and dry; 
 respiration was quickened and difficult, accompanied with heav- 
 ing at the flanks when the disease had made considerable pro- 
 o-ress ; there was a frequent cough ; the pulse accelerated and 
 strong; the breath fetid ; the tongue and the palate arid and in 
 the latter stages black ; the thirst considerable. Cessation of the 
 appetite and of rumination : the urine scant, and when passed, 
 
 1 Adam ; Chabert, &c. Instructions and Observations, vol. iii. p. 331.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 403 
 
 which was but seldom, it was reddish-coloured ; the faeces were 
 hard and black, though at the beginning they were sometimes 
 liquid and bloody. Cows gave no milk. In many of the 
 animals inflammatory tumours formed now on the chest, now 
 on the udder and the generative organs, and at other times an 
 eruption of boils accompanied by pustules appeared all over the 
 body. It was rare to witness all these symptoms in the same 
 subject, but the more numerous they were the greater was the 
 danger. Usually recovery or death was decided by the fourth 
 dav. When this day was passed and the seventh reached, if the 
 animal still looked cheerful it generally recovered, although the 
 convalescent sta2;e mijrht not be arrived at before the fifteenth 
 day. Then the urine, when retained in a vessel, was found to 
 deposit a white sediment : the excrements were more abundant 
 than in the natural state, softer and less fetid, the skin moist 
 and relaxed; the tumours became filled with a white pus; the 
 appetite returned, rumination was resumed, and depilation of the 
 skin — all these were the happy signs of recovery. When the 
 result was to be otherwise, the abdomen began to swell, the ani- 
 mal groaned loudly, the debility Increased, tremblings set in, 
 with convulsions ; and there was retention of the urine, diarrhoea, 
 and dysentery. On opening the dead bodies, there were found 
 black tumours full of a yellow serosity, which effervesced with 
 acids; the flesh was livid and approaching putrefaction; the 
 lungs withered-looking and full of tubercles or small abscesses, 
 particularly in beasts which had died on the fourth day; the 
 stomach and the intestines were spotted by red patches and full 
 of viscid mucus. Opening the tumours with a razor, and scari- 
 fying them around their margins, was the most advantageous 
 local treatment.^ In Caldiero, in Italy, an epizooty of glossan- 
 thrax, or perhaps ekzevia epizootica} The latter disease mani- 
 fested itself in Upper Lausitz.^ 
 
 In Cleveland, in the county of York, in the months of 
 February and March, scarlatina, complicated sometimes with 
 malignant sore-throat, was epidemical in the human species. 
 
 ^ Regnier. Paulet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 22S. 
 2 Bottani. Op. cit., vol. iii. p. 38. 
 ' Ruvipelt. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 272,
 
 404 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 At the same time an epizocity manifested itself amongst horses, 
 which affected, it is supposed, every animal in the locality, and 
 with symptoms very similar to those observed in mankind. The 
 malady only remained in the neighbourhood for from eight to 
 ten days. It was remarkable for its brief duration, and for its 
 not having extended beyond the district, according to Heusinger 
 and Verheyen. 
 
 Its localization is, however, a mistake, for it appears it was 
 wide-spread. For instance, it was prevalent and very fatal among 
 horses in London in January, as the Chronicle of the Annual 
 Register for that month says, * A distemper which rages amongst 
 the horses makes great havoc in and about town. Near 100 died 
 in one week.^ A good description of the Cleveland epizooty is 
 given by Bisset.^ 
 
 Rutty, in Dublin, records that ' It was one of the wettest 
 autumns in the memory of man, and yet remarkably healthy. 
 Ophthalmia prevailed during the N.E. winds in April, and an 
 epizooty among horses at the same time, of the nature of an epi- 
 demic catarrhal fever, which took its rise in the winter,and was also 
 common to other parts of Europe.' ' It raged in London and other 
 parts of England in January, February, and March, and seized our 
 horses in Dublin at the end of March, moving westward, as 
 other epidemics frequently do, and on the 4th of April it was 
 become general in this city, and continued till the end of that 
 month, when most of our horses were recovering, although some 
 remains of the disease appeared in June, aiid even July the 17th, 
 in the coughs and broken wind attending some of them in con- 
 sequence of the disorder. The distemper is said to have been 
 more severe in the north than in the south. The mules also 
 received the infection.' Rutty, tracing this epizooty to an epi- 
 demic constitution of the atmosphere, and apprehending a connec- 
 tion between it and influenza and other human epidemies, writes, 
 ' In 1727 there was an epidemic catarrh among our horses here, 
 which also travelled hither from England, and, moreover, preceded 
 a like disorder, viz. a cough and sore-throats among men, even 
 as at Edinburgh before the catarrhal fever in 1732 5 their horses 
 
 ^ Bisset. Med. Constitution of Great Britain, p. 237.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 405 
 
 had been previously affected. Again in the cold and dry spring, 
 1742, was an epidemic catarrh among the horses at Plymouth 
 and here. In Ma}?, 1746 (the preceding part of the spring cold), 
 was an epidemic cough among horses, and chlncoughs and 
 tumours of the parotids among men. In December, 175°? ^^'^^ 
 an universal catarrhal fever among horses, rather more severe 
 than this of the present year, 1760, which also travelled from 
 England; and the like in December and January, 175^? '^^^^^ 
 among mankind, coughs and inflammations of the face, eyes, 
 and gums, at the same time. And (subsequently) many of the 
 labourins: horses who had this disorder suffered so much in their 
 eyes as to have become blind,' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1761. In the month of April, volcanic eruptions and a 
 great shock of earthquake in the Azores, Plenclz observes : 
 ' The winter was mild and damp ; with the departing wintry cold, 
 frequent and abundant rains fell, such as to overwhelm not only 
 Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Styria, Carlnthia, and Bavaria, but 
 other countries, with inundations and overflowings of rivers, lakes, 
 and streams. Great heat and drought followed this rainy 
 weather, which lasted for the whole summer. At length a very 
 moist autumn succeeded, accompanied by dense and perpetual 
 clouds, till about the beginning of December, when a very hard 
 and severe frost set in in the region of the Danube.' " In the 
 Northern States of America, a severe epidemy of catarrh or in- 
 fluenza raged in the spring, and this malady, towards the sum- 
 mer and autumn, changed its character to, or was succeeded by, 
 maliirnant yellow fever, which extended itself to the West Indies.^ 
 
 In Boulonnals, France, rot in sheep manifested itself as 
 a consequence, apparently, of the inundations in the winter 
 and spring-time. The physician Desmars writes : ^Animals and 
 vegetables were not exempt from the influences of the air; it 
 was remarked that calves and. lambs were fewer, feebler, and 
 smaller than in ordinary years; oviparous creatures also experi- 
 enced the vicious effects of the atmospherical constitution, for the 
 broods of partridges were a failure, and game was not plentiful. 
 The crops were very indifferent, the cars of corn being blighted, 
 
 1 Rutly. Op. cit. 
 ''■ rUnciz. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 206. •' Bascomc. Op. cit., p. 130.
 
 40 5 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and there were hardly any raisin fruits. The disease in sheep 
 began towards the end of October of the year 1761, and con- 
 tinued during the winter and until the middle of the spring-time. 
 Its ravages were greater in the months of January and February 
 than in those preceding this period^ and they gradually dimin- 
 ished in March and April. In the low^ damp, marshy cantons, 
 such as those of Bainctun, Carly, Esques, and in general in all 
 those which were inundated till the month of May, 1761, the 
 greatest losses were suffered ; while in those localities which are 
 elevated, dry, and sandy, such as the Dunes of Camiers, Danes, 
 and Ambleteuse, the flocks usually escaped the disease. The 
 lambs were much more liable to it than the ewes. Of all those 
 which were manifestly attacked, but few, if any, escaped. They 
 died from dropsy and rot {pourriture). Water was often found 
 between the skin and flesh of the head. The malady announced 
 itself by bags full of water beneath the lower jaw. The belly 
 was also filled with a similar effusion. The principal viscera 
 of the abdomen were corrupted, and the liver offered the 
 strongest indications of the affection, being filled with a great 
 quantity of flat worms which the country people called dogiies. 
 It was noticed that the sheep continued to eat and drink 
 heartily enough, and that they licked the walls of their sheds/ 
 and ate the earth. Their bulk did not diminish much, but 
 their flesh was pale, and had lost its ordinary flavour ; and in 
 general all the mutton which had been eaten during autumn 
 and winter was very insipid. The other beasts, such as horses, 
 cows, and pigs, were not attacked by this disease, but abortions 
 were very frequent amongst them, and obstinate inflammations 
 {feux opini aires, erysipelatous affections?). With regard to the- 
 human species, the mortality was no greater than in the preced- 
 ing years, although the autumn had been remarkable for the 
 great number of tertiary fevers which occurred in the damp 
 cantons.'^ 
 
 In some districts of France, ovine small-pox broke out; 
 and in Lower Normandy glossanthrax destroyed many thou- 
 sands of cattle ; while in Austria an epizooty appeared amongst 
 
 1 Desmars. Mem. sur la Mortalite des Moutons en Boulonnais. Epidemiques 
 d'Hippocrate. Paris, 1767. P. 2S9.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 407 
 
 horned beasts, and in some places even attacked horses and 
 sheep. Plenciz thought it was Cattle Plague, but Heusinger at- 
 tempts to show that this was a mistake; and that, according to 
 Plenciz^s own description, it was more than one disease, and con- 
 sisted in an epizooty of anthrax, and another of 'ekzema epizoo- 
 tica,' or of glossanthrax.^ The usual symptoms were loss of 
 appetite, and sometimes an unappeasable thirst; the eyes were 
 dull and heavy; the tongue and all the interior of the mouth ap- 
 parently ulcerated; bad smelling discharges from the nostrils; no 
 rumination, and absence of milk in cows. The majority were 
 attacked by diarrhoea, and the dejecture were not unfrequently 
 mixed with blood. Others had constipation, followed by a tym- 
 panitic state of the abdomen. The tongue became black and 
 dr)' ; the respiration difficult ; gangrene attacked the back parts 
 of the throat, and an apoplectic seizure usually preceded death. 
 The autopsies were badly made ; the author speaks of having con- 
 stantly found vomicae and abscesses in some of the viscera of the 
 cJiest or abdomen, or in the brain — a result of metastasis. The 
 disease, or rather diseases were supposed to be due to the ingestion 
 of animalculae, or their germs, which had been swallowed on the 
 herbs the animals had eaten and in the water they drank. These 
 germs became developed in their bodies and produced the disorder. 
 To support this view, the hypotheses of Italian and Danish 
 physicians are referred to, and numerous examples are given ; 
 by means of the microscope, Dcsmars thought he had discovered 
 these germs and animalcules in an abscess newly opened. He 
 strongly insists on the contagious character of the malady and the 
 dangers of infection. ' Sana animaUa caveant a pascuis, aqua, 
 faiio, stramine, item ah omni supellectili, ([iio lue affecta animalia 
 utehantiir.' Dogs and men were liable to carry the v-irus from 
 the diseased creatures, and this was a most important matter. 
 ' Quotid'iand constat experieiitid tain ah hominihus quam a canihus 
 cum hohus lue affectis commorantihus, facile ad hoves et asinos 
 idem contagium transportarl et iisdem communicari posse, Indefit 
 ut ah illis qui sanitati puhlicce invigilare detent, hoc in casu certce 
 capiantur cautelce.' ^ 
 
 ' Heusinger. Op. cit., p. 237. 
 
 2 Plenciz. Medici Tractus de Contaglo, scu Jc Luc Bovina ad finem Vergente, 
 1761, Epidcraice grassanle. 1762.
 
 40 8 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ' This is probably the distemper mentioned as prevaihng among 
 horned cattle in Germany in the Medico-Philosophical Memoirs, 
 wherein it is noted, that, in consequence of people having died 
 from drinking the milk, the magistrates had interdicted the use 
 of that article during the prevalence of the epizooty. We are left 
 in much doubt, however, as to the nature of the malady described 
 by Plenciz, and altogether perhaps incline to the opinion that it 
 was the Cattle Plague affecting oxen and sheep, occurring coin- 
 cidently, as in 1745, with some epizooty in horses. 
 
 Anthrax was prevalent in Kitzingen, Franconia, amongst 
 cattle ; and in Livonia and Esthonia the same disease attacked 
 cattle and horses.^ 
 
 In this year, there began a great epizooty amongst dogs, 
 which appears to have been what is since vulgarly termed ' dis- 
 temper^ [muladie des chlens, morve des chiens, in France, and 
 in Germany liundestanpe, and Jmndeseiiche). Before this period 
 it appears to have been very rare, or almost unknown, and 
 since its outbreak at that time it has lingered amongst the 
 canine species to this day. It seems to have been first noted in 
 Spain. ' In this year there was observed at Madrid a deadly 
 epizooty amongst dogs, which spread over the whole kingdom, 
 but without affecting any other species of animals.^ ^ In 1763, 
 according to Webster,^ nine hundred doo;s had died at Madrid 
 alone, and in this year it is supposed that the malady had reached 
 England, where, many years after, it was studied by Mr Darwin 
 and Mr E. Jenner. The latter, writing in 1809, says: 'It may 
 be difficult, perhaps, to ascertain the period of its first appearance 
 in Britain, In this and the neighbouring counties I have not 
 been able to trace it back much beyond _the middle of the last 
 century. .• . . I knew a gentleman, who, about forty-five years 
 aeio, destroyed the greater part of his hounds, from supposing 
 them mad, when the distemper first broke out among them, so 
 little was it then known of those the most conversant with dogs.'* 
 As Heusinger remarks, it is very probable that, in its commence- 
 
 1 Fischer. Op. cit., p. 462. 
 
 2 Villalba. Epidemiologia Espanola, vol. ii. p. 219. 
 
 3 Webster. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 412. 
 
 * Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. i. p. 265.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 409 
 
 mentj the malady may have been mistaken for rabies, as Mr .Tenner 
 notices ; and If such be admitted, then it is most Hkely that this 
 distemper was in London as early as 1760, which would show 
 that it extended from west to east; for according to Layard, 
 'in the year 1759 and 1760, madness raged among dogs in 
 London and its neighbourhood, in consequence of the mild 
 winter and early spring.' ^ 
 
 It appears to have reached Ireland at a later period, as 
 Dr Rutty in 1764 notices this plague among the dogs at Done- 
 raile, County Cork. 'The symptoms are a great discharge 
 of a gleety humour from the nose and eyes; a difficulty of 
 breathing; a violent beating of the heart, also convulsions, and 
 great weakness in the back and hind legs. It is infectious, and 
 seems to resemble the late murrain among; the black cattle in 
 England.' - The disease appears also to have manifested itself 
 near Dublin. ' Several dogs in and about the city and county 
 of Dublin have been seized with the disorder, which proved fatal 
 to many of them.' ^ 
 
 And in America, about the year 1760, a disease was observed 
 in dogs. 'About twenty-five years past an epidemic distemper 
 prevailed among dogs, and occasioned a great mortality.'* In 
 1763 it broke out at Boulonnais, in France, in consequence, it 
 was said, of its having been carried from England ; and towards 
 the end of the year it had shown itself in the royal kennels at 
 Versailles^ and, indeed, over the whole of France, where it con- 
 tinued during the three following years. Desmars^ witnessed its 
 effects at Boulogne, and described its symptoms; but the veter- 
 inarians 'who investigated the nature of the eplzouty in the royal 
 kennels at Yanville, in France, give us a much better account 
 of it. 'At the end of the year 1763, and during 1764, there 
 appeared in France and the neighbouring countries, an epidemic 
 disease affecting every variety of the dog species. It had begun 
 in England. Two maladies, or two forms of the one disease, 
 
 > Layard. An Essay on the IJitc of a Mad Dog. London, 1763. 
 "^ Letter from Surgeon Wetlierall to.Dr Rutty in the ' Repository.' 
 ^ Letter from Dr James to Dr Rutty, also in the ' Repository.' 
 * Memoirs of the American Academy of Sciences, vol. i. p. 529. 
 ' Dcsinars. Lettre sur la Mortahte de Chiens en 1763. Epidemiques d'llip- 
 pocratc, p. 316.
 
 41 o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 were distinguished. The first^ attacking the throat, was accom- 
 panied with a very bad cough and fever; after coughing, the 
 animals vomited a quantity of white mucus by the mouth, and 
 purulent matter was discharged from the nostrils. The second 
 was the worst and most dangerous : the dogs were seized with a 
 violent fever; their heads seemed so heavy that they could 
 scarcely carry them ; they all at once lost their ability to move, 
 and they were unable to raise themselves on their straw ; they 
 discharcred much sanious matter from their nostrils, and had 
 convulsions similar to those of epilepsy. They seized and bit 
 their straw as if they had been mad, and the moment after they 
 fell into a lethargy ; convulsions followed, and at last they died 
 between the alternating attacks of convulsions and prostration. 
 Some were so quickly and violently seized, that they perished be- 
 tween the morning and the evening without its having been pos- 
 sible to administer to them either nourishment or medicine. Of 
 the small number of those which were cured some became blind, 
 the others were paralyzed in their hinder extremities ; some reeled 
 as if intoxicated, and, with the exception of a very small pro- 
 portion, these have remained feeble in their limbs How 
 
 is it possible to find remedies for a malady which is unknown, 
 
 and of which we have never heard speak? It is only when the 
 
 dead animals are opened that it has been remarked that the 
 
 blood is altered and the lungs full of pus. This contagion was 
 
 very deadly. For six weeks it abated, then for a year it raged 
 
 severely. It destroyed entire packs of hounds. In the kennels 
 
 of the King more than 300 dogs, old and young, perished. Out 
 
 of 120, which formed a small pack, one day only 32 could 
 
 be mustered for the hunt; all the others were dead or sick. 
 
 The huntsmen flattered themselves that in buying dogs from all 
 
 quarters the malady would not reappear, yet it manifested itself 
 
 at three different times. Only 15 dogs were lost at each of 
 
 these attacks. A year after there was another visitation, which 
 
 killed more than 60 hounds of the large pack; and out of 140 on 
 
 the list, only two were unaffected. Very many of those which 
 
 did not die were useless for hunting, and at the most only about 
 
 70 were saved. This last attack did not last long, but it was so 
 
 severe, that in less than three days 30 dogs were lost. The
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 411 
 
 animals^ on becoming sick, discharged blood by the nose and 
 mouth, and so dreadful was the odour given off by them, that 
 the stench from their kennels was insupportable ; indeed^ they 
 were rotten before they were dead, 
 
 'At our suggestion, in 1768, the kennels w^re paved, 
 thoroughly repaired, cleansed, and washed with quicklime, and 
 thrown open for three months. After that time, other hounds 
 were kept in them; and so well did they thrive, that in 1769 
 there were more than 100 in good health. It was then imagined 
 that at last the means of preserving them in fine condition had 
 been discovered ; but at the end of the month of June following 
 the disease reappeared, and destroyed the whole in less than six 
 weeks. The kennels remained empty during the year 1770, and 
 they were again whitewashed with lime; at the commencement 
 of 1 77 1 the bitch hounds were put in them to pup, and although 
 since that time the puppies have been more fortunate than in the 
 preceding years, yet more than a fourth of those born there die 
 before they are four, five, or six months old.' ^ 
 
 In Gatinais, during 1763-4-5 it was observed and described 
 by Duhamel in a scientific periodical, published in France; we 
 read for 1763: ^Some cats have been attacked by a malady 
 which resembles a good deal this in dogs.' For 1764 it is re- 
 marked : 'The disease in dogs continues, and has killed many.' 
 In 1765: 'The disease amongst dogs and cats has continued 
 throughout the year, though not so extensively as in last year, 
 but with the same accidents. Some cats have been attacked 
 by itch, which has made them blind.' ^ 
 
 In 1764, during the month of December, this distemper 
 appeared in Bohemia, according to Sagar.^ In Franconia it 
 was observed in the month of April in this year, and at the 
 conniiencement of September in Italy. Heusinger gives a list 
 of the great number of works which contained notices of this 
 memorable epizooty, some of which I give below.* 
 
 ' Journal Pratique dc Mud. Vut., vol. iv. p. 6io. 
 
 ^ .Memoirs del' Acad. Royale dcs Sciences, 1764-5. 
 
 ^ J. M. Sagar. iJe Morbo Sing. Ovium Vindob. 1765. 
 
 * l*'or Burgundy, in 1763: Nicholas Fournia: Observations sur la Nature, 
 les Causes, ct le Traitement de la Maladie des Chiens. Dijon, 1764, 1775. For 
 Paris, in 1703-4: Aiidouiii dc C/iaigncbnm. Relation de dilTerenles Maladies
 
 412, History of A iihnal Plagues. 
 
 In Scotland there was a remarkable destruction of cows. 
 '' At Cumbernauld, in Scotland, they have lately had a violent 
 storm, attended with thunder and lightning, which have done 
 great damage to the planting, and killed above looo cows. 
 Upon examination, it appeared that their bones were all broken, 
 and their flesh quite black, and when offered to the hogs they 
 refused to touch it/^ 
 
 A.D. 1763. In this year a comet was visible, and there was 
 great heat and drought in the United States, which induced 
 bilious remittent fever in the autumn. Similar weather was 
 prevalent in England, Ireland, and France. In consequence of 
 the great prevalence of caterpillars of a very destructive species of 
 lepidopterous insect in Britain, this year is known as the^ wormy 
 year.' The whole of the herbage on the hills near the sources 
 of the Ettrick and Yarrow was destroyed by it.^ ' Great hurricane 
 and fall of snow in England. Much damage done; many men, 
 sheep, and cattle perished.^ ^ Catarrhal fever or influenza was 
 epidemic throughout Europe. 
 
 Rutty, writing in Dublin, remarks: 'In May, 1762, the 
 effects of the epidemic catarrh among the horses, which began 
 in Dublin in March, 1760, are vet felt among the labouring 
 horses; and it has been computed that one in ten of those 
 were so affected in their eyes as to be blind to this present 
 time.^ * 
 
 In Bcauvais, and some other provinces of France, sheep 
 small-pox was wide-spread. Anthrax [louvet, lovat) was very 
 prevalent in Switzerland. Glossanthrax appeared as a very 
 deadly epizooty amongst cattle in Lower Normandy, and 
 amongst sheep in Lorraine.^ In the month of March, the same 
 
 Epidemiques, &c. Goulin. Memoires Litt. et Crit. 1775. Brasador. Mem. de 
 Matliem. et de Phys. presentes a I'Acad. de Sciences, vol. vi. p. 2i6. Vcrricr! 
 De la Conferie Venerie Normande, 1778. For Franconia, in 1764: Frankische 
 Samml., vol. vii. p. 542. For Italy : jMcrli. Lettcre Concern. I'Epidemia Sofiferta 
 in Napoli. Naples, 1764. Sarcone- Istoria Ragionata dei Mali Osservati in 
 Napoli. Naples, 1764. 
 
 - The London Magazine, 1761, p. 441. 
 
 2 The Farmers' Magazine, vol. i. p. 124. ^ The Annual Register. 
 
 * Rutty. The Repository. 
 
 ^ Paulet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 24S. Schnui-rcr. Chronik der Seuchen. Part 
 II- P- 325- . .
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 413 
 
 disease was very destructive in the Vallev Canionica, in Italy, 
 and in the month of April it manifested itself in Istria.^ In 
 Sweden and Denmark cattle and horses were attacked by an 
 epizootv, which was erroneously supposed to be the Cattle Plague, 
 but which Heusinger thinks was probably an influenza, com- 
 plicated with an aphthous affection. It was remarkable for 
 the formation of depots of unhealthy matter at the two last 
 articulations of the tail. The Royal Agricultural Society of 
 Paris was furnished with an account of it by one of its members 
 at the time, and from this the following extracts are made : 
 ' The contagion spread with great rapidity. The youngest, 
 most robust, and best-conditioned animals were soonest seized, 
 and died most promptly. It was remarked that, in the majority 
 of cases, a cough was the first symptom of the disease. The 
 eyes became dull, watery, and muco-purulent, and tears flowed 
 from them. In one or two days after the first symptoms, the 
 mdk, in cows, began to fail ; this was one of the surest indications 
 that the animals were attacked by the disease. At the com- 
 mencement, the beast looked cold, and it shivered in something 
 the same way as a human being at the onset of a fever. A high 
 temperature was soon perceptible, which continued for many 
 days ; it was most apparent about the neck, and by the increased 
 beats of the pulse. The appetite became suppressed, but the 
 animals drank willingly so long as the inflammation did not 
 prevent their swallowing fluids. A spumy saliva, accompanied 
 by an insupportable odour, flowed from the mouth and nostrils ; 
 in many the teeth became loose; constipation was not uncom- 
 mon, but usually there was diarrhoea from the commencement, 
 the excrement beino- like water. Towards the termination ot 
 the malady, the two last articulations of the tail became gan- 
 grenous and softened ; and if the skin covering them was re- 
 moved or punctured, a fetid purulent fluid escaped. The gan- 
 grene extended upwards, step by step, until it reached the horns, 
 which then became cold ; when it got as far as the ears and 
 the nostrils, which usually occurred about the sixth or seventh 
 day, the animal died. The blood abstracted during life was of a 
 bright red colour, and soon exhibited a high inflammatory state; 
 1 Bottani. Op. cit., vol. vii. p. 68.
 
 414 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 but on becoming thoroughly cold, it was quite solid, of a pitchy 
 black colour, and could be cut like a piece of jelly. The ex- 
 amination of those that died showed the gall-bladder excessively 
 large and full of a liquid more like urine than bile ; in some 
 three pounds^ weight of this fluid was found. In many creatures 
 the stomach and intestines were full of worms, which were yet 
 aliv^e when these organs were inspected. In some of the blood- 
 vessels certain insects were met with which were named ^ plaice,' 
 on account of their resemblance to that kind of fish. Sometimes 
 the brain has appeared to be entirely resolved into pus and 
 water ; manv had the veins filled with dark blood : the neck in 
 others was inflamed ; while in others, again, the inflammation 
 appeared to have concentrated itself in the intestines, and these 
 have been found more or less gangrenous. The stomach was full 
 of undigested food, which was so dry and compact that it could 
 scarcely be broken. The membrane lining the stomach and 
 intestines was marked by livid or black spots, evidently indicating 
 ffano-rene : with some the liver and the spleen were covered 
 bv small tumours resembling grains of sand, and so hard 
 that they could not be crushed ; the substance of these organs, 
 however, was so soft that it could be easily broken up by slight 
 pressure. Other animals, again, exhibited no pathological 
 alterations when opened after death.' ^ This epizocity was very 
 deadly in Sweden^ and extended even to the frontiers of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 About the same time an epizooty belonging to this class of 
 maladies broke out among the cattle in Auvergne, Moulins, Li- 
 mousin, the province of Bugey, Champagne, Forez, and other 
 places in France. The appetite and rumination were in abey- 
 ance; the hair was dry, upright, and harsh ; the head was carried 
 low, tears streamed down the cheeks; the flanks heaved very fre- 
 quently; the mouth, horns, and ears were extremely hot; con- 
 siderable pain was manifested along the course of the spine, and 
 when the fingers were passed over this region, a crepitation was 
 heard like to that made by dry parchment. Indistinct tumours 
 began to rise over the whole surface of the body ; when these disap- 
 
 ' Paulet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 359.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 415 
 
 peared suddenly, which they often did, it portended a fatal termin- 
 ation. There was great prostration of the strength; an excessively 
 cold stajie succeeded the early. hot one; the belly became tense; 
 the pain increased along the spine, or it disappeared, either owing 
 to some internal cause or by the effects of remedies ; continual 
 moans preceded death. The dead bodies, when opened, exhibited 
 evident marks of gangrene and putrefaction. The diagnosis of 
 the malady consisted chiefly in the presence of the crepitation 
 along the back, which, although only symptomatic and ac- 
 cidental, formed, nevertheless, a very striking feature, and was 
 sufficient to distino;uish this affection from others of the same 
 class. The absence of mucus discharges from the nostrils and 
 mouth, the high temperature of the ears, the horns, and the 
 mouth, and the presence of tumours, constituted, in the opinion 
 of the authorities of those days, a particular and pestilential 
 disease of the gravest character.^ 
 
 An epizooty of gangrenous sore-throat {angina gavgrcnom) oc- 
 curred in the parish of Mezieux, inDauphine. It affected cattle, 
 horses, and mules, and was very destructive. The llustrious veter- 
 inarian, Bourgelat, founder of the French Veterinary Schools, was 
 deputed to investigate its nature and suggest remedies. The symp- 
 toms as detailed by him were : ^ Refusal of all kinds of food, solid 
 or liquid; the head hanging low and ears drooping; tearful eyes, 
 and hair erect and harsh ; decided constipation ; a painful swelling 
 in theregionof the lower jaw and along the neck; a pulse more firm 
 {concentre) than frequent; and a copious discharge of frothy mucus 
 by the nostrils and mouth of some, were the signs which were 
 exhibited during the first twenty-four hours, and which remained 
 for the space of two, three, or four days, about which time hurried 
 hcavino-s of the flanks and extreme feebleness announced a 
 
 o 
 
 prompt and inevitable death.' The lesions after decease were 
 found to be very marked. Putrefaction set in rapidly, and ' there 
 was manifested in the back part of the throat, in all the muscles 
 of the pharynx and larynx, in the cellular tissue enveloping or 
 separating these, and in the oesophagus and trachea, a great 
 amount of gangrene ; the membrane enveloping the base of the. 
 
 ' Memoire de M. Barbcret.
 
 41 6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 tongue and the soft palate was black, livid^ and gangrenous, 
 and covered with ulcers which had destroyed and gnawed away 
 the base of the tongue. On a section being made across the 
 muscles of this part, they were found to be pale, bloodless, and 
 sphacelous ; the pituitary membrane, thicker than in ordinary 
 circumstances, was black, studded with ulcers, and the fluid with 
 which it was gorged resembled very thick ink rather than blood. 
 There was caries of the ethmoid bones and the cartila2;es of the 
 nose, the enveloping membrane of which was also destroyed.' 
 The external tumefaction was not always confined to the imme- 
 diate region of the throat. ' Often it extended to all the in- 
 termaxillary glands, the neck, and the bronchi ae, forming con- 
 siderable external tumours, there were some instances 
 
 in which the throat was not in so diseased a state, but tumours 
 appeared in an indistinct form in every part of the body. In 
 some dead animals they were in the omentum, in others in some 
 portion of the intestines; in others, again, the spleen was 
 greatly engorged ; in a fourth class neither liver nor lungs 
 were in their natural condition, but their margins were swoll- 
 en, black, turgid, inelastic, and verging on gangrene. In all, 
 the digestive apparatus was in that depraved state which is usual 
 in serious diseases.^ Further on, in describing the alterations in 
 the parts of the throat affected, — their red, brown, and sometimes 
 black colour, and their softness, he says that ' they were the 
 consequences of a violent inflammation, neither phlegmonous nor 
 erysipelatous, which excites less fever and pain than these, — an 
 inflammation of a heavy dull kind arising from an engorge- 
 ment produced by the stupor of the parts.^^ 
 
 The principal causes of the disease were supposed to be the 
 excessive heat of the weather, bad herbage, and more particularly 
 the extremely unhealthy stagnant water the animals were com- 
 pelled to drink. The malady was conjectured, and perhapsjustly, 
 to be contagious ; so that every care was taken to prevent com- 
 munication between the healthy and the suffering animals, 
 and disinfection was sedulously resorted to wherever the epizooty 
 appeared. 
 
 A.D. 1763. The seasons of this year were very dissimilar in 
 ' Notes au Memoire de Barberet. 
 
 1
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 417 
 
 their character in diH'erciit countries, but nearly everywhere the 
 summer was moist and sultry; the harvests were bad, the cereals 
 being; damaoed. It is noted that the olives suffered from the un- 
 favourable weather at Montpcllicr. Ht is even thought that the 
 olives have been much injured by a fog which the country people 
 call "neble/^ and that they have been all gnawed and perforated 
 by a worm ; this insect has grown insensibly, and it becomes very 
 much developed in all those trees which have been preserved a 
 very long time ; the oil extracted from them is pungent and 
 very bad/^ The human species suffered much from epidemics 
 of a serious character. Srhnurrer reports that glossanthrax ap- 
 peared in the summer of this year in the western parts of 
 Switzerland, and spread to the eastward, always following, how- 
 ever, the course of the Alps. 
 
 The maladies amono;st animals were fjenerallv numerous and 
 fatal. Rutty and other English writers thus summarize them : — 
 
 'Last year we had an account from Denmark, of an epidemic 
 catarrh among horses, and that the dogs were infected by lying 
 in the stables among them ; and from Madrid, May the 5th, that 
 900 dogs died in one day; and from Genoa, of a mortality among 
 the poultry; and May 19th from Calais a like account, and that 
 the disease was fatal chiefly to hens.^ ^ 
 
 'An epidemic among the horses in France characterized by 
 a defluxion from the nose.'^ 
 
 ' Manv epizootics raged in Europe among horses, swine, 
 horned cattle, sheep, dogs, game, and poultry.^* 
 
 In the marshy region of Brouageais, Rochelle, in France, ma- 
 lignant anthrax attacked cattle and sheep, and numbers of horses, 
 pigs, dogs, and fowls perished at the same time. This malady 
 also existed in other provincesof France, and from the descriptions 
 given of the disease as it was observed m horses and cattle, it 
 would appear to have been glossanthrax. ' There arose suddenly 
 towards the beginnino; of the month of June, a disease amonost 
 horses and cows, which attacked nearly all the animals of the 
 various villages in three or four days; it came from high Gatinois 
 and commenced in this localitv soon after the fair of St Peter. 
 
 ' Foiirnicr. Richard dc IJautcsicrck. Recueil d'Observalions, vol. i. p. 39. 
 ^ Rutty. Op. cit. * FrccinaiC s ]o\\xx\7i\. ' Webster. Oj). cit., p. 412. 
 
 27
 
 41 8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 It manifested itself by a small white blister above or below the 
 tonffue, and sometimes, thouo;h rarelv, both above and below it ; 
 the progress of the disease was so rapid that in about twelve hours 
 the little vesicle or tumour became as large as a man's hand and 
 assumed a violet colour ; notwithstanding this^ the stricken 
 animals did not lose their appetite^ but the gangrenous eschar was 
 not long in eating through the tongue^ which fell oft\vhen remedial 
 
 measures were not adopted The malady has run through 
 
 all the villages one after another^ and nearly all the beasts in a 
 village have been attacked at one time/ ^ 
 
 Dr Nicolau gives a most excellent^ but lengthy, description of 
 the outbreak in Brouageois. The parishes in which it exerted 
 its greatest furv were situated in the neighbourhood of the 
 marshes^ which were often covered by the waters of the sea, 
 introduced by a canal. In summer, when these marshes are 
 crowded with flocks and herds, the putrid exhalations engen- 
 dered by the heat of the sun give rise to intermittent and putrid 
 fevers among the human inhabitants of the villages. The year 
 1763 had been very rainy, and there was abundant pasturage; 
 but the hay was spoiled by the wet. Sheep, horses, and even 
 pigs were equally attacked, and other domestic animals were 
 not exempt : — the dogs, for example, which were nourished on 
 the flesh of the dead cattle suffered, and in the hamlet of St 
 Symphorien fowls died. In the month of May, the cattle had a 
 disease of the tongue, which, however, did not make much pro- 
 Q-ress. In June and Julv, the anthracoid disease broke out amoncr 
 the sheep, which died nearly as soon as they were attacked. The 
 oxen and the mares suflfered most in Julv, and the maladv lasted 
 until September. The earliest symptoms were a refusal of all 
 food; dulness ; drooping head, cold and hanging ears; horripil- 
 ation ; the flanks drawn up and beating quickly ; the abdomen 
 distended and tense; the muscles of the body twitching, and the 
 animal standing as if making efforts to urinate; the urine as 
 clear as water; no rumination; the evacuation of excrements 
 less frequent than that of the urine. Some hours after these first 
 symptoms set in, if tumours did not make their appearance on 
 the surface of the body, shiverings and tremblings ensued, the 
 1 Duhcunel. Mem. dcl'Acad. des Sciences, 1764.
 
 Histoi-y of Animal Plagues. 419 
 
 eyes looked haggard and tearful; a tenacious mucus flowed from 
 the mouth and nostrils ; they lay down and died tranquilly, or 
 in convulsions. These symptoms often ran their course so 
 rapidlv that the animals died without any one having seen 
 them ; they were even ohserved to drop down and perish in the 
 yoke. The cattle and sheep had never looked healthier than 
 in this year, and the best and fattest were the most likely to be 
 first destroyed by the epizooty.^ 
 
 The epizooty described as reigning in Denmark and Sweden 
 in the preceding year, was still prevalent in those countries, and a 
 similar affection had shown itself in Prussia.^ Mention is made 
 of an extraordinary epizooty amongst fowls. Bascome and 
 Rutty notice it as occurring; at Genoa in this year, and Villalba 
 speaks of its appearance in Spain : ' In this year there appeared 
 another epizooty amongst the fowls, and which only affected this 
 species of animal ; it killed very many, and no one was able to 
 prevent its ravages.'^ In the same year it had invaded the 
 South of France, for M. la Berthonye mentions his having made 
 a dissection of two fowls which had died at Toulon in May; 
 the appearances presented by these he enumerates as follows : 
 ' The examination of the first showed all the parts, internal and 
 external, in a natural and healthy state, with the exception of 
 the liver, which was adherent; but in exposing the whole length 
 of the canal which conducts the food from the crop to the giz- 
 zard, in the second fowl, I perceived that the extremity of the 
 latter organ was humid, livid, and corrupted to the extent of a 
 finger's width ; in detaching this substance from each side, it 
 exuded a purulent and abundant matter, full of white globules, 
 which left no doubt as to the presence of a fully-formed abscess. 
 On again inspecting the first fowl, which had not been opened 
 in the same manner as the second, the same phenomena were 
 presented, and pus globules were observed. I then had no 
 doubt whatever that the disease which harassed this species 
 (jf animal was nothing but an inflammation, terminating in sup- 
 jHiration ; and I imagined I could trace the remote cause to the 
 barley and bran on which the fowls had been fed during this 
 
 * Barbaret. Memoire sur les Maladies Epidemiques des Bestiaux. Paris, 1765. 
 2 Glcditsch. Abliandlung, vol. i. ^ Villalba. Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 219.
 
 42 o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 year; for the great inundations which so troubled the whole 
 kingdom, both before and after the harvest^ had made this 
 aliment not only bad but scarce/ -^ 
 
 In Bohemia in 1763-4, Tarn notices its prevalence/ and Sagar 
 writes of the disease in Moravia in 1764.^ In a journal of those 
 days published in Germany, we learn that the malady was not 
 very prevalent in the north of that country, nor yet in other 
 northern regions. ' In Spain, France, and Italy, for some time 
 past, a disease among the feathered tribes, but especially hens, has 
 caused great destruction and loss. In Cremona alone 5000 have 
 died within two months ; maiiy were opened in order to discover 
 the cause, but nothing was found in the interior of their bodies, 
 except a large quantity of acrid fluid, which arose, it was supposed, 
 from bad nourishment. Among the dogs, also, was a distemper, 
 which sooner or later ended in madness. Hence in Asti, Alex- 
 andria, and other places, all dogs, no matter who their owners 
 were, were slaughtered by the authorities. Nine hundred of 
 these animals were killed in Madrid in one dav.'* 
 
 An epizooty of aphthous fever [ekzema epizoutica) m 
 
 Moravia, is recorded, which attacked cattle and sheep. Doubts 
 
 have, however, been expressed as to the disease being the 
 
 one named. The most exact accounts we have are those of 
 
 Michael Sagar,^ and the malady may have become altered in its 
 
 type from what we are accustomed to see now-a-days, though 
 
 doubtless it is the same disease. The vesicles do not seem to have 
 
 been analogous to those observed in modern times, and this author 
 
 says that the ulcers which succeeded the eruption were pale and 
 
 of a dirty-grey hue, of a very repulsive aspect, and sprinkled over 
 
 with red points ; that their margins were hard, that they extended 
 
 rapidly and deeply; and also that they secreted a sanious humour 
 
 which was fetid, acrid, and corrosive, and possessed contagious 
 
 properties to a very high degree. He adds, that from the 
 
 time desquamation took place the animals began to be lame, 
 
 and that this lameness was caused by tumours of a greater or 
 
 less size developed all at once, and full of ripe pus, which showed 
 
 ^ Richard de Hautesierck. Recueil d'Observations, vol. i. p. 169. 
 
 - Tarn. Horn-, Schaf-, Pferde-, und Federvieh-Arzneikunst, p. 543. 
 
 2 Sagar. Op. cit. * Hannoverisches ]\Iagazin. 1764. 
 
 ^ M. Sagar. Medic. Libellus de Aplithis recorinis. Vienna. 1765.
 
 History of Animal PI agues, 421 
 
 themselves in some parts of the feet ; that the aphthre were found 
 in the nostrils in such quantity that the passage of the air was 
 intercepted, and that this was the cause of death to many ani- 
 mals. I'he milk conmiunicated the disease to dogs, cats, and to 
 people who used it as food. When put near the fire, it separ- 
 ated quickly into butter and cheese; it had neither its usual 
 sweetness, nor yet its natural consistency. The oxen were the 
 first attacked, but when these and the bulls were vigorous scarcely 
 any died; some of them lost their hoofs. Sheep were worse 
 affected, for nearly all that were attacked cast their hoofs, and 
 they had to limp about until new ones grew ; but few, however, 
 died. Goats suffered in the same way. Pigs, of all animals, were 
 the most severely attacked, and many perished. All those which 
 escaped death shed their hoofs. The men who were infected by 
 the disease experienced a great difficulty, amounting to impossi- 
 bility sometimes, in swallowing, owing to inflammation and 
 tumefaction in the back part of the throat. Sagar attributed the 
 cause of this epizooty to an eclipse of the sun, and to the red 
 blight or ' rust^ which affected the plants^ as well as to the intem- 
 perature of the air. 
 
 At the same time, this aphthous fever was prevalent in the 
 neighbourhood of Paris, and in Perigord and Auvergne, attack- 
 ing horses as well as cattle.^ M. Huzard remarks: ^ It appears 
 that during the year 1763, and at the commencement of 1764, 
 aphthous diseases form the essential characteristics of the epizoo- 
 tics which have reigned amongst horses and cattle over nearly 
 the whole of France.' ^ 
 
 In the public papers of the time, it is also mentioned that in 
 Holstein, and at Nordhausen and its environs, a contagious disease 
 which attacked the horned cattle, and horses, sheep, and pigs, had 
 been observed. A putrid and purulent matter was seen to issuefrom 
 their feet; the skin on the surface of the hogs' bodies and their 
 flanks was observed to peel off". None of the affected animals dicd.^ 
 
 In Switzerland, and also in Suabia, erysipelas [rothlaiifcs) 
 was epizootic amongst swine, and killed a considerable number.'' 
 
 ' Ilurtnl a' Arboval. Diet. Vet., i. p. Ii6. 
 
 * Iluzard. Instructions and Observations. 
 
 3 Paulel. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 397. ^ IVirlh. Op. cit., p. no.
 
 4^2, Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 In the autumn of 1763, the Indians on Nantucket and else- 
 where in that region were attacked by a biUous fever, which 
 killed a large portion of their number. No white people were 
 attacked, though they mixed freely with the Indians ; though 
 persons of mixed blood were affected, but recovered. Im- 
 mediately after this pestilence had disappeared, a species of large 
 fish, called '^blue fish,' thirty of which would fill a barrel, and 
 which previously had been caught in great numbers on every side 
 of Nantucket, suddenly disappeared, to the immense loss of the 
 inhabitants. Whether they perished or migrated is not known. ^ 
 
 A.D. 1764. The year was mild, but rainy; in December, 
 Lisbon was shaken by an earthquake and a comet was seen. 
 Pestilence in mankind was very fatal in Spain, in the form of 
 miliary fever. 'Salv^arisa supposes the epidemic fever of 1764 at 
 Cadiz was occasioned by the old and corrupted corn ; amongst 
 the poor the disorder was most violent. In this year the animals 
 were first affected, and the mortality was principally observed 
 amongst birds fed on grain. ^ ^ 
 
 Suabia was severely visited by a similar malady ; Austria was 
 no less troubled; and Scotland and Ireland had much disease 
 raging amongst their populations. 
 
 Rutty says of the weather in Ireland : ' Spring — moist, dry, 
 and cool; summer — cool and moist; autumn — variable; winter — 
 warm and moist. The excessive moisture of the winter this 
 year, succeeded by a dry and healthful spring, may show how 
 the mischiefs of one extreme may be corrected by its contrary 
 succeeding, and indicate the expediency of a retrospection upon 
 these occasions.' ^ He adds : ' To the instances of mortalities 
 among other animals mentioned last year, it may be proper to 
 add that this spring we had an account of a mortality among 
 swine and horses in Italy ; and in June from Provence, in France, 
 of a mortality among their horses and mules; and in August, 
 from Sweden, that there was a mortality among horned cattle, 
 the horses, sheep, goats, and swine. These accounts seemed to 
 be somewhat alarming, and are here recorded and recommended 
 
 ^ Webster. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 412. 
 
 - Hancock. In Cyclojicedia of Practical Medicine. 
 
 ^ Rutty, The Weather and Seasons.
 
 History of Aniuial Plagues. 423 
 
 to further observation, how far such mortal epidemical diseases 
 among the brutes may or may not be a prelude to the pestilence 
 among men, which by the divine poet is described as walking in 
 darkness, Psalm xci. 6.' 
 
 * A mortal pestilence among horses and mules in Provence ; 
 and among poultry in England/ ^ 
 
 The aphthous disease mentioned in last year as showing itself 
 in the lower animals in certain regions continued this year, and 
 extended itself to other countries. In some of these it appears 
 to have differed somewhat in its features, though it was general 
 in nearly all the domestic animals. It was observed in Holland, 
 and in Holstein, at Nordhausen, to affect horses, cattle, sheep, 
 and pigs, &c, ; - and it was prevalent in Henneberg and Thur- 
 ingia,^ in Saxony,* in Westphalia, in the Rhine provinces, and 
 in Wurtemberg/ where it was known as the zungenkrebs or 
 mundfdide. In Franconia and Suabia its appearance had been 
 remarked from the month of July. 'The horned cattle were 
 attacked by a great fever in the head ; they began to sputter and 
 to run from the eyes; the nose and mouth began to swell, and 
 — especially on the palate — white, and in the nose yellow, pus- 
 tules showed themselves ; these after a time scabbed over and 
 fell off, and the tongue became quite sore. Similar eruptions 
 showed themselves between the hoofs, and in cows even upon 
 the udders ; so that in milking the scabs were rubbed off, until at 
 length they ceased to give milk if the sickness lasted long. Some 
 cattle continued to eat well, but others lost their appetite. The 
 same kind of pustules manifested themselves on sheep, pigs, &c.' "^ 
 ' All the cattle, those at pasture as well as those kept in stalls, 
 and those also in process of fattening, have the following 
 symptoms : between the claws, both before and behind, the skin 
 is quite white, and cracks appear, which suppurate ; some, how- 
 ever, have not this symptom. Those people who wash these 
 abrasions too much keep the cattle longer lame and sick ; but 
 those who let nature have its course may use them again in nine 
 
 1 The Repository. - Paulct. Op. cit. , vol. i. p. 397. 
 
 3 Glaser. AbhancUung. v. d. Knotenkrankheit, &c., p. 1 33. 
 
 ♦ Clarus U7td Radius. Beitriige. Vol. viii. p. 325. 
 ' Cassdcr. Poliz. und Commerz. Zcltschrift, 1764. 
 
 * Friinkische Sainmlung, vii. p. 544.
 
 424 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 or ten days. These cattle^ generally speaking — some sooner, 
 some later — after they have been lame^ get bad mouths. Saliva 
 flows in large quantities^ and when the disease assumes a serious 
 aspect^ it chokes them, or makes them appear as if they had 
 something in their throats. When one draws the cow^s tongue 
 through the hand, the skin peels off, and whenever the mouth is 
 affected the animal gives bad milk; the first attempts at milking 
 show the milk to be of a reddish or purulent hue, but after 
 this it comes away in its usual colour; this milk has been given 
 to swine, and they have died from it. To-day I have been in- 
 formed that such milk was given to a dog yesterday, and now it 
 is dead. The cows suffered most, although the larger number 
 attacked were oxen. The sheep also w^ere affected, and though 
 none of them succumbed, yet they were very sick,' ^ In Switzer- 
 land, pneumonia was prevalent in some districts.^ 
 
 A.D. 1765. The winter of this year was cold, and the summer 
 damp. In the Tyrol, gangrenous inflammation of the lungs 
 affected cattle.^ In Moravia, great numbers of sheep died from 
 an epizooty which, from the symptoms described by Sagar,* may 
 have either been rot or a malignant catarrh (Heusinger). The 
 Cattle Plague was imported from Turkey to Bruck, on the river 
 I^eitha, Hungary, in the month of February, and it remained there 
 until the autumn ; from thence, according to Koczian, it was car- 
 ried to Upper and Lower Saxony.^ Might not the ovine disease 
 described by Sagar be the Rinderpest, transmitted from the cattle ? 
 
 In India an earthquake was felt along the banks of the 
 Ganges, and much sickness prevailed in that country. Animals 
 shared in these troubles, especially in Madras. ' James Anderson 
 says that, in 1765, he observed twelve days in one season and 
 fourteen days in the other, when the heat and vitiated state of 
 the atmosphere was such that sometimes the men, without any 
 previous illness, fell down dead at roll calling. Various birds of 
 the forest took shelter in tents, and drank water when offered to 
 them, as if they had been domesticated. A hare came into the 
 
 ^ Friinkische Sammlung, p. 549. - Tnnupy. Glamer Chronicle, p. 647. 
 
 3 Bottani. Op. cit., vol. vii. p. 72. * Sagar. De Morb. Singul. Ovium. 
 
 ^ Kockzian. Prlif. d. urs. die Horn viehseuche. Vienna, 1769. Paulet. Op. 
 cit., vol. i. p. 295.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 425 
 
 tent of Adjutant Gee^ and drank water out of his hand; several 
 antelopes were easily taken by dogs/ ^ 
 
 Wirth remarks that erysipelas [rothlaufes) was present in an 
 epizootic form in Switzerland and Suabia, and was very fatal. ^ 
 
 A.D. 1766. Eruptions of Vesuvius and Hecla^ and two comets 
 visible this year. Earthquakes were prevalent. The winter was 
 very cold, the spring rainy with inundations, and the summer 
 hot and dry all over Europe and America ; so that vegetation 
 was hindered, and in many countries it was blighted with honev- 
 dew and rust, more especially the barley and oat crops. Malig- 
 nant catarrh in man swept over Europe. Horses and horned 
 cattle died in great numbers in America, especially in New Eng- 
 land and New Jersey.^ The Cattle Plague was raging in Austria, 
 in Prussia, the March of Brandenburg, and in Holland, where it 
 continued in 1767-8, and in 1769 it was carried into Belgium.* 
 It only ceased in 1770, after destroying in Holland alone more 
 than 395,000 head of horned cattle. 
 
 In England, rot in sheep appears to have been prevalent. 
 ' Too rainy a season is very prejudicial to sheep, as was remark- 
 ably experienced all over England in the summer of 1766, when 
 whole flocks perished with the rot.' ^ 
 
 The eruption of Mount Hecla, in Iceland, caused much loss 
 among cattle. ° Some lingered for a year, and when opened 
 their stomachs were found full of ashes. 
 
 A.D. 1767. A cold winter and a wet summer in England. 
 An eruption of Vesuvius. In December, a catarrhal fever or 
 ' influenza ' broke out in mankind at Madrid, and spread over the 
 greater part of Europe. Scarlatina was very prevalent in France, 
 and puerperal fever in Normandy. In due course the influenza 
 reached England, but before it attacked the human species, dogs 
 and horses were affected, and the vegetable kingdom appears to 
 have been diseased as well. ' The 30th June : a blight of fruit, 
 feverish complaints, and pains in face and teeth very epidemic. 
 All Saints' day : two disorders have been very universal among 
 
 ' Annesley. The Diseases of India. - Wirth. Op. cit., p. IIO. 
 
 3 Bascome. Op. cit., p. 133. ■« Lorinscy. Die Rinderpest, p. 25. 
 
 ^ Mills. Treatise on Cattle, 1766. 
 * Sir Joseph Banks. MS. Journal. Hooker. Tour in Iceland, vol. ii. p. 117.
 
 4^6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 horses ; one a violent swelling of the legs and eyes, the other a 
 cough with which horses were taken this clay, and, what is very 
 
 remarkable, scarce either a day before or after In the year 
 
 1767, a dry cough became prevalent in Essex among horses, about 
 Allhallowtide, which continued through great part of November, 
 and then subsided. In the neighbourhood of Walthamstow very 
 few horses escaped it/ ^ 
 
 Mumsen says: 'When I was in England, in 1767, there 
 raged a severe winter with a cold, dry, north-east wind until late 
 in May. Then there came a disease in dogs and horses, such as 
 is observed often to precede deadly human plagues ; it was called 
 the " horse cold '^ {pferde-sduvupfen). It did also visit mankind 
 without inducing any very serious consequences.'^ The London 
 Evening Post notices this outbreak : ' There is scarcely a stable 
 in London in which there is not a horse suffering from inflam- 
 matory catarrh. This disease could not be so general if there 
 was not some special vapour in the air to produce it.' ^ 
 
 The Annual Register (p. 151) for this year also remarks: 
 'This autumn has been fatal to the horses in America, as well as 
 England and Holland. The distemper there has been attended 
 with fatal effects ; in the province of New Jersey, it has carried 
 off" almost all their young horses and colts ; and in New England 
 the havoc it has made is very ruinous.' 'Diseases amona: horses 
 were also very prevalent in New England and New Jersey.' * 
 
 The distemper in dogs was so violent in Louisiana, that the 
 greater part of them died.^ 
 
 In Hanover, there was a great mortality amongst the geese." 
 
 In France, the lower animals seem to have suffered equally 
 with mankind. Menuret, of Montpellier, writing of this year 
 says: 'The mortality which has manifested itself amongst dif- 
 ferent kinds of animals seems to merit a place in our observa- 
 tions, and ought to arrest our attention in many respects ; but 
 chiefly because of its relation to the constitution of the seasons, 
 and also because it is a phenomenon which may some day assist, 
 
 ' T. Forster. Op. cit., pp. 6, 168. 
 
 ^ Mumsen. Kurze Nachricht von der Epid. Schnupfenkrankeit. 
 
 3 The Evening Post, Nov. 10, 1767. ^ Webster. Op. cit., vol. i. p.417. 
 
 ^ Ulloa. Noticias Americanas. ^ Hannov. Magazin, 1767.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 427 
 
 bv way of analogv, in clearing up the causes of disease in man. 
 It is necessary to remark that the violence of the cold has been 
 excessive during the winter, so that animated beings have been ' 
 scarcely able to resist the energy of its attacks; we can now 
 perceive that this extreme cold has penetrated deep into the 
 bowels of the earth, and has destroyed — even to the ultimate root- 
 lets — the warmth and the life of the vegetable kingdom, and 
 which nature has ordained should be concentrated there. Those 
 trees and shrubs which seemed by age to have acquired most 
 consistence and durability have been precisely those which have 
 most readily succumbed ; the oldest vines have been devastated. 
 And so it has been with the human species. The aged, worn 
 down by years, have been deprived of the remains of their animal 
 heat which kept them alive ; the cold, an enemy to motion, 
 has succeeded in arrestinsf the blood which flowed but tardily in 
 the shrivelled vessels, and soon they ceased to live. It was ob- 
 served in the course of the preceding year, towards the month 
 of May especially, that a warm dew {i-osce chaude), which is 
 termed manna, fell in great abundance, and that the trees, the 
 vines, and the different vegetables had suffered a marked change. 
 The silk-worms were the first to experience the bad efi'ects from 
 the leaves of the mulberry trees being thus altered, and they be- 
 came very ill; from that time the turkeys, which form such a 
 large portion of the agricultural wealth in this country, and the 
 other fowls, have been variously affected until the end of the 
 winter. Before the severe colds, the horses paid their contribu- 
 tion to the epidemy which ravaged the animal kingdom ; they 
 died in large numbers from vertigo, a kind of contagious frenzy 
 which destroyed them in a few days ; neither profuse nor moder- 
 ate bleedings, enemas, nor any of the other means at the disposal 
 of our hippiatrists, could arrest the course or ameliorate the 
 furious rapidity of this affection, which quickly terminated in 
 death. So virulent was the contagion, that, from the moment a 
 horse was attacked in a stable, not onlv were the others which 
 stood in the same building quick in receiving it from the diseased 
 one, if they were not speedily removed, but the infection lingered 
 in it for many weeks afterwards, and was not slow in attacking 
 horses which miirht be stabled therein duriug this time; so that it
 
 4-8 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 was necessary to leave these stables empty for a long period, in 
 order to have them well aired and disinfected, and even white- 
 washed repeatedly, when this malady had left traces of its fury 
 and subtilty in the walls. At the same time, many dogs were seen 
 to participate in the influences of the general disaster. They 
 became dull and heavy, and their ears and tails were drooping; 
 their eyes were hidden by muco-purulent patches, and they lost 
 their vivacity and playfulness; they became sick, vomited, and 
 cough and hurried respiration were the usual symptoms of their 
 malady; these becoming augmented in intensity, quickly led to 
 the common end of all terrestrial beings. The sheep in the whole 
 of Lower Dauphine, and in a part of Vivarais, were apparently 
 the choice victims, and at the same time the most numerous, of 
 the epidemic pestilence. The bad quality of the forage, and the 
 violence of the cold, which would not admit of their leavino; their 
 sheds and seeking fresh pasture and a pure air, no doubt favoured 
 the inv^asion and the subsequent progress of the disease. They 
 were emaciated, withered, and weak, so that they could scarcely 
 stand on their feet; then they have become swollen, and towards 
 the end struggled convulsively against the violent destruction 
 of their being. On opening the dead bodies, the abdomen has 
 been found full of water, the liver enlarged and of a greyish- 
 white colour, and thickly covered with ulcers and indurations; 
 some people say they have even seen worms. The lungs pre- 
 sented abscesses more or less mature, and ulcers and tubercles; 
 this alteration of course favoured very much the propagation of 
 the disease, because it infected the air and charged it with a con- 
 tagious ferment; for, being expired from an organ destroyed by 
 rot, the morbid matters became for the other animals inhaling 
 them the germ of a disease v>hich was all the more potent be- 
 cause it was received into the bodies of those unfortunately already 
 predisposed. The blood-vessels were flaccid, and half filled with a 
 watery blood which had almost lost its colour.' ^ 
 
 In the month of March, 'aphthous fever' broke out at 
 Guastala and other places in Italy. ' There was rendered more 
 manifest every day in Guastala and other prefectures of Mantua, 
 
 >^ ^ Richard de Hautesicrck, Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 233. ' 
 
 n
 
 History of Anhnal Plagues. 429 
 
 a disease amongst cattle^ which consisted in vesicles about the 
 tongue, and which left raw places; it was so mild, that it easily 
 gave w;iv to simple remedies.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1768. In this year the seasons were very irregular, and 
 damaged the crops very much. Swarms of caterpillars made 
 their appearance in America,in Northampton, and Massachusetts, 
 and destroyed all herba2:e. The summer was hot and rainy, and 
 disease prevailed in that part of the world amongst the human 
 species. Hydrophobia was alarmingly frequent; in Boston and 
 other places, at the same time, ' horses were generally affected 
 with a disorder of the head and throat, which proved fatal to 
 many, and much injured the serviceableness of those that sur- 
 vived.''- In this and the two followino- years, the Cattle Plao-ue 
 prevailed in Lower Austria, coincidently with anthrax ; ^ it was 
 very severe in Brandenburg and other provinces of Prussia. 
 
 A.D. 1769. The year was rainy, and a comet was seen. The' 
 harvest was indifferent, the corn and wheat being much de- 
 teriorated. Those diseases which, in mankind, could be attributed 
 to the use of unwholesome bread, were frequent. In the month 
 of January, a prodigious and unheard-of quantity of fish was 
 taken in the Baltic.' There was an epizooty amongst fowls at 
 Genoa.^ Over a wide extent of the North of France, an epizooty 
 was doing much injury to cows and horses. It was named in 
 Franche-Comte Min-le. In Hainault and Champagne it was 
 particularly noticed. At Avesnes, it first broke out amongst the 
 horses of two rea;iments of dra2;oons stationed there — those of 
 Autichamp and Rochefoucault; and from thence it extended 
 amoncrst the cattle in the Election of Joinville. Couo-h, hioh 
 fever, and prostration were the first symptoms; after these ap- 
 peared nausea, suspension of rumination (if in cattle), the 
 breath fetid, the mouth hot and dry, discharge by the nostrils of 
 thick, foul-smelling matters; but a continuous cough, feebleness, 
 great difiiculty in breathing, redness of the eyes, dryness of the 
 
 * Bottani. Op. cit., vol. vii. \>. 75- 
 
 2 Tufts. Memoirs of the American Academy, vol. i. 
 •^ Adami. Gcscliichte dcr Viehscuclien, p. 74. 
 
 * Crcplin. Eckstrcim fische von Morko, p. 35. 
 
 ^ Fraiuk. Syst. de Med. VoXu., vol. vii. p. 150.
 
 43° History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 tongue and mouth, loud rales in the air-passages, the breath 
 becoming more fetid — all indicated the approach of death; their 
 absence 2;ave tokens of a favourable recovery. An autopsy revealed 
 congestion, lividity, 'and ecchymosis of the lungs, with abscesses 
 and gangrenous spots on their surface, and flakes of gelatinous 
 matter of various colours. In the texture of the lungs were 
 found purulent infiltrations, which broke up the structure of the 
 lobes. These organs adhered to the pleurae, which often looked 
 thickened, inflamed, suppurating, or gangrenous. Considerable 
 effusions of reddish, putrid, foamy fluid were found in the thorax, 
 and sometimes pus, &c. It was thought that the origin of the 
 epizocity was due to variations in the atmosphere, cold and 
 heavy rains, the sudden transition from hot stables to the 
 cold air, or exposure to these rains. It was termed an acute in- 
 flammatory fever, or false malignant peripneumonia. 'This dis- 
 ease,' it is added,' though annual and familiar in our climate — often 
 even epizootic — is scarcely believed to be contagious; prudence, 
 Tievertheless, should make us act as if it were. The ventilation of 
 the stables should be well attended to ; sudden removal from heat 
 to cold should be avoided, and the sick animals ought to be kept 
 in an equable temperature, and have only tepid gruel to drink. '^ 
 The symptoms were supposed to indicate a gangrenous in- 
 flammation of the lungs. The Veterinary School at Alfort was 
 consulted, and some of its pupils were despatched to the districts 
 where the disease was most deadly. The measures they pro- 
 posed had the happiest results, for whereas, before the arrival of 
 these men, the animals were dying in crowds, they were now 
 able to save 140 out of 160. 
 
 Froai the autumn of this year till the end of the year 
 1 78 1, the Cattle Plague ravaged Holland and Ostfriesland most 
 cruelly.''^ We read the following facts relative to 1769, in 
 the Gazette de France for August 24th, 1770. 'During the 
 
 1 M. Boiirgdaf. Notes au Memoire de M. Barberet. Pajild. Op. cit., vol. 
 i. p. 407. Lafosse (Traite de Pathologic Veterinaire, vol. iii. p. 6l6) positively 
 asserts that tliis ' murie ' was the bovine contagious pleuro-pneumonia ; but surely 
 he must be mistaken. Hoses, as well as cattle, were attacked, and the proportion 
 of recoveries by medical treatment in this epizooty is never reached in the deadly 
 lung disease of our days. 
 
 "^ Weiss. Von der Viehseuche, p. 119.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 431 
 
 course of the last year, 9800 cattle died in the province of 
 Friesland. In South Holland, since the ist of April, 1769, 
 until the last month of the year, 115,665 head of cattle are 
 dead, and 40,454 have been cured. During the month of April, 
 669 have died, and 221 have been cured. In June followino; 309 
 deaths, and 6"] cures have been reported. In West Holland, 
 since the 1st of April, 1769, until the last month of the year, 
 43'5^3 cJied, and 21,237 were cured. The number of those which 
 perished in April is ^^^, and those cured 231 ; in May 443 died 
 and 90 are cured; in June 160 deaths took place, and 423 were 
 cured. The total shows that 162,276 cattle died, and (>1,^^^ 
 were cured.' ^ Dossie's statements, already furnished (page 354), 
 refer to this period. 
 
 Vicq d'Azyr, alluding to the prevention of this terrible disease, 
 makes a reference to the state of Holland — a reference quite as ap- 
 plicable to that country in 1865 and 1866. He says : ' In these 
 epizootics, we may resort to the most vigorous means, without 
 doing any injury to the duties and the qualities of a good adminis- 
 tration. We fail when we do not employ them. i. When we 
 have discovered a specific treatment, it is impossible to cause it to 
 be universally adopted over the country. 2. In a great number of 
 districts it is exceedingly difficult to induce the farmers to separ- 
 ate the healthy from the diseased. 3. If the communication 
 between the cattle cannot be prevented, we cannot expect to 
 keep away men, dogs, and other animals; their coverings neces- 
 sarily escape the vigilance of the administration. 4. The sale of 
 cattle, which is always eflfected in a clandestine manner, is also an- 
 other means of communication. 5. The slaughter [assomme- 
 ment) of diseased cattle does not always succeed, because it is 
 necessary to wait before all the animals on a farm are attacked 
 before we can kill them ; this requires a very long time — a circum- 
 stance which propagates the contagion and very much increases 
 the expenses. 6. It is well known that as soon as the contagion 
 reaches a farm, all the cattle are successively attacked, and that 
 scarcely one escapes. It is evident that once the law of killing 
 all the animals is brought into operation, it docs not much 
 
 ' Cured here means recovered.
 
 432. History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 matter to the proprietor whether he wait until all are attacked 
 with the disease or are killed at once. This urgent measure is 
 of adv^antage to him^ because he is then paid the full value ; 
 whereas he only gets a third when the malady has developed 
 itself. This severe law^ however^ requires great care in its exe- 
 cution, if a government has not the courage to carry it out 
 everywhere at the same time. If not, then it becomes a vexatious 
 and onerous measure. 7. It is also established that the best 
 method of treatment, if we view it from every point, never cures 
 more than one-third of the cattle attacked. And while we are 
 trying to cure the cattle in one stable, the malady, perhaps be- 
 nignant in a village where it has first appeared, is communicated to 
 another in a very deadly form. 8. Everywhere, when the system 
 of killing has been followed on the largest scale — in England (in 
 1 8 15), in Austria, and in the eastern provinces, for example — the 
 malady has been altogether destroyed; it exists, on the contrary, 
 wherever people obstinately persist in medically treating the cattle, 
 because then the infected centres become so extensive and so nu- 
 merous that it is impossible to purify them all. HoUand furnishes 
 an example. After the expose of the terrible destruction in that 
 country, the truth of which there can be no doubt, it is evident 
 that the most certain course to adopt is that of the slaughter of 
 not only the diseased cattle, but also the healthy ones which 
 have had communication with them; and to disinfect not only the 
 stables where the sick have been, but also those where the sus- 
 pected ones have dwelt. This strong measure stifles the pesti- 
 lential germ in its birth^ and does not allow it to be dev^eloped 
 anew.^ ^ 
 
 In this year, according to Wirth, the contagious pleuro- 
 pneumonia of cattle appeared in France, causing much loss.^ 
 He alludes, I imagine, to the ^murie^ in Franche-Comte, just 
 described. 
 
 The same writer informs us that the 'rot' [der Fdiile) ap- 
 peared in calves and other herbivorous creatures in the Canton 
 Zurich, and great destruction resulted.^ 
 
 A.D. 1770. In this year the sugar ants made their first appear- 
 
 ' Vicq d''Azyj: Expose des Moyens Curatifs et Preservatifs, &c. Paris, 1776. 
 2 Wirt/i. Op. cit., p. 300. ^ Ibid. P. 123.
 
 History of Animal Plag7ics. 433 
 
 ance in Grenada, West Indies, having been carried thence by 
 smuc^Hino" vessels from Martinico.^ An eruption of Vesuvius. 
 The harvest was very bad, the crops being damaged by the heavy 
 rains which fell during the year. Famine was severe in Germany, 
 Poland, and Russia, and disease of a very fatal character ap- 
 peared in mankind in Bohemia and Constantinople. Ergotism 
 was very prevalent; it had commenced in the past year, was more 
 severe in this, and yet more so in 177 1-3. At the same time, in 
 many countries, the lower animals were suffering from disease. 
 Weikard notices this circumstance, as it presented itself to him in 
 Germany. 'About the end of the year 1770, horses, and especially 
 those kept in stables, were dreadfully afflicted with a certain putrid 
 disease. This fatal sickness amongst them continued throughout 
 nearly the whole year, and killed fifty of our very best. The putrid 
 epidemy {epidemia putrida) was then unknown to us, but we 
 gradually became acquainted with its character. At first we 
 learned its nature by the morbid appearances exhibited after death; 
 for the most part the lungs were found gangrenous and corrupt, 
 evidently distinguishing it as a peripneumonic disease. It was 
 erroneously believed that it could be cured only by bleeding and 
 refrigerant remedies. It was also observed that a quantity of 
 fluid and mucus filled the mouth of the sick, that the abdomen 
 was swollen and tense, and the faces very foul and more fluid 
 than usual. Post-mortem examinations of the intestines dis- 
 covered them to be inflated, and a yellow bilious matter abound- 
 ing m them, and from this we thought it bore at the same 
 time some resemblance to bilious fever. The happy realiz- 
 ation of a method of certain cure favoured this oj)inion, for it 
 was found that by the use of purgatives and antiputrescent 
 remedies many could be saved. About the year 1771, also, the 
 same thing happened to wild creatures, for they were attacked, 
 as I believe, with an identical disease. In comparison of all the 
 others their destruction was noted as being more severe in the 
 most spacious menageries of our Prince. 
 
 'Some years, too, were fatal to the sheep; nor did birds 
 escape, for geese, as I remember, were killed by this malady, 
 
 * B. Edwards. History of llie West Indies, vol. i. p. 397. 
 
 2S
 
 434 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 which first attacked many pheasants reared in a beautiful garden 
 near Fulda, some of which I found when they were nearly 
 dead. When the diseased were examined, their gall-bladders 
 were found greatly distended with yellow bile, which passed 
 through its pores, and tinged the neighbouring tissues; if the 
 game-keepers speak true, the whole of the body was saturated 
 with bile after death. Behold an argument for the disease being 
 a putrid bilious affection ! behold the harbinger of the putrid 
 epidemy of the human species now made known to us 1^ ^ 
 
 Wirth evidently traces some connection between this out- 
 break and the * murie ' observed in France in the previous year, 
 for he says: 'The horse-plague, which prevailed in 1770 at 
 Champagne in France, and at Fulda in Germany, was an inflam- 
 mation of the lungs, or a typhus disease with lung compli- 
 cations, which destroyed a great multitude of horses,^ 
 
 A contagious epizooty appeared in France amongst cattle, 
 which has been described by Bourgelat. It was apparently gan- 
 grene of the throat, but differed from the epizooty of 1762. 
 The disease appears to have concentrated itself chiefly in the 
 nasal cavities, and the upper parts of the respiratory and di- 
 gestive passages. Externally, nothing unusual was observable. 
 Bourgelat thus writes of the symptoms : ' The first day a very 
 great heat is felt in the horns, the ears, the extremities, and 
 nearly the whole of the body ; the pulse is quick and very 
 strong:, the eyes sufflised and discharging tears, and the con- 
 junctivae inflamed. The animal eats, but less than usual ; the 
 blood drawn in this state is covered in a short time after ex- 
 posure to the air by a pellicle of a rose colour, and about a line 
 in thickness. This becomes re-covered and hidden by thick 
 blood of a deep red hue. 
 
 '■ On the second day there is a dry cough ; the pharynx and 
 the nasal cavities are slightly inflamed; the flanks are agitated; 
 the pulse announces a violent fever, and beats from sixty to 
 sixty-five and seventy times a minute; the heat becomes dry 
 and sharp ; the milk is cloudy and thicker than usual ; nausea 
 and loss of appetite are noticeable. 
 
 ^ Wdka?-d. Observations Medic, p. 5. ^ Wirth. Op. cit., p. 156.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 435 
 
 'On the third day the disease is at its height, and perfectly de- 
 veloped bv reason of the augmentation of all the foregoing 
 symptoms: the cough is more frequent and harassing; the re- 
 spiration is very laborious; the beating of the flanks greatly 
 quickened ; a frothy saliva dribbles in an abundant stream from 
 the mouth; the pituitary membrane is excoriated and pufibd up 
 in such a wav as to prevent the passage of air into the nasal 
 cavities; the parts at the back of the mouth are highly inflamed ; 
 a spumous yellow matter flows from the nostrils; the rumination 
 is performed at a longer or shorter interval than in health; the 
 excretion of faecal matters and of urine is considerably re- 
 tarded; the milk is thicker and yellower; the appetite always 
 more depraved ; the blood black and thick. 
 
 ' On the fourth day, the disease being in its last stage, all the 
 parts which were before so hot are now cold ; this change comes 
 on in such a wav that the extremities of the horns and the ears 
 exhibit it first, the cold insensibly creeping towards the roots of 
 these parts; the animal shivers, and there can be observed, par- 
 ticularly along the sides and the flanks, horripilation everywhere 
 over the paiiniculus cariiosiis ; the pulse is scarcely perceptible ; 
 continual moans are emitted ; respiration is greatly impeded ; 
 the pituitary membrane is gangrenous; the discharge from the 
 nostrils is thin, fetid, and tinged with blood; the eyes are bleared 
 and nearly always closed; all the excretions are interrupted, and 
 the faeces from the rectum have an insupportable odour; the milk 
 is very thick, rusty, and ichorous; the cough is heard no more; no 
 appetite, no rumination ; lastly, mortification and a colliquative 
 diarrhoea, which succeeds rapidly to the shivering, announces 
 the end of the animal, who dies without any violent eflbrt on 
 the fourth, or at the latest the fifth, day of the disease/ ^ The 
 causes could not be positively ascertained. 
 
 In Italy an epizooty amongst cattle. ' In 1770 a contagious 
 malady appeared in the bovine species, but did not extend 
 beyond the towns of Gognano and Costa, in the district and 
 province of Rovigo. The disease consisted in a diarrhcea, the 
 discharges being coniposed of a greenish matter often mixed with 
 
 ^ Bourgelat. Mcmoire dc 1770.
 
 436 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 blood and very fetid, and causing the death of the animal in 
 from four to five days/ ^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague was yet raging with renewed violence 
 in Holland/ in Belgium, and the North of France. Some of the 
 best authorities believed it had reappeared in Holland, and that 
 its origin could be traced to the commerce in fresh hides which 
 existed between that country and Hungary and Dalmatia. In 
 Holland alone, it was computed that 600,000 head of cattle 
 had perished. It is not improbable that the disease just de- 
 scribed by Bourgelat and Bottani was this fearful malady. In 
 1771, it was exceedingly fatal in Brabant; from thence it ad- 
 vanced to Flanders, and thence to Picardy, Artois, Boulonnais, 
 and Laonnais. The physician Dufot, in an excellent treatise,^ tells 
 us how it spread from infected districts, and penetrated the last- 
 named province. ' This epizootic disease,' he says, ' is conta- 
 gious in the strictest sense of the term. A cow brought from 
 Flanders communicated the disorder to other cows. The shep- 
 herds who, in these cantons, had been imprudent enough to 
 enter those villages where the disease was prevailing in all its 
 fury, carried it back to their own. The pestilential miasms at- 
 tach themselves to everything solid and palpable, and the mere 
 contact of these corpuscles gives rise to and perpetuates the 
 malady.' It was so disastrous in its effects that the French Go- 
 vernment was obliged to give it their attention, and to solicit 
 the framing of precautionary measures by the Alfort College. 
 The symptoms enumerated give no new features to the malady 
 already so well known. Dufot observes that sometimes tumours 
 appeared under the skin ; these sensibly augmented in size. He 
 
 ^ Bottani. Op. cit., vol. vii. p. 78. 
 
 - P. Camper. Brief aan den Hooggel. Utrecht, 1770. Leseen over de 
 Veepest. Vorles. iiber das heutige herumgeliende Viehsterben, aus dem Holland. 
 Von I. E. Lange. Copenhagen, 1771. Much that is valuable and interesting will 
 be found in the following works, published in Holland during the previous five 
 years : — Alta. Verhandelingen, &c., 1765. Noodige raadgevingen aan over- 
 heden en ingezetenen, &c., 1769. Forsten. Kort onderricht voor den Veehouder, 
 1767. Van Doevcj-eii. Raadgevingen om de inentinge der Ziekte van't Rundvee, 
 &c., 1769. Vink. Lessen over de herkaauwing der Rundern en de tans 
 woedende Veeziekte, 1 769. 
 
 ^ Dr Dufot. Memoire sur la Maladie Epizootique du Pays Laonnois. Laon, 
 1771.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 437 
 
 named it a putrid-malignant fever, similar to that which attacks 
 mankind. The rumen contained much food, covered with a 
 tenacious and fetid mucus, and a blackish humour lined its in- 
 ternal tunic. The other compartments were speckled by black 
 spots, and their lining membrane, which was easily detached, had 
 a livid colour. There were some points of suppuration in the 
 liver, and the gall-bladder was greatly distended. The lungs were 
 collapsed, and covered with gangrenous-looking patches. The 
 same kind of stains were noticed here and there on the pituitary 
 membrane, the oesophagus, and in the intestinal canal ; showing a 
 gangrenous dissolution of these textures. His remedial measures 
 are very silly; but with regard to those of a preservative kind, he 
 counsels, as the most certain and the only safe proceeding, the 
 sacrificing the first diseased beasts, and to take all other precau- 
 tions to destroy or avert the contagion. 
 
 In Austrian Flanders Dr Le Cat, physician to the Empress, 
 and residing at Ghent, was ordered to investigate the malady. 
 The chief value of his labours consisted in the convincing testi- 
 mony he produced to show that there was no other cause for the 
 extension of the plague in that country than the communication, 
 direct or indirect, of the virus from one individual to another, and 
 from one place to another. He lauded all kinds of remedies for 
 the cure of the sick, and among others sulphur acid in the water 
 given them to drink. He came to the happy conclusion, how- 
 ever, that there was no other recourse to put an end to the con- 
 tajrion than killing all the diseased cattle ; and the orders given 
 on his suggestion were rigorously carried out in some villages 
 where the disease had shown itself; four hundred animals were 
 killed, and the epizooty disappeared. 
 
 The erysipelas of pigs {rotlilaiifes), a form of anthrax, was 
 very prevalent in Germany. Wirth testifies to the repeated ap- 
 pearance of this peculiar malady in Switzerland during the last 
 century.^ 
 
 Orraeus says : * At a later period, we made our general resid- 
 ence at Stofl'cln, a village some distance without the city, and in 
 
 1 Wirth. Op. cit., p. no. Scheibler. Sammlung mcrkwiirdiger Thierkrank- 
 heiten, p. 179. This writer terms the affection the lirown disease of Swine {Die 
 Brdune der Schwcine),
 
 438 History of Animal PlagtLcs. 
 
 the midst of those vast vineyards which surround the metropolis 
 of Moldavia ; and at the first I collected a good many specimens 
 of insects^ but after a little while some infection came and drove 
 them all away. Two years later I revisited Jassy, at the same time 
 of the year, but under more favourable auspices; I then saw plenty 
 of all kinds of insects. I believe in the truth of the following ob- 
 servation, which is altogether curious, and which is derived from 
 the pharmacopola of Moscow, and is worthy of belief. For many 
 years back, swarms of small ants crept into the receptacles where 
 syrup was kept every summer, and they could never be extirpated 
 by any artifice ; but during the whole time of the plague not one 
 appeared, though in the year after it had disappeared they all 
 came back again. With regard to birds, it is related that the 
 smaller song-birds which lived in caves died of the disease in 
 their abodes, and that mice and dormice, however numerous 
 they may have been in former times, had now vanished ; for the 
 truth of this, however, I cannot vouch. But concerning many 
 birds, such as ravens, crows, magpies, and others, I am able to 
 affirm, that T observed a multitude of them at Moscow as usual, 
 but during this particular time, they became much scarcer, and 
 I have rarely been able to see any flying about. ^ ^ 
 
 In India great clouds of flies were remarked, and in North 
 America a strange invasion of black worms occurred. These 
 were about an inch and a half long, and devoured corn and 
 grass. They were generated suddenly in the Northern States, 
 and so numerous were they that they covered a surface of 
 country equal to two or three hundred miles. These creatures 
 moved nearly all in the same direction, and when intercepted by 
 deep furrows in ploughed land, they fell into them and formed 
 great heaps. They disappeared all at once towards the end of 
 June.^ Rabies in dogs commenced in this part of the world at 
 this time.^ A tremendous shock of earthquake was experienced 
 in the month of June at St Domingo, which caused much havoc, 
 and destroyed a great part of the island. Famine followed this 
 
 ^ OrrcEus. Descriptio Pestis, &c., p. 63. 
 
 ^ New England Farmer, art. ' Infection.' 
 
 2 Webster. A Hist, of Epid. and Pest. Diseases, 1800.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 439 
 
 accident, and the hardship and misery ensuing was very terrible. 
 It is said that during the earthquake innumerable fissures were 
 opened in the ground throughout the island, from which mephi- 
 tic vapours emanated, and that these produced the disease which 
 followed.^ An epizootv of anthrax was a result of these misfor- 
 tunes, and the unfortunate slaves of North St Domingo expe- 
 rienced a most awful famine; for the cod fishery entirely failed, 
 and the Spanish Colonists, to provide sufficient food, were com- 
 pelled to salt or smoke the flesh of all their cattle — dead or 
 dying from the anthracoid malady. The consequence was, that 
 acarbuncular epidemy appeared, and in less than six weeks more 
 than fifteen thousand black and white people had perished. The 
 plague did not cease until the consumption of the poisonous 
 flesh or ' tassau ' was interdicted." 
 
 Pallas mentions that the Siberian anthrax [Yasvn) was very 
 prevalent among the cattle, and even attacked the camels, in 1755 
 and 1767, in the province of Isetsk. In 1768, it was wider spread 
 than in any former period. With the Baschkirs of this province, 
 the epizooty attacked the camels before it visited the other 
 domestic animals, and so destructive was it with them, that the 
 breeding of this useful creature had to be discontinued. They also 
 lost the greater part of their cattle. In 1770, during the visit of 
 Pallas, the malady was raging in all its fury in the southern and 
 eastern part of this province, especially where the country was 
 open, and had marshes, salt lakes, or lakes of Sweetwater. The 
 disease was almost annual, but in this year it was more than 
 usually mortal. Pallas states that, at the same time, an epidemy 
 raged in mankind. The disease usually manifested itself during 
 the hottest months, especially when south winds prevailed ; it 
 ceased when those from the north began to blow ; if these are 
 late the plague may last until the end of the autumn. The 
 mortality is then very great ; all the horses and cattle perish at 
 the same time ; though the ravages are greater in some districts 
 than in others, it is rare that men or animals are attacked in the 
 interior (jf tcnvns or fortresses. Men do not usually feel its effects 
 
 ' Lyell. Op. cit. 
 
 2 PlaciJc-Justin. Ilistoirc de I'lle d'Hayti, p. I20.
 
 440 History of Animal Plagties. 
 
 until they go into the eountry, and particularly to damp regions, 
 and the majority of animals are attacked at pasture. During the 
 expeditions of the Russian troops against the Kirghis, it was dis- 
 covered that in the low-lying deserts where lakes were, the disease 
 lasted nearly the whole period of the summer heat. The day 
 after passing through one of these places a number of horses 
 were certain to die of the epizooty, and then the whole began to 
 experience its cruel effects. Pallas thought the epidemy reigning 
 in winter in many places was a different one; it manifested itself 
 by boils and ulcers in man and animals. He saw a disease of 
 this kind near the Irtisch, in winter. The people called it the 
 Moravaia-Yasva, or plague; but it was only a gangrenous esqui- 
 nancy. 
 
 He imagined the principal cause of the plague was due to an 
 insect flying in the air, and probably imperceptible to the eye. 
 The disease attacked, by preference, men^ horses, oxen, and cows, 
 — sheep being safe, owing to the thickness of their wool. There 
 were countries which, though near those most visited by the 
 scourge, yet escape; they owed this immunity to the purity of the 
 soil. It is rare that a year passes without an invasion on the 
 Trtisch ; whereas at Barabin, near Bourla, about a hundred versts 
 from that river, it has never been seen, owing to its fresh air. 
 All the horses from the fortresses are sent here to pasture. The 
 symptoms were better noted in man than in animals. The dis- 
 ease showed itself, all at once, in the healthiest subjects of all ages, 
 and of either sex. At first the skin became slightly reddened, 
 and then appeared a small, inflamed, hard pimple, as if produced 
 by the sting of a gadfly. These tumours appeared on covered, as 
 w^ell as uncovered parts, but most usually on the face in man, and 
 the flanks and bellies of animals. They increased in size and 
 hardness with remarkable rapidity, and in such a manner that a 
 needle might be buried in the swollen part without any pain being 
 felt. Externally, there was seen in the centre of the tumour a red 
 or bluish spot, similar to that produced by the sting of an insect. 
 If a remedy was not promptly applied, gangrene set in, and much 
 injury resulted. Animals usually died, because the people were 
 careless, and the tumour vvas late in making its appearance; but 
 people, in consequence of timely treatment, nearly always re-
 
 History of Animal Plagues, 441 
 
 covered. From the symptoms, and the suecess of particular 
 kinds of remedies, Pallas was confirmed in his opinion that the 
 disease was due to a venomous insect abounding in these humid 
 reo;ions durincf the summer's heat, and which mioht have some 
 affinity to Linnaeus's Fiiria infernalis. The same means for keep- 
 ing away insects also sufficed as a preventive of this plague; these 
 were burning fires in the pastures, which the horses and cattle 
 instinctively drew near as the evenino; set in, the time when 
 they were most incommoded. Fires were lighted in pits near 
 the doors through which these animals had to pass on their way 
 to the grazing grounds; but it was superstitiously believed that 
 these should be lighted by the living fire (Tchtvui-ogon), or that 
 produced by rubbing two pieces of stick together. These fire- 
 holes were seen along the borders of the Oui and Siberia, and 
 were looked upon with great veneration, fires being kindled in 
 them wherever the epizooty or epidemy declared itself. 
 
 In 177 1, one of Pallas' companions travelling beyond the 
 line of the Irtisch, remarks that the horse-epizooty was prevalent 
 at Oustkamenogorsk, and that large numbers had perished. He 
 thought, nevertheless, that much of the mortality was due to 
 the worms engendered in their stomachs, and which were seen 
 in the post-mortem examinations; the best remedy was to make 
 the horses drink, in the month of May, very salt water. 
 
 At Tschoumliazk, a large number of horses were attacked by 
 the epizooty, in which, says Pallas, they had a large and deep 
 ulcer under the skin of the back, which contained a worm, but 
 from the description given he did not believe this could be the 
 cause of the Siberian disease. 
 
 The peasants of Obi used to be well off in possessing large 
 droves of excellent horses and cattle, but during some years the 
 epizooty so common on the Irtisch showed itself in their country, 
 and for five years had caused great destruction.^ 
 
 A tremendous flood occurred in Virginia, which entirely 
 swept away Elk Island, on which were seven hundred head of 
 animals — horses, oxen, sheep, and hogs, and nearly one hundred 
 houses.^ About this time, according to Sinclair, ' began the dis- 
 
 ' Voyages dans Plusieurs Provinces del'Empire de Russie, vols. iii. iv. 
 '•* Scots' Magazine, vol. xxxiii.
 
 442- History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ease among potatoes in Scotland, which for many years infested 
 them/ In America, anginas and catarrhs prevailed.^ 
 
 A.D. 1 77 1. The epizooty of rabies, which was noticed as 
 having commenced last year in North America, was this year 
 very prevalent in dogs and foxes, particularly in Boston and 
 its neighbourhood. An epizooty also began in the same local- 
 ity amongst horned cattle, which did not cease until 1785. 
 These events are thus noticed : '' About 25 years past there was 
 an epidemic distemper among dogs causing a great mortality. 
 In 1768 horses were generally affected with a disorder of the 
 head and throat which proved fatal to many, and much injured 
 the serviceableness of those that survived. About the year 1770, 
 there were some instances of the rabies canina ; happily but few 
 dogs were affected, and but few persons were bit; their rage 
 principally fell upon swine. In 1771, a mortal distemper pre- 
 vailed among foxes, and greatly reduced their numbers; about 
 this time, or not long after, a distemper appeared among neat 
 cattle, which destroyed manv, and has continued to this day. 
 The distempers that befell these several kinds of animals were 
 said not to have been known in the country before, more espe- 
 cially that which has affected neat cattle, and which has gen- 
 erally been considered as a new disease. It is commonly called 
 the horn-distemper, and cows are more especially subject to it; 
 oxen but seldom; bulls are said to be exempt from it, also steers 
 and heifers under three years of age. It is a disease that affects 
 the internal substance of the horn, commonly called the pith, 
 insensibly wastes it, and leaves the horn hollow. The pith is a 
 spongy bone, whose cells are filled with an unctuous matter; it 
 is furnished with a great number of small blood-vessels, is over- 
 spread with a thin membrane, and appears to be united by 
 suture to the bones of the head, and is projected to a point. 
 This spongy bone, in the horn-distemper, is sometimes partly, 
 and sometimes entirely, wasted. The horn loses its natural heat, 
 and a degree of coldness is evident upon handling it; when it is 
 only in one horn (which is often the case) a manifest difference 
 between the one and the other will be perceived, and in all cases 
 
 1 T. Forster. Op. cit., p. 169.
 
 Histoiy of Anbnal Plagues. 443 
 
 a want of natural heat will be apparent; wherever this is found, 
 there is no room to doubt of the disorder being present; yet it 
 is seldom suspected without a particular acquaintance with other 
 symptoms that commonly attend this distemper^ and for want of 
 knowing these, the farmer has often lost his cattle, not even 
 suspecting the evil. The symptoms are — a dulness in the coun- 
 tenance of the beast, a sluggishness in moving, a heaviness of 
 the eyes, a failure of appetite, an inclination to lie down, an 
 aversion to rise, and, when accompanied by an inflammation of 
 the brain, a giddiness and frequent tossing of the head; besides 
 these, the limbs are sometimes affected with stifUhess like a rheu- 
 matism, and in cows the milk often fails, the udder is hard, 
 and in almost all cases there is a sudden wasting of the flesh. 
 (Neat cattle are subject to a disorder commonly called the ta'il- 
 sickness, w'hich is a wasting of the bony substance of the tail, 
 and if not cut off or dilated as far as the defect reaches, often 
 proves fiital. It frequently accompanies the horn distemper.) 
 From the number of cows seized with this distemper in the space 
 of a fortnight, a suspicion arose that the distemper w'as infec- 
 tious; time, however, has shown that it is not so, at least, in any 
 great degree, for it frequently happens, that among many cattle 
 herding together, one of them shall have the distemper and the 
 others remain in perfect health.'^ The disease was cured by 
 boring a hole in the substance of the horn, opening its cavity, 
 and allowing the accumulated matter to escape. This malady 
 resembles to some extent a disease which is frequent amongst 
 draught oxen in France, where it is called Catarrhe des Comes, but 
 its usual cause is an injury. In this epizooty it appears to have 
 had no such origin, and I am unable to find another instance of 
 this peculiar malady occurring in a general manner in any 
 country. 
 
 After the pestilence in man at Moscow and in "VVallachia, the 
 ' distemper ' of dogs is noticed for the first time in these countries. 
 It is described by Orraeus: ' I am inclined to believe that it is not 
 incongruous to suppose that the plague amongst hunting dogs, 
 
 1 Cotlo?t Tufts. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
 Boston, 1785. Vol. i. p. 529.
 
 444 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 which, so far as I can leariij was never before observed, followed 
 the plague of men, and for many years, especially in the autumn, 
 increased at Moscow and in this vicinity, and perhaps elsewhere, 
 though there is little notice of it. The disease generally ran its 
 course in this manner: respiration was difficult, with panting and 
 protrusion of the tongue; the food was rejected, the eyes were in- 
 flamed and projecting; afterwards the animals became languid, 
 and the white of the eyes was then scarcely visible. The glands of 
 the neck, and even the head itself, were swollen ; in other cases, 
 the subaxillary or inguinal glands were involved. These swollen 
 glands suppurated either spontaneously, or by the speedy applica- 
 tion of emollient and maturating remedies; or there was a dis- 
 charge of mucus, analogous to pus, from the nostrils in those 
 which recovered; in others which had not these symptoms, death 
 took place in three or four days. In some instances there was 
 diarrhoea instead of these swellings, and the animals were unable 
 to stand; if raised up, they immediately fell down again on their 
 sides. When they became convalescent, they were often afflicted 
 with paralysis of the hinder extremities, and either at last died of 
 marasmus, or if young, after a long interval, gradually became 
 well. This disease was so contagious, that if one was affected 
 all the others were seized in a very short space; while other 
 dogs readily carried it from these to other places. Men, how- 
 ever, were never affected by it, though they handled the sick 
 animals. Also in Wallachia, after the serious plague of mankind, 
 this plague of dogs was observed, as eye-witnesses informed 
 me.'^ 
 
 An cpizooty showed itself amongst fowls in Germany, coinci- 
 dently with ergotism in man. Taube says: 'When, in the spring 
 of 1771, 1 was continuing my journeys through the villages where 
 there were still unfortunate sick people, I found such a general 
 dearth of young poultry as had not been known since the French 
 war. On the other hand, in those neighbourhoods where the 
 ergotism {Kriehel-krankhe'it) was unknown, one heard nothing of 
 this scarcity, or at least it was not so general. I will draw no in- 
 ferences from this circumstance, but only add that every house- 
 
 1 OrrcBiis. Op. cit., p. 155.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 445 
 
 wife complained that her hens would not hatch, and that they 
 laid but few e^irs. In most localities where ero-otism railed, I 
 know nothing for certain beyond the fact, that, at my request, 
 two fowls were sent to me from the vicinity of Hankensbiittel, in 
 both of which had been observed symptoms of spasms. They were 
 really so affected, for at one time they would crouch down, and 
 at another fall on their side, droop their heads, and scratch with 
 their feet. After a time they would get up, but then they ap- 
 peared cramped, and would stretch themselves out again. They fed 
 well for fourteen days, and afterwards lived for eight days 
 longer, but refused their food, became ill, and died on the fourth 
 week.'^ In Saxony, great numbers of geese died from epizootic 
 pityriasis. 'The weather in the early part of the year 177 1 
 favoured the production of innumerable varieties of insects. The 
 geese in many places suffered most, and there were great com- 
 plaints, especially in Saxony, regarding the general mortality 
 among these creatures. On close inspection of their skins, one 
 found swarms of small lice which differed much from the so- 
 called goose-louse, being of quite a distinct and more, minute 
 species.^ "- 
 
 Epizootic aphthous fever appeared in Paris. Lafosse, jun., 
 writes : ^ On the 12th of January, 177 1, I was called by a man 
 named Antoine Louvet, living near the Barricire-Blanche, to see 
 some cows which had been attacked by an epidemic disease, and 
 which had already killed all those it seized. I opened some of 
 the dead animals, and found the pharynx, oesophagus, and trachea 
 covered with aphthae. I also found the intestines gangrenous and 
 full of liquid, which was of the same nature as the dysenteric 
 dejections they had been passing five or six days before their 
 death.' ^ 
 
 Pallas speaks of ovine small-pox as prevalent in Siberia.* 
 A.D. 1772. An epizocity among cattle and sheep in Saxony. 
 Anthracoid diseases in Auvergne and Champagne, as well as in 
 Dijon, France. In the West Indian Islands, at St Domingo, 
 
 ^ Taube. Geschichte der Kriebel-Krankheit. 
 
 ^ Rohkucs. Die Fedcrviehzucht. Berlin, 1821. 
 
 ^ Diclionnaire d'llippiatriquc, «;■/. 'Aphtlies.' 
 
 * Voyages dans I'lusieurs Provinces, &c., vol. iv. p. 19.
 
 44^ History of Anwial Plagues. 
 
 an epizooty broke out which was at one time supposed to be the 
 Cattle Plague, at another gangrenous sore-throat ; and Heusin- 
 ger thinks it might have been a new outbreak of the anthrax 
 disease, which may have lingered from 1770 to this year. ^ A 
 very afflicting case of destruction amongst cattle has occurred to 
 augment those which have arisen since 1772; it is an epizooty 
 that, if we may so speak, has attacked all animals in succession, 
 and has inflicted the most dreadful destruction on our colonies ; 
 these ravages are all the more cruel, because they have given rise, 
 in some instances, to those suspicions which oppose the adoption 
 of proper remedies for a disease that has already desolated entire 
 countries in Europe.' ^ 
 
 Franque^ shows that in the Duchy of Nassau, from this 
 year until 1830, bovine epizootic pleuro-pneumonia was scarcely 
 ever absent. 
 
 A.D, 1773. This year was remarkable for the great numbers 
 of mice observable evervwhere.^ The Cattle Plague still afflicted 
 Holland, and scarcely had Flanders and Picardy begun to repair 
 their losses in cattle, than the embers of this scourge, which had not 
 in all probability been thoroughlyextinguished in the twopreceding 
 years, or were, perhaps, stirred up by some fresh importation from 
 Holland, blazed out anew, and with all its dreaded fury, in this 
 vear. It desolated a large portion of Flanders, especially all the 
 district of Lille, and quickly the generalities of Soissons and 
 Amiens were involved in the same unhappy fate; above all, 
 however, the districts lying along the banks of the river Oise 
 suffered most severely. The malady did not differ much, in its 
 essential features, from the varieties and phenomena it presented 
 
 in 1745- 
 
 In this year, the immortal Haller published his investigations 
 into the nature of an epizooty which had several tiines been 
 observed in Switzerland. The great physician thought it was 
 the Cattle Plague, but no one can read his description of 
 this Swiss maladv without surmisino; that it is a different disease 
 
 1 Moreaji de Saint Mery. Chabc7-t. Instructions, &c., vol. iii. p. 261. 
 
 ^ Fraiique. Geschichte der Hausthierseuchen im Herzogth. Nassau. Frankfort, 
 
 1834. 
 
 ^ Walter. Forstphysiographie, jd. 159.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 447 
 
 and in all probability the bovine contagions pleuro-pnenmonia. 
 Snch an authority needs no apology for being quoted here, 
 especially as his preventive measures are worthy of notice^ and 
 would have saved this country a great loss had they been 
 adopted in recent days. 
 
 T. 
 
 'The first thing necessary to know is the nature of the 
 disease. This knowledge is not easily acquired^ for often it 
 does not manifest itself by any perceptible symptoms for a 
 long enough period. The veritable cause of death is the work 
 of nothing but corruption^ which often affects the intestines; 
 — corruption which is the consequence, and not the cause of the 
 disease. It is necessary to attribute, without doubt, to the diffi- 
 culty of recognizing this disease, the great ravages which it has 
 made amongst the cattle of the most enlightened nations, before 
 thev knew its terrible character or the means to prevent its pro- 
 gress. In a general way, it is described as manifesting itself by 
 a violent fever, by shiverino;s, bv staring of the coat, by loss of 
 rumination; but all these symptoms do not appear until the 
 malady has already made deadly advances in the interior of the 
 animal. We are told that, for a certainty, a beast taken out of 
 an infected stable and transported to a perfectly healthy atmo- 
 sphere, does not become sick until a month after it has been 
 removed from the diseased locality, and that it perishes from the 
 veritable contagion which, without doubt, had been concealed 
 durino- the whole of this month in the bodv of the animal. It 
 is also a fact that the diseased cattle jump about for some weeks 
 with vivacity; that they give their usual quantity of milk; that 
 they eat their forage with avidity ; that they work .in harness, 
 and yet that they carry death in their intestines. The only 
 sign of pneumonia ("pulmonic^') which is to be noticed from 
 the commencement, is a slio-ht coucrh, which affects the animal 
 notwithstanding all the a])parent signs of good health. It is 
 not for some days or weeks after the beast has become infected 
 that fever shows itself bv shivering and erect hair. The cough 
 now augments, the animal moans, its strength diminishes, it 
 cannot stand, and lies very often; it has a dilliculty in breath-
 
 448 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ing; the pulse is frequent; the heat and the fever become in- 
 tensified. It is now that it ceases to eat and to ruminate. The 
 disease prevails during some days; the fever augments from day 
 to day; the veins (?) beat with a force and a quickness which is 
 astonishing ; a gluey foam runs from the nostrils and the mouth 
 of the creature; the tongue is hot; the breath is heavy and 
 gurgling, and its odour is insupportable ; the eyes are buried in 
 their orbits; the horns become cold ; a diarrhoea of a bad odour, 
 and sometimes tinged with blood, and a thorough total sinking, 
 terminate the beast's days. This diarrhoea does not always take 
 place. 
 
 2. 
 
 'When we open the cattle after death, we find the lungs con- 
 stantly and infalHbly attacked. We might know this from the 
 cough and the difficulty of breathing which precedes death. In 
 all the contagions which have reigned at Sulens, Grandson, 
 at Grassy, and elsewhere, the lungs have always been inflamed 
 and attached to the pleurae, and an aposteme often formed be- 
 tween the lungs and this membrane. I find the same observation 
 in the best authorities who have written on the contagion, and 
 particularly in the writings of M. Bourgelat, who has made the 
 curing of these animals a particular study. In many cows the 
 lungs are found gangrenous; in others they are filled with 
 abscesses ; and in others, again, there are vesicles filled with water 
 mixed sometimes with pus; it is more rare to find tartarized or 
 cretaceous matter. There is constantly inflammation and gan- 
 grene in the pleura, and we have never yet killed infected animals 
 and found the lungs in the natural state. The cough being the 
 first symptom of this disease, it is present in every animal affected. 
 The lungs being constantly altered, it is clear that the disease of 
 these is the essence of-the contagion, and that it is with perfect 
 justice the people term it, both in France and Germany, pneumo- 
 nia. The alterations in the other viscera are not so essential as 
 those in the lungs. It is common, nevertheless, to find the 
 stomach inflamed and gorged with food. It is scarcely altered 
 when the animals are killed shortly after the commencement of the 
 disease; but when they have been slaughtered in the last stages.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 449 
 
 or when they have died, the first compartment is inflamed, the 
 food is found Httle affected by digestion, or it may he even rot- 
 ten. The second compartment is equally inflamed, and filled 
 with forage which is undigested. The third compartment suflers 
 the most, and it is very often found inflamed and gangrenous, 
 the food in it being extremely compact and dry, and sometimes 
 rotten (pourri). The fourth, or true stomach, is frequently inflamed 
 and gangrenous, but the food is not hardened. 
 
 ' From the first days of the malady the beast has eaten and 
 ruminated, and as it would not be able to maintain cither of 
 these functions if the stomach had become inflamed, it is very 
 evident that the corruption of the stomach is a consequence of 
 the fever and the putridity of the juices of the beast, and that it 
 is not the cause of the disease. The animal has been infected, 
 and the stomach has maintained its health for a number of days^ 
 and it is onlv bv a corruption of the humours that it is found 
 vitiated. M. Bour2;elat has found the stomach in the same 
 state of inflammation, and the same engorgement of forage, in 
 every beast mortally attacked, no matter what acute malady it 
 may have been. 
 
 ' It is the same in the intestines, which are often found in- 
 flamed, and even gangrenous ; and this corruption appears to be 
 the eflc'ct of the rottino; of the food which the stomach has 
 passed into the intestines, and which attacks them. 
 
 3- 
 ' An extraordinary dilatation of the gall-bladder is frequently 
 met with, and yet it is only a somewhat constant accident of the 
 contagion. It may arise from a retention of the bile in the cyst, 
 because the stomach having lost its function, the bile is not 
 evacuated. We may infer that this is the cause, for men who 
 have died of hunger, or were so injured by some violent disease 
 that they could not take food, have usually the gall-bladder 
 dilated. Sometimes, also, we have observed an emphysema 
 under the skin, often on those parts on wliich the animal has 
 lain; this is only an efl^cct of the putrefaction {poi/rrl/i/rc). We 
 have the same eflfect exhibited in the fat, which is often in a corrupt 
 state in those animals that have died of the contagion; yet 
 
 29
 
 45 o History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 the flesh of those beasts cannot be constantly vitiated, for in 
 those countries where measures of pohce are neglected, the poor 
 people eat the flesh of infected oxen. We have scarcely observed 
 the odour of the skins, but they have been found of a softer 
 texture than in an animal in health. In other countries, ab- 
 scesses have been scattered under the whole surface of the skin, 
 and some doctors have regarded them as a salutary evacuation, 
 but nothing similar has been observed in the contagion of this 
 country. It is more common to find a yellowish fluid in the 
 cavity of the chest, but this is not constant ; and we have opened 
 cattle which had one side filled with this fluid, and none on 
 the other. The country people have distinguished two kinds of 
 pneumonia, the dry and the humid, but there is no foundation 
 for this distinction. 
 
 4- 
 ' The true nature of a disease is known by the accidents which 
 accompany it in its duration, and by the changes which we ob- 
 serve on the autopsy of the animal, when compared with the 
 organs of the body in health. But the essential features of the 
 disease ought to consist in the symptoms which are manifested 
 from the beginning, and which have continued during life ; and 
 in the marks of corruption in the interior w'hich are the actual 
 causes of these symptoms, it requires care not to be deceived by 
 these accidents, which are a consequence of the corruption of 
 the humours, and are only most apparent in the later stages of 
 the disease. It is believed that the contagion amongst the cattle 
 is an inflammatory fever; a malignant fever; a fever accompanied 
 by an eruption on the skin; as well as an inflammation of the 
 stomach. The ancients have got very near the truth, and the 
 vulffar have known the nature of the disease better than the 
 learned. It is evident that it is a disease of the lungs, which 
 commences by an inflammation, running often into gangrene, 
 at other times into abscesses, and which terminates in phthisis. 
 It is very astonishing that amongst the number of modern 
 doctors who have written on a contagion existing for so many 
 years, scarcely one has observed that the seat of the disease 
 exists in the lungs, or even that these were attacked.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 451 
 
 5- 
 'The doctors have estabhshed their remedial measures to cure 
 this disease, on the notion that they knew its nature. Those 
 who look upon it as an inflammatory fever recommend bleeding, 
 and remedies of a soothing and cooling kind ; those who admit 
 a corruption of the blood have ordered febrifuge and stimulating 
 remedies, and those who consider it a putrid fever counsel the 
 administration of acids, and in Brandenburg wild apples have 
 been recommended as a specific. Others, again, have proposed 
 quinine, and others mercury, while the people have recourse in 
 general to incongruous compositions, and to old-fashioned 
 recipes. The ancients looked much to setons, to the root of 
 hellebore passed through the skin, so as to establish a long 
 suppuration. But it has been discovered by sad experience 
 in Holland and in England that these remedies are impotent; 
 all hope of curing this disease has been lost, and people are con- 
 tent to mitigate it by inoculation. We pass in silence the pre- 
 tended preservatives by which it is supposed animals arc insured 
 against the contagion, and to which no man of sense would give 
 any confidence, seeing that they are useless against the plague, 
 the small-pox, and other contagious diseases. 
 
 6. 
 
 ' A long experience has taught us that remedies are useless 
 against the contagion. The beginning of the disease is nearly 
 imperceptible, and when the symptoms are manifested the cure 
 has become almost impossible. The use of remedies is otherwise 
 dangerous, for the infection is really communicated by the 
 breath and the exhalations ; we have a proof of this in the foul 
 smell attaching to the clothes of people who look after the dis- 
 eased beasts. We cannot hope to cure in a day a disease of so 
 serious a character; and thus the diseased creature which lives 
 in the same stable with other cattle, and feeds and drink w ith 
 them, may infect them during the time we are unsuccessfully try- 
 ing to cure it. These same exhalations may also lodge in the 
 clothes of those who go about them, and thus become danger- 
 ous to the animals vet in health.
 
 452. History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 ^We cannot, then, hope for any good from remedies. For 
 more than two thousand years, an infinite number of the most 
 learned men hav^e given their most constant attention to observ^- 
 ing the eifects of medicines on mankind. We know well enough 
 the value of simples, the properties which they have of stimulat- 
 ing or evacuating, and their dose. But we have not nearly the 
 same knowledge to guide us when we deal with animals : few 
 talented persons have observed their diseases ; the art of curing 
 them has been left to men of low condition, who have no know- 
 ledge of the anatomy of the lower creatures, and who have not 
 informed themselves by the study of nature, or of good authors. 
 The cattle-doctors invariably follow the same routine traced by 
 the ancient veterinarians, and their science consists of divers 
 receipts, which they have found amongst the papers of their pre- 
 decessors. 
 
 ^The structure of the stomach of cattle is very different from 
 that of man; in general the envelopes of their nerves are much 
 more thick, the sensations less active, the pulse less frequent, the 
 arteries more hard, and the heart less irritable. All these pe- 
 culiarities change the effect of remedies in animals, in a way 
 quite different to man; and it is only within a few years that 
 convincing proof has been afforded of the difference between the 
 effect which a remedy has on man and animals. The safran 
 of metals is a violent emetic for human beings; in the horse it 
 only increases the transpiration ; a dose of the glass of anti- 
 mony, which produces violent vomiting in mankind, simply 
 purges the horse ; no poison will make a horse or a cow vomit. 
 Because the effects of medicines, therefore, on the lower animals 
 are so little known; because scarcely any one has observed closely 
 enough the diseases of cattle, or given certain rules for the ex- 
 hibition of proper remedies; because the use of remedies can 
 only tend to spread the contagion — for all these reasons it is 
 prudent to abstain from a dangerous tentative which promises 
 but little, and which may have the worst effects; and it is in- 
 finitely preferable to oppose the disease by means which are more 
 certain and commendable.
 
 I 
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 453 
 
 'We begin by disabusing the public of the idea that the 
 pneumonia {Ja Fidmonic) is not a contagious disease. This out- 
 rageous idea even conies from some savants; there are those, too, 
 who rob the plague of its contagious power. I do not pretend 
 to say that the skin of an infected beast preserves its contagious 
 properties for a long time after death ; experiments on this 
 matter, which deserve attention, have been made in France. It 
 is necessary, nevertheless, to remember that the plague attaches 
 itself by preference to the wool and the hair of animals, that it 
 may be transported by these matters, and that they will spread 
 the contagion to other towns and countries free from the con- 
 tagion. It is, then, possible that the empoisoned exhalations of 
 the diseased beast attach themselves to the hairs of the animals 
 which go near it. It is at least certain in our country, that as 
 often as the disease is manifested amongst cattle, and when it 
 has been traced to its source, it has been found that a beast 
 which had been purchased in the market of some suspected 
 place, or which had been brought from some infected locality, 
 has carried the contagion with it to the new centre. Sometimes, 
 also, the cattle of our regions have been depastured with those 
 of a neighbouring infected country. It is very probable that, at 
 other times, the air of the infected mountains has spread the dan- 
 gerous exhalations over our country. We believe we have ob- 
 served that the healthy cattle which had smelled those that were 
 diseased have shown, a few hours after, traces of the contagion. 
 It is known that the ship from Sidon brought the plague to 
 Marseilles, and that the bull which was taken from Hungary to 
 Padua in 171 1, took with it the fearful contagion which first 
 ravaged Italy, and then nearly the half of Europe. It thus 
 appears that the plague of man and the Cattle Plague take 
 their origin in hot countries, that they can infect temperate 
 regions, and that they are gradually destroyed during the cold 
 of some rigorous winter. That which is yet a better proof 
 that the pneumonia is perpetuated by infection, as the plague is, 
 is the manner in which we can confine it in suspected places, 
 and by cutting o{[' all conm)unication between the stables in-
 
 454 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 fected and those which are not. If this malady was generated 
 spontaneously^ like the ordinary fevers of man^ we would in vain 
 barricade the infected stables^ in vain we would slaughter the 
 cattle of a village, and it would be useless to isolate the moun- 
 tains by barriers and by guards. All these precautions would not 
 keep away a disease which has its origin in the blood itself of the 
 healthiest cattle. 
 
 'This contagion, however, does not spread very far, and it 
 does not infect a column of air for any great distance. If the 
 air were infected — if it was able to carry afar the poison of the 
 disease, the barriers and other precautionary measures of man 
 would be unavailinsr. In this there is the greatest resemblance 
 between the disease of cattle and the plague of man. The 
 monks and nuns of Marseilles were preserved because they kept 
 their convents closed. The air was not, then, the cause of the 
 disease, else the closure of the convents would not have pre- 
 vented the pestilence from entering. The police have often con- 
 fined this disease of cattle to a stable, or a small number of 
 stables, and so prevented others being attacked. 
 
 8. 
 
 'It follows from all this, that, on the one side, the disease arises 
 from infection, and on the other, that there are no hopes of a 
 cure. There only remain, then, those resources which we may 
 employ to prevent infection, and for confining to the smallest 
 limits the loss which might happen when animals are first 
 attacked by this poison. These eflTorts should be directed to pre- 
 vent the infection being communicated from other countries to 
 ours ; or if it should have penetrated, then to stop its spreading 
 from the diseased to the healthy. Above all things, then, we 
 ought to hinder the entrance of cattle from a country where the 
 pneumonia nearly always reigns, sometimes in one district, some- 
 times in another; and these precautions ought to remain in force 
 at all times, and be perpetual in regard to those countries 
 where the police is not strict, and from which the disease might 
 be carried to ours. The danger will be always great if the 
 trade in cattle is carried on without inspection. This precaution 
 is all the more necessary against the countries vvhosc rulers care
 
 Hisiory of Animal Plag^ics. 455 
 
 little for the welfare of the people, and in which the people have 
 no confidence in the administration. The poor people of a 
 country, despairing of being aided by the government, conceal 
 with extreme care the existence of the contagion; to evade more 
 onerous consequences, they even inter the cattle in their stables, 
 and it is very natural that they should endeavour to sell at a 
 modest price those beasts which incur great danger to their 
 nei2;hbours. In the countries where the ruler has a paternal feel- 
 ing for his subjects, where he is always disposed to soften their 
 losses, where he generously takes into account the expenses 
 necessarily attending precautions, and where he gains the con- 
 fidence of the people, the inhabitants at once denounce the dis- 
 ease, submit to the necessary restrictions, and rely on the wisdom 
 of their king for their preservation, and the amelioration of their 
 hardships. A wise government ought to prevent the contagion, 
 and not wait until it has invaded the country, but check it at its 
 frontiers, where it is easy to do so. The police ought, then, even 
 in times of the greatest apparent security, to take care that no 
 animal shall become diseased without responsible people being- 
 informed. Even in ordinary times every animal purchased or 
 sold ought to be vouched for, and should be marked on the horn 
 with a particular stamp for each village, which mark ought to be 
 renewed whenever it becomes effaced ; so that, by this proof, we 
 may know what village it comes from, and assure ourselves of the 
 health of that village. For the same reasons, no cattle should 
 be admitted to fairs or markets, sold or exchanged, without a 
 voucher being given of perfect health, impressed and signed by 
 the authorities, testifying to the health of the animals and that 
 of the place from whence they have come. For this purpose in- 
 spectors are necessary. They should destroy cattle which are 
 brought without attestations, and give the flesh to the poor ; 
 there are but few cases when less rigorous measures are needed. 
 
 9- 
 
 ' Notwithstanding all these precautions, the extent of the 
 frontiers, the want of care of our neighbours, the exhalations 
 from the infected mountains where the disease is raging, the 
 greed of gain, and the desire to purchase at u low price, as well
 
 45 6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 as the other failings of a police so difficult to enforce in human 
 society, are all causes which may aid the contagion in insinuat- 
 ing itself into some village or on some mountain. In this un- 
 fortunate case^ it only rests with us to smother the flame in its 
 first commencement, and to prevent its extension. Every per- 
 son who may have any knowledge of the disease, or even any 
 suspicion of its existence among cattle, should be held liable to a 
 heavy penalty if the nearest magistrate is not at once informed ; 
 also when a non-suspected beast becomes diseased or dies, the 
 proprietor or other instructed persons should give information, 
 and the proper authorities should then pass on the tidings. 
 Whoever conceals any suspected case should be severely pun- 
 ished. Every precaution should then be made to extinguish the 
 disease. 
 
 lo. 
 
 'The first of these precautions is the prompt separation 
 of the diseased beast. So long as it is suspected it ought 
 neither to be allowed to drink, feed, pasture, or dwell with the 
 healthy. It should be kept in a separate stable, or in an en- 
 closed paddock, and those who attend it should wear clothes 
 appropriate for that purpose — never even approaching healthy 
 animals. The trough out of which this animal drinks ought not 
 to be used for the healthy, the dung should not be spread on the 
 ground or carried away, but shoidd be buried in deep pits and 
 well covered with earth, and these places should be surrounded 
 by palings, so that no healthy beast may be able to smell it. 
 
 ' When the infected animal has been killed, or when it has died, 
 it is necessary to aerate the stable for three months at least, and 
 remove and burn the thatch and all the wooden moveable articles; 
 to dig up the ground to the depth of a foot, and replace it with 
 other earth, and cover the whole with lime. The healthy should 
 not go near the forage which the diseased may have been eating, 
 and which might be infected by its breath, — though it may be 
 given to horses. Every animal dying of the disease should be 
 opened in the presence of proper persons skilled in the veterinary 
 art, and a report of the post-mortem appearance should be made. 
 If the disease is made out to be a non-contagious one, the owner
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 457 
 
 may be permitted to use the flesh and remove the skin. But if 
 there is found the slightest cause for suspicion in the lungs, the 
 skin oucrht to be cut crosswise, and buried in a grave six feet deep, 
 which should then be tilled with lime. Palisades should be fixed 
 around it, so that no animal mav come near. If the disease is really 
 a pneumonia, it is preferable not to doctor it, but to kill without 
 delay the first animals which, from their cough, would lead one to 
 suspect the disease, or those which have been in the same stable 
 with the sick; because we may set down as lost, without excep- 
 tion, every animal which has been in a house with a pulmonic 
 beast. Experience has only too often demonstrated that they take 
 the disease one after the other, and all die. This operation shall 
 be performed in the same way, and with the greatest care, when 
 animals have perished from a suspected disease without its being 
 decidedly contagious. Their flesh may be used, and the skins pre- 
 served, provided they are at once carried to the tanners. The skins 
 of the really diseased must be cut and buried w'xxh. the bodies in a 
 deep pit full of lime. When the loss is considerable, the Sove- 
 reion usually causes a collection to be made for those proprietors 
 whose cattle have, lor the sake of security, been sacrificed for the 
 public good. 
 
 II. 
 
 'When many stables are infected in the same village, the 
 danger is yet greater, and it is here that it is necessary to re- 
 double our eff'orts to prevent the spread of the contagion. All 
 the infected stiibles should be carefully closed, and excluded from 
 all communication with the watering-places and the pasturage ; 
 and in serious cases, to make more certain, we should kill all the 
 animals which have been in the infected places, no less those in 
 apparent health than those in which disease is manifest. We 
 are driven to this severe recourse, because we never can be assured 
 that those animals which have come out of suspicious places 
 have escaped the contagion. This apparent cruelty is the only 
 means to be employed for preventing the contagion from pene- 
 trating into other stables and into neighbouring villages, and 
 from spreading over the whole of a country. 
 
 ' The case is vet more dantrerous when the coutaiiion niani-
 
 45 8 History of Aiiimal Plagues. 
 
 fests itself on a mountain where a certain number of cattle find 
 their subsistence during the winter. It has happened that the 
 cattle of the plains hav^e remained in healthy but that those on 
 the neighbouring mountains have been infected, and thus the 
 herds of the republic have been encircled by the contagion. 
 This has occurred sometimes on the mountains of Petite Bour- 
 gogne; and though we have admonished the inhabitants of the 
 Valley of Lake Joux^ they more than once have been found in 
 the midst of the infected villages of Bourgogne. In these un- 
 happy circumstances, it is to be recommended that the moun- 
 tain-passes should be closed, and all communication cut off 
 from the infected pasturages. Inspectors ought to make a visit 
 every fifteen days to the mountains where the cattle belonging 
 to the subjects of the State are kept, in order to examine with 
 great care if any beasts are in a suspicious condition, or if, with- 
 out exception, they are in health. When the time arrives that 
 these animals should be brought from the mountains after they 
 have passed the summer in Bourgogne without being infected, 
 the proprietors should be compelled to keep them for six weeks 
 on the lower hills — which are isolated, and separated, so as to 
 prevent their mixing with the cattle of the country. These 
 places should also be visited every fifteen days, and it is only 
 after this quarantine, and according to circumstances, that they 
 be permitted to enter the valleys when we can assure ourselves 
 there is no danger. 
 
 ' In those instances where the infected mountains of our 
 neighbours abut too closely on our own, these last should be 
 most strictly guarded, and it should not be for less than a year 
 after the disease has disappeared that anv communication be 
 allowed; as experience has amply demonstrated that cattle not 
 suspected of disease have been attacked by the contagion by 
 grazing on mountains in the neighbourhood of those infected. 
 
 13. 
 
 ^When, unfortunately, this contagion has penetrated from 
 the neighbouring mountains to our own, the danger is extreme. 
 The number of cattle which pasture on a mountain is much 
 greater than in a stable, and by these all mixing in search of
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 459 
 
 food, we have not the power to separate them. They often drink 
 at the same pond, assemble at the same chalet, or at any rate in 
 a number of chalets^ and there is every facility for their roaming 
 from one mountain to another; in this way they may spread 
 the infection. The poisonous breath of the diseased attaches it- 
 self to those in health, clings to their hair, and empoisons the 
 pasturage. It is absolutely necessary, then, to act with a moun- 
 tain where there is disease as we w^ould a stable in which the 
 contagion existed ; but it is to be remembered that it is more 
 easy to close and barricade a stable than a mountain. There re- 
 mains nothing to be done in these unhappy circumstances, than 
 to kill all the cattle on the infected pasturage, — those yet in health 
 and those in whichlhe disease is recognizable, — in orderto keep the 
 adjoining mountains safe. It is the measure which has been prac- 
 tised more than once with success ; the loss has been doubtless 
 considerable, but the subscriptions gathered in the country, added 
 to the bounty of the Sovereign, have contributed to solace the 
 unfortunate owners. There is to be observed in the performance 
 of this melancholy duty a natural difference between tbc cattle 
 in health and those diseased : we take the flesh and the skins of 
 the first, and bury the latter entire and in lime. Sometimes we 
 are obliged to exercise a greater degree of severity by destroying 
 the hogs which, according to the custom on the mountains, feed 
 with the cattle. The contao;ion which destroys the oxen does 
 not affect either pigs, sheep, or horses; but it is always to be 
 apprehended that these may carry some of the contagion or the 
 
 infected breath to these animals, and may thus spread the 
 disease. 
 
 13- 
 
 ' It is only by these precautions, which should be constantly 
 in force, that it is possible to confine the contagion to a village 
 or a mountain, and to keep the country free from infection ; from 
 time immemorial no contairion has ravajxed more than a very 
 small district of our land. It is not doubtful, therefore, that 
 the same measures would suffice equally in stopping the pro- 
 gress of the contagion in other countries; and they might be 
 vet more easily enforced, because in these kiuirdoms there are 
 troops who might be usefully employed in cutting off' com-
 
 460 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 plete communication with the infected regions. But it is es- 
 sential that all these measures should be taken at the very com- 
 mencement of the contagion^ — without delay, without hesitation, 
 and without stint or reluctance. When an entire country, such 
 as Holland, is infected in thousands of villages and stables, no 
 human power can suffice to root out the contagion. 
 
 'Even now it reigns in Holland, notwithstanding the inocu- 
 lation and the many remedies employed. The milk necessary is 
 furnished by the cows which have had, or are proof against, the 
 disease. It really appears that the malady diminishes, and as if 
 it would cease of itself, like every other foreign disease; the 
 plague, even, dies out after a certain time. 
 
 14. 
 
 'The glossanthrax [surlangue), or ulcer of the tongue, is yet 
 more contagious than the pneumonia ; the cause of this abscess 
 is carried even by the air, and the disease traverses an entire 
 country in a few days. It is truly a mortal affection when the 
 necessary precautions are not enforced, but it is easily cured. It 
 suffices to rub the tongue with a spoon, the edges of which are a 
 little sharp, and to wash the abscess with wine. The glanders of 
 horses is contagious, and is often seen in this country. There 
 are employed against it the same measures as are used for the 
 pneumonia ; the diseased horses are destroyed, and the stables 
 are closed. 
 
 ' Splenic apoplexy [maladle de la ratte) makes great ravages 
 in very hot summers ; it is a burning fever accompanied by gan- 
 grene of the heart, but it is not contagious, — no more at least 
 than dysentery {flux de sang). 
 
 ' The manner of replacing the cattle in a country where the 
 contagion has destroyed all, does not enter into our plan ; we 
 have never been reduced to that unfortunate state, and we refer 
 the reader to the wise counsels which Lancisi had published.^ ^ 
 
 It has been already stated that the disease described by 
 
 - 'J- Von Hei-rn. Alb. Halkr. M^moire sur la Contagion parmi le Betail. Ab- 
 handlung Von der Viesuche. Berne, 1773.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 461 
 
 Haller as existing in Switzerland^ was in all probability the con- 
 tagious pleuro-pneunionia, to whose ravages at the present time 
 we are so paint'ullv accustomed. Nevertheless, the existence of 
 this malady, concurrently with the Cattle Plague in different 
 countries, has been remarked on several occasions, and has not 
 unfrequently given rise to pathological mistakes of a serious 
 kind. It is also worthy of notice that Switzerland, owino; 
 greatly, no doubt, to its physical configuration and geographical 
 position, as well as to the intelligence of its people, has been 
 largely exempted from the desolating visitations of the Cattle 
 Plague, which was at this time thinning the herds of Flanders, 
 Picardv, Soissonnais, and Champagne. Hainault was the first to 
 experience its ravages. It appeared at La Grosier, a village in the 
 neighbourhood of Landrecy, in the domain of Bouchain. It de- 
 vastated a part of Flanders, particularly about Lille, and soon all 
 the generalities of Soissons and Amiens participated in the de- 
 struction ; more particularly were its dreadful effects remarked on 
 the banks of the river Oise. It appears that in Hainault, as well 
 as in Picardy, there were many vague conjectures as to what had 
 caused the malady ; but the prevailing opinion was that it had 
 been brought bv a sick cow which had come from the Low Coun- 
 tries, where a similar malady was then raging. According to 
 M. Dufot, this was the way in which it had been conveyed 
 to Soissons. In these provinces, it offered the same varieties, 
 and the same phenomena as the epizooty of 1745 did in differ- 
 ent parts of Europe, with some few exceptions. 
 
 The different authors who wrote on the Cattle Plague of 
 this year describe its symptoms and spread very accurately. 
 In Hainault, where it was observed by M. Raulin, it was 
 remarked that the skin eruption was more frequent than else- 
 where. 'The morbid matter of the disease is sometimes thrown 
 out on the skin, in the form of inflammatory pustules {houtons). 
 This eruption appears from the fifth to the seventh day, and 
 particularly about the ears, the neck, the udder, and the inner 
 sides of the thighs: that is to say, on those parts of the skin 
 where there is least resistance, and where its texture is thin- 
 nest.' 
 
 The most striking proofs of its contagiousness were afforded.
 
 462 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and the curious ways in which the poison could be carried about 
 were often reported. For example, at Morcourt, a village near 
 Paris, the dog of a labourer followed some coachmen who were 
 driving their carriages to the village of Fonsomme, In passing 
 by the farms of Courcelles, where nearly all the cattle had 
 perished, but had not been deep enough buried, this dog stopped 
 when he perceived the smell of their flesh, scraped the earth 
 away, made a repast off them, and then returned to his master. 
 Pressed by thirst, he drank some gruel intended for calves, and 
 then went to sleep on the dungheap. Some days afterwards the 
 calves became ill and died. The contagion was communicated 
 to the cows, who shared the same fate, and the malady soon 
 spread over the whole of the village. Only one farm, belonging 
 to a labourer, and containing twelve cows, escaped; but this in- 
 dividual took every precaution to keep away man and beast 
 from his stables, and did not allow his cows to leave the 
 premises.^ 
 
 Paulet says : Hf we examine all the symptoms enumerated by 
 the various authors, and compare them with those reported for 
 the epizooty of 17 14 and 1745, there can be no difficulty in 
 establishino; their identity, even with their variations. The 
 lachrymation, salivation, and nasal discharge; the prostration, 
 stupor, dulness, refusal of food, and apathy ; in some cases an 
 eruption on the skin, in others none at all, as Lancisi and Cour- 
 tivron remarked ; in the majority, a cough preceding all the 
 other symptoms; emphysematous tumours appearing in large 
 number towards the termination of the disease ; a perceptible 
 alteration in the dejections, which were sometimes liquid, and 
 nearly at all times sanguinolent and fetid; in all, without 
 exception, a hard and dry mass of aliment in the stomachs^ par- 
 ticularly the third compartment; lastly, the same course in com- 
 munication, the same violence in the symptoms, the same periods, 
 the same phenomena in its progress, and the same difficulty in 
 
 1 Besides M. Raulin, whose Memoirs are only to be found in various journals, 
 the writers who have best described the epizooty at this time are : M. Dufot. Me- 
 moire pour preserver les Betes a Cornes de la Maladie Epizootique, &c. Soissons, 
 1773. The Memoire du Sieur Maillard sur la Maladie Epizootique, &c. Amiens, 
 1773. Nocq. Observations sur la Maladie Epizootique que regne dans plusieurs 
 Paroisses de I'Election de Saint-Quentin. St Quentin, 1773.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 463 
 
 treatment — all prove it to be the one malady. If there is any 
 advantage, any light to be derived from the different observations 
 of the authors, so as to remedy the inroads of the scourge, which 
 in consequence of the climate, the season, the seat of the virus, 
 the state of the humours, the circumstances in which the animal 
 was placed, and perhaps, also, from treatment, was some- 
 times eruptive, sometimes catarrhal, at other times dysenterical ; 
 — if there is any real benefit to be derived, we repeat, it is par- 
 ticularly that which may make us acquainted with the earliest 
 symptoms of the disease, so that we may either promptly protect 
 the healthy, or treat them before it shows itself. 
 
 ' This primary condition is difficult to discover, even for ob- 
 servant eyes, as M. Dufot remarks. Nevertheless, the general 
 apathy, as well as the dulness, announce the disease; and if we 
 add to these two signs the diminution of milk, the flaccidity of the 
 udder in the cow, and particularly a cough, with acceleration of the 
 pulse, we will have the principal signs which precede the malady, 
 and which are essential in every case for its recognition. With 
 regard to the prognosis, this is always directly related to the 
 svmptoms. M. Dufot remarks, that when the intestinal ex- 
 cretions were abundant (without being bloody), the animal did 
 not die. The morbific matter has only three favoural)le issues 
 to escape by, — either from the nostrils, the intestines, or the skin . 
 and these two last being the most proper to the advent of a 
 favourable crisis, they are the more or less fortunate according as 
 the humour is removed by them in a great or small quantity, 
 in whole or in part, and of a good quality. The issue by the 
 skin is always the most advantageous for a critical movement, 
 
 brought on either by nature or art The cpizooty in 
 
 Picardy offered some minor features relative to the communica- 
 tion of the malady, and to the general and particular care neces- 
 sary to preserve the cattle. In such circumstances, there is a 
 class of men in the country who areas dangerous as the malady; 
 these are the petty cattle-dealers, who run from one farm to 
 another nearly all their time, with suspected beasts which spread 
 the disease. Every means should be taken to expose abuses 
 of this nature. It was proved that one of these uuii who drove 
 about two beasts in a diseased condition, halticl with them in
 
 464 History of Animal Plagiies. 
 
 the pastures of a farmer who was from home, and so infected 
 the place that the owner saw all his cows die in a short time 
 after they had been in it. It was by similar means that the 
 scourge was carried from one province to another. As a rule, 
 too much attention cannot be paid not only to cattle-dealers, 
 but also to all those who visit the diseased animals and handle 
 them. The disease passed in this way from Picardy to Cham- 
 pagne, and extended to Charleville. A farmer in this town, it 
 was said, only saved his stock by opposing a vigorous resistance 
 to the entrance of those who had been visiting at suspected 
 places. Whether this was really the case it would be diffi- 
 cult to decide ; but it is certain that, in guarding his cattle from 
 all external communication, he was the only one who escaped 
 the ravages of the malady. It is not yet decided whether, in 
 certain cases, the advantages to be derived from the visits of 
 scientific men, amateurs, and farriers, &c., are capable of coun- 
 terbalancing the dangers to be apprehended from their carrying 
 the contagion. On the one hand, it is essential to know how 
 many animals are affected, in order to treat them or to stay the 
 progress of the contagion; and on the other, it is not less essen- 
 tial to reckon on the danger of visits and infection.' ' It ought 
 to be particularly noted that this question is only applicable to a 
 disease like the present, which is recognized as very contagious, 
 very deadly, nearly always incurable, and for the suppression of 
 which we must depend but little on the resources of art. In other 
 cases, — those of diseases springing up amongst us, and whose 
 progress we can arrest by care almost as soon as they mani- 
 fest themselves, — it is the interest of the State, as well as of in- 
 dividuals, that specially educated men be directed to the infected 
 places to give prompt and convenient assistance, or to issue in- 
 structions for the guidance of the country people, and to form 
 a good sanitary police to take precautionary measures.' Some 
 excellent examples are given by Paulet, showing that, by simple 
 precautions, several parishes escaped the contagion. He adds: 
 ' They were not so fortunate in Artois, for the malady there 
 attacked successively fifty villages, so that in 1774 four-fifths of 
 the diseased cattle were lost.'
 
 465 
 
 CHAPTER Vllf. 
 
 PERIOD FROM A.D. 1 774 TO 1800. 
 
 A.D. 1774. In September, a severe earthquake was experi- 
 enced at Altdorf, in Switzerland. Epidemic convulsions were 
 prevalent in France, and an analogous disease was very general 
 in America. In Scotland, the crops were mildewed, and America 
 suffered in a similar manner. At Cape Cod, a bed of oysters 
 perished from disease; and at York Island, in the United States 
 of America, the lobsters mysteriously disappeared. 
 
 The epizooty of anthrax which broke out at St Domingo in 
 1772, extended itself this year to Guadaloupc, and attacked not 
 only cows, but horses and other animals; people were even 
 affected with it by inoculation from the cattle.^ An epizooty 
 appeared among geese on the banks of the river Meurthe, Lor- 
 raine, where in a very short time six hundred of these crea- 
 tures died from diarrhoea and vcrtio;o.^ 
 
 In Brittany, during the sunnncr, anthrax was common, and 
 in December it prevailed in Gevaudan. In many instances it 
 was transmitted to man.^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague still prevailed in Holland, owing to the 
 attempts to cure it; so that that country was a standing danger 
 to all those which had any dealings witii it. 
 
 ^ Berlin. Relation c!e Quelqucs Accidens Extraordinaires observes a la 
 Guadeloupe, &c. Paris, 1775. Pauld. Op. tit. 
 
 '■' Gazette de Sante. February, 1774. ^ Paiikt. Op. cit. 
 
 30
 
 466 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 In the month of June^ the Cattle Plague, which^ during the 
 preceding year, had entered Flanders and Picardy, broke out 
 rather suddenly in August amongst the bovine species in the 
 South of France, a short distance from Bayonne. It was uni- 
 versally believed to have been introduced in fresh hides that had 
 been imported from Zealand, in Holland, or from Artois, and 
 which were discharged at Bayonne. These were conveyed by 
 carriages to the place where the malady began, and which was 
 near some tanneries. Since the visitation of 1740, the southern 
 provinces — then, as now, containing numerous herds of cattle — 
 had been spared from its devastations. But now it obtained a 
 serious footing,'and from Bayonne, as from a centre, it extended; 
 and soon, meeting with the diverging circles from the other 
 centres, it occupied almost the whole of France from the south 
 to the north. The provinces in the west — La Vendee, Brittany, 
 and part of Normandy — alone escaped. In some of the southern 
 provinces, the number of cattle destroyed was so great, that after 
 the epizooty had disappeared, there were scarcely sufficient left with 
 which to cultivate the soil. The number that perished was estimat- 
 ed at 150,000, and their value at 152,000,000 francs. The disease 
 has been well described by the physicians Vicq-d'Azyr and 
 Doazan, by the veterinarian Bellerocq, and by others. To 
 notice the writings of all these would occupy too much space, 
 but to those interested in the subject, I subjoin the titles 
 of the various works; they will be found to contain much in- 
 formation and attentive research.^ In the mean time, it may 
 
 ^ Secondat. Memoire sur les Maladies Pestilentielles des Boeufs, 1775' 
 Observations sur I'etat actuel de I'Epizootie aux environs de Toulouse. Journal de 
 Physique, 1775. Consultation sur le Traitement qui convient aux Bestiaux 
 attaques de I'Epizootie. Journal de Physique. Grignon. Uistoire de la Maladie 
 Contagieuse qui s'est declar^e au Hameau de la Neuville en Champagne, 1776. 
 Bacherat. Dissertation sur la Maladie Epizootique du Betail, 1777. Memoires de 
 la Societe Royale de Medecine. Annee 1779. Panlet. Maladies Epizootiques, 
 vol. ii. p. 117. I have not thought it necessary to analyze all the reports which 
 were made on the disease in this part of France. The following are the principal : 
 Doazan. Memoire sur la Maladie Epizootique regnante. Bordeaux, 1774. Vicq- 
 d'Azyr. Observations pour Preserver les Animaux Sains de la Contagion, &c. 
 Bordeaux, 1774; and Recueil d' Observations. Paris, 1775. Also, Instructions sur 
 la Maniere de Desinfecter les Villages. Paris, 1775 ; and Expose des Moyens 
 Curatifs et Preservatifs qui peuvent etre employes contre les Maladies Pestilen- 
 tielles des Betes a Come. Paris, 1776. Bellerocq. Recherches sur la Maladie
 
 History of Aninial Plagues. 467 
 
 be useful to glance at the results of Vicq-d'Azyr^s investiga- 
 tions. The disease spread rapidly in Agenois, Condomois, 
 the country of Auch, Bordelais, Medoc, Guyenne, Gascony, 
 and elsewhere, and its ravages were particularly severe during 
 the years 1774 and 1775. Its resemblance to the malady 
 which, since 171 1, had successively decimated the cattle in Italy, 
 France, Germany, England, and other countries, was complete, 
 and the relative diflerences of climates, seasons, or temperament 
 had apparently but little influence on its character. Vicq-d'Azyr, 
 nevertheless, thought he had discovered some varieties. For 
 example, in the country of Auch, tumours were often observed 
 along the spine; in and around Boulogne the skins of the af- 
 fected cattle were covered with a kind of mange; in Condomois, 
 aphthous eruptions were sometimes manifested in the mouth ; 
 lastly, sometimes, and without any perceptible causes, the dis- 
 ease was much less diffused in some villages than in others often 
 only a league distant. The disease was nearly always beyond 
 the resources of art, and the best-devised remedies had only 
 effected a small number of cures. And these cures had not 
 been made without danger ; for Vicq-d'Azyr was a witness to 
 the fact of a calf that had been saved by careful nursing, and 
 which, after its cure, had communicated the disease to many 
 cows, which perished after it was quite well. To the dangers, 
 then, of a disease nearly always incurable, were added those of a 
 malady highly contagious, and the transmission of which it 
 was nearly always impossible to prevent. In these unhappy 
 circumstances, recourse was had to an extreme measure, in order 
 to destroy the contagion, and with it the malady. All the dis- 
 eased and suspected cattle were killed. This measure, which 
 had been proposed by Lancisi, enforced in England in 1714, 
 and in 1771 in Austrian Flanders, and had been recommended 
 in 1773 by Dufot, was carried into execution in 1774 and 1775, 
 in consequence of the recommendation of Vicq-d'Azyr and the 
 veterinary professor Bourgelat. A decree of the i8th of De- 
 
 Epizootique, &c. Bordeaux, 1744. Avis redigc sur les Mt'moires du Directeur 
 de I'Ecole Vetcrinaire. I'au, 1744. Faur de Beaufort. Consultation sur la Ma- 
 ladic Epizootiquc qui recjnc en (juycnne. Bordeaux. Prat. Gazette de I'Agriculture. 
 February 28, 1775. Consultation de rUnivcrsite de Mcdecinc de Montpellier, 
 1775-
 
 468 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 cember, 1774, and another of the 30th of January, 1775, 
 ordained that one-third the value of the beasts sacrificed should 
 be reimbursed to the owners. 
 
 During the course of this epizooty, Vicq-d'Azyr made a 
 great number of experiments and observations, the chief results 
 of which should not be overlooked. From these it was inferred 
 that the disease could scarcely be communicated by means of 
 fresh hides taken from the diseased beasts, as these had been 
 used over and over again on the backs of eight cows at four dif- 
 ferent periods without inducing the malady in them; and skins 
 steeped in lime did not communicate the contagion. The in- 
 fected clothes of men, and which had been worn in veterinary 
 infirmaries, had given the disease to three animals out of six. 
 The gases from the intestines, — collected when dead cattle were 
 opened, — enclosed in bladders and introduced into the nostrils of 
 many healthy animals, have caused the manifestation of the dis- 
 ease in about ten, twelve, or fifteen days. Bread steeped in 
 the blood or the bile of an infected animal has communicated 
 the malady in five, six, or eight days. Attempts to transmit 
 the infection by means of frictions, either with the hands impreg- 
 nated with virus, or with hay, or infected skins, were ineffectual. 
 Inoculation had been attended with unfavourable results, as 
 nearly all those experimented upon died, and those in which it 
 was most successful were young animals. When the disease as- 
 sumed a less deadly form, then inoculation was more satisfac- 
 tory in its effects. Inoculation had been tried by Layard, in 
 England; Camper had before-times largely practised it in 
 Holland, and the doctors Koopmann and Sandifort had re- 
 peated these tentatives in the same country. The operation, 
 of course, was employed with the intention of communicating to 
 the cattle a more benignant form of the disease than that which 
 is developed naturally, and thus to secure them against the 
 chances of another attack. But, as we have seen, inoculation 
 was far from being successful in any country in which it has 
 been tried, and with Vicq-d'Azyr nearly all those inoculated 
 succumbed to the disease thus induced in them. Camper 
 and Koopmann were perhaps not so unlucky, for it is said 
 that the former managed to save forty-one out of one hundred
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 469 
 
 and twelve which he had inoculated, and the second experi- 
 mentalist, out of ninety-four, was able to keep alive forty-five 
 animals. But in Holland it was generally believed, as has been 
 said, that Camper's experiments in inoculation tended very 
 much to keep the disease longer in the country, and often to 
 transfer it to other districts which might have escaped. 
 
 Vicq-d'Azyr has steeped pledgets of tow which had imbibed 
 the virus of the disease, in oils and aromatic fluids, and he has 
 exposed others similarly contaminated to the action of sulphure- 
 ous acid and to gaseous hydrochloric acid, as well as to liquid 
 ammonia, and yet found that these substances did not destroy 
 the contagious properties of the poison ; for when the pledgets 
 were brought into contact w^th the body of an ox or cow, they 
 developed the disease as easily as they would have done before. 
 The same physician has attempted, though unsuccessfully, to 
 produce the malady by puncturing the skin in several places with 
 a scalpel dipped in the pus from sick animals ; and he came to 
 the conclusion that the aflection was not communicable by this 
 means. Permanent cohabitation with the diseased beast appeared 
 to favour the propagation of the epizooty, and he observes that 
 it was useless to attempt to ward off the disease by rubbing over 
 the skins of the healthy cattle with oil, with a view to cover the 
 pores against the entrance of the contagious particles; for the 
 disease attacked them just as promptly as if they had not been 
 so dealt with, because the poison entered the system by the 
 lungs. He saw, in Condomois, the oxen of a pious charitable 
 lady, who deemed it not only a pleasure but a duty to till the 
 ground for those unfortunate people who had lost all their stock 
 by the epizooty, and was informed that these useful creatures had 
 resisted the contagion, which was raging on every side of them, 
 and against which no jirecautions had been taken. It was 
 imagined that a most likely means of saving a large number of 
 animals would be to export all the healthy from a country where 
 the disease raged to another where infection had not existed for 
 a long time ; and with a view to put this supposition to the test 
 a great quantity were driven fioni Condomois to JVlontreab 
 where they were kept for many nionths ; but as the stables had 
 had not been disinfected, or were iniperl'cctly so, they were
 
 470 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 attacked by the epizooty towards the end of 1775. He cites, 
 nevertheless, many examples which would go far to prove that 
 the mieiration of healthy animals from a reoion in which the 
 disease is prevalent into one in which it has ceased may be at- 
 tended with favourable results ; but he adds, that if we transport 
 animals having the germ of the malady already in them, they 
 will all die some days after their arrival in their new country. 
 Experiments proved that it was impossible to communicate the 
 disease to horses, mules, asses, dogs, cats, pigs, sheep, and goats ; 
 and also that those oxen which had recovered from its effects 
 were no longer susceptible of infection. 
 
 While the disease was playing havoc in the southern pro- 
 vinces of France, it broke out, notwithstanding the severity of 
 the winter, in Normandy, showing itself first in the village of 
 Maisoncele ; from thence it passed to Grandcour, to Melincant, 
 and to many adjacent parishes. Its progress was absolutely the 
 same as in the southern provinces. The post-mortem inspections 
 revealed the same pathological changes; and its malignity as- 
 sumed the greatest intensity in some districts; for example, at 
 Melincant, every beast attacked died in a very brief space. At 
 the same time, or rather before the cattle were affected, there 
 was a disease in dogs, cats, and pigs, and it was for a time be- 
 lieved that the dogs had primarily infected the cattle. The 
 symptoms were said to be analogous. So deadly was the bovine 
 epizooty, and so rapid was its progress, that it was feared it could 
 not be arrested until it had destroyed all the cattle ; but wise 
 legislative and sanitary measures soon dispelled this alarm ; the 
 infected districts were encircled by troops to prevent communica- 
 tion with the healthy ones ; all the diseased and suspected 
 animals were killed and buried deeply in the earth, and the 
 stables and other places were carefully disinfected ; by these means 
 it was finally subdued. 
 
 In 1775 and 1776, the same disease, as already noted, gave 
 rise to serious losses in the generality of Amiens, in maritime 
 Flanders, in Soissons, Artois, Champagne, Franche-Comte, 
 Orleans, and other places, where at first its destructiveness was 
 terrible, and threw fear and consternation over every one. But 
 already the benefits to be derived from Veterinary Science were
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 471 
 
 beginning to show themselves, and the energy veterinarians dis- 
 played under the tuition of Bourgelat, and the wise and vigor- 
 ous measures they recommended the government to adopt, then, 
 as on a recent occasion, had the happiest results for France. 
 
 K\\ excellent memoir on this irruption, written by De Berg, 
 is to be found in the Memoirs of the Royal Society of Paris for 
 1778. Some of the remarks to be found in it are far too valua- 
 ble, in a historical point of view, to be lost sight of when tracing 
 the several inroads of the mighty cattle-destroyer. This author 
 certainly makes a mistake in not attending to the pathological 
 anatomy of the malady, if he made any autopsies at all, for this 
 guide in establishing the nature of the pest was thereby lost. 
 But there can be no doubt as to its being the same malady de- 
 scribed by the other writers at this period, and which was then 
 prevalent over nearly the whole of France. He regarded it as the 
 plague of cattle [^gros hetail); as a strange or new disease; and as 
 having come from Great Tartary. The symptoms common to 
 the other bovine affections — such as dulness, stupor, heaviness 
 of the eyes, the cold pendant ears, the shiverings and tremblings, 
 the staring coat, the restlessness, the drooping head, the fever, 
 the loss of appetite, and the suppression of milk, did not charac- 
 terize the disease, as they were observed in other affections. 
 
 The particular symptoms were : profuse lacrymation, which 
 almost obscured the vision ; the lining of the eyelids of a red or 
 black hue; the mouth hot and inflamed; the tongue covered 
 with saliva; on the palate were discolourations, and red or dark- 
 coloured pustules. The nostrils and the mouth discharged a 
 yellow thick matter ; a bilous diarrhoea, acconipanicd by a most 
 offensive odour, manifested itself; tumours {boutons) appeared 
 on the skin, or emphysema in the dorsal region ; there was great 
 weakness in the loins. When the animal became very uneasy, 
 continually getting up and down every few seconds, death 
 was imminent. De Berg noticed that the symptoms varied 
 much in this malady, and many mistakes were made by men 
 who pretended to cure the diseases of cattle, and who imagined 
 they were treating different maladies; whereas they diflcrcd no 
 more from each other in their nature than the rariula discreta 
 and the variola coiijliiens of man, which arc dependent on the
 
 472- History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 same cause. There are no characteristic signs of the malady^ 
 and the author was confident of this; for he had seen animals 
 in an infected stable which only ceased to eat, or appeared to be 
 unwell, for some twenty-four hours, and which recovered in two 
 days, although others in the same place exhibited the malady 
 by the most marked symptoms. All those standing in the same 
 stable were sure to be infected within a month. If cattle of dif- 
 ferent breeds and various ages did not always manifest the same 
 symptoms when attacked, yet each of them showed some un- 
 mistakeable token of the disease. 
 
 The remedial measures which were opposed to the malady, 
 in considering it as an epizooty, were entirely without effect; but 
 the measures which were employed, when viewing the disease 
 as more contagious than the plague of mankind, were at- 
 tended with success, and especially in proportion to the activity, 
 the care, and the vigilance of those who were entrusted with 
 their execution. 
 
 The author believed that the poisonous germs existed in the 
 body of the animal ; that they adhered to the hair of the skin ; that 
 they lurked in the excretions and the exhalations ; and that they 
 could be carried in the air, where, however, if in time they did 
 not find a body susceptible of receiving and nourishing them, 
 they perished. These pestilential vapours attached themselves to 
 spongy substances, to plaster, to cobwebs, or to wool. As a 
 result of this, all the cattle which had not yet been infected or 
 cured contracted the disease if they came in contact with a sick 
 animal, or with bodies impregnated by these vapours. It sufficed 
 that an infected beast remained but an hour, or even a few 
 minutes, in a stable, in order to contaminate all in the place; the 
 disease would manifest itself before a month, even were the cattle 
 driven to a distant pasture. Every animal which had contracted 
 the disease in this way retained its health for fifteen days. It 
 was only after this period that it began to refuse its food, and 
 the plague announced its presence by unequivocal signs. Such 
 an animal might yet, while preserving the appearances of good 
 health, communicate the malady to another, or to many which 
 had not been affected previously. It was not always a mortal 
 disease^ and appeared to lose its dreadfully destructive properties;
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 473 
 
 but its contagious qualities were never lost at any time. All the 
 animals which had not been cured, and which stood in the same 
 stable, contracted the infection. De Berg witnessed a thousand 
 examples of this truth, and never met with anything to the con- 
 trary. In general, nine-tenths of those attacked died ; at other 
 times three-fourths, or two-thirds, or one-half the animals of a 
 village or canton perished. 
 
 It always happened that if a portion escaped by recovery, 
 their deliverance was ascribed to the remedies administered. This 
 pretended success was announced in the public papers and in 
 the journals ; but the deceit was soon discovered, for the in- 
 ventors of these panaccae, on being called upon to employ their 
 medicines in another village in the neighbourhood, signally failed; 
 and perhaps all the animals seized with the malady perished 
 except a twentieth or thirtieth part. It was remarked, that its 
 disastrous effects were far greater in districts or villages which lay 
 low, or were near marshy localities, than in those which ivere situ- 
 ated on high or dry ground. It was rare for more than a moiety of 
 those aflTected to be saved ; it was much rarer for the whole of the 
 cattle of a stable to perish, or for less than a fifth or a tenth part 
 to escape. Two-thirds of the number sometimes recovered. All 
 these were exempted from a second attack; if there existed ex- 
 amples to the contrary, which have been duly confirmed, then they 
 were even more rare than those of the small-pox in man having 
 been contracted a second time. An animal which had recovered 
 could be sold for twice the amount of one which had not 
 had the malady. It was a disease most difficult to arrest in 
 communes ; it extended with great rapidity in the cantons 
 where cattle were at pasture when it broke out. Unless animals 
 were kept in closely-confined and isolated stables, uidely apart 
 from each other, it was probable that in two or three months the 
 contagion would spread from one extremity of Europe to the 
 other. It gained, step by step, the prairies covered with cattle ; 
 it followed the direction of the great roads, and that of the winds; 
 it attacked the cow-sheds of proprietors in districts the most 
 distant from each other, but who were allied by ties of relationship; 
 hence it was said that the disease jumped lioui one place to an- 
 other, just because these family connections were not taken into
 
 474 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 account. It made yet greater progress in the cantons where 
 trade was not rigorously watched, and where animals were sold 
 at any price because they had communicated with the infected. 
 The dealers then took them to the different villages, which could 
 not fail to be infected in their turn. Here, again, it was con- 
 cluded that the malady jumped, and that it was not contracted 
 by contagion. We ought to regard an infected stable, he asserts, 
 as a centre which exposes all those around it to an infinity of im- 
 minent dangers from communication. 
 
 De Berg thought the disease a new one in Europe, and 
 altogether unique ; differing as it did from all other epizootics in 
 only disappearing from a place when thoroughly extirpated, and 
 bidding defiance to the seasons. When recoveries took place, 
 they were to be attributed more to nature than to the remedies 
 employed, and the same might be said of the preservative 
 remedies. 
 
 A curious fact is noted. The pious, but little enlightened 
 
 I zeal of some individuals, in 1773, caused all the cattle in the 
 
 , village of Tumaide, in Hainault, to be collected in the cemetery, 
 
 with the exception of eleven, which stood in a cow-shed some 
 
 .' distance apart. The number assembled amounted to two hundred 
 
 ' and thirteen, amongst which only three or four infected beasts 
 
 were recognized ; though they only remained together for an 
 
 hour, yet they all contracted the disease, which was manifested 
 
 in the space of a month, and the eleven kept in the isolated 
 
 stable alone escaped. 
 
 The principal symptoms observed did not vary in any par- 
 ticular from those already recorded. Bellerocq noticed that, in 
 some, the mouth was open and gasping, and that sometimes the 
 anus was relaxed and the rectum protruded. The directors of 
 the Veterinary School remarked, in the first stage of the malady, 
 a peculiar agitation and shaking of the head, which was carried 
 close to the ground; plaintive sighs were frequent; and if some 
 blood was drawn from the animal, it looked black, and did not 
 yield any serosity after standing a while. About the fourth or 
 fifth day the flanks began to beat very irregularly; the pulse 
 became feeble and inconstant, and the strength quickly disap- 
 peared. The discharge from the nostrils was thick and fetid \
 
 Histojy of A nil) ml Plagues. 475 
 
 the excrements were liquid, and sometimes mixed with blood, 
 and had an insujijiortable odour; subcutaneous emphysema 
 appeared, and tremblings, shiverings, coldness of the horns, ears, 
 &c., preceded death. 
 
 M. Faur, of Beaufort, observed that the tongue, the palate, 
 and the whole cavity of the mouth, appeared white, from a pecu- 
 liar secretion, and that these parts, as well as the nostrils, were 
 often covered with pustules [boutons ) and ulcers j the urine was 
 scantier and deeper-coloured than in health. 
 
 M. Prat, of Montauban, having followed up the symptoms, 
 day by dav, in an ox which he cured, gives a most interesting and 
 detailed description of them. This ox, aged six years, strong, 
 vigorous, and in good condition, after having worked and fed as 
 usual on the 13th of December, was found at four o\-lock on the 
 morning of the 14th away from its manger, carrying its head low, 
 and tremblino;. This shiverins: lasted till four o'clock in the 
 afternoon ; then the ears, horns, and the rest of the body became 
 hot ; the pulsations of the carotid arteries were very strong, and 
 the spine became so sensitive that the slightest touch made the 
 animal crouch. The white of the eyes was inflamed, and the 
 whole extent of the neck erysipelatous. It refused food and 
 water, and seemed much distressed. The blood abstracted at 
 eight o'clock in the evening was very thick, and did not yield 
 any serum. Near the umbilicus a tumour appeared, about 
 the size of a finger, which being deeply incised yielded a 
 quantity of black, sanious, and stinking fluid. On the 15th of 
 December, the second day of the malady, it had a long and vio- 
 lent exacerbation of all the symptoms, accompanied by con- 
 vulsions; on the 1 6th the fever had abated, and it passed a quiet 
 ni"-ht; on the 17th, the fourth day, the convulsive movements 
 had disappeared, and the dejections were very fetid ; on the i8th 
 and 19th they were the same. By the 20th the fever had disap- 
 peared ; on the 22nd the ears and horns were cool, and the 
 animal had recovered. The authors of this period had rcniarked 
 that the symptoms usually enumerated were not all to be seen 
 in the same animal. The most constant were the extreme sensi- 
 bility at the beginning of the disease, the dulness, weakness, and 
 absence of rumination; the alternations of heat and cold, similar
 
 47^ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 to those of intermittent fever; the continued acceleration of the 
 pulse^ and the diminution of milk in cows; towards the fourth or 
 fifth day diarrhoea or dysentery, with symptoms of gangrene 
 or putridity, manifested by the extreme foetor of the matters 
 escaping from the eyes, nostrils, mouth, or anus; or by general 
 or partial emphysema, betraying gangrene of the cellular tissue. 
 The next most constant signs were the black blood, deficient in 
 serum; the paleness of the tongue, and sometimes its flaccidity; 
 drooping ears ; an alteration in the eyes, either in their form, 
 colour, or inflamed condition, and their tearfulness ; the twitch- 
 ings of the muscles, especially when the animals were touched ; 
 the plaintive cries; the difficulty in respiring; the corrugation of 
 the skin and its adherence to the ribs ; the harshness of the hair, 
 and a tenseness in the left lumbar region. The less constant, 
 equivocal, and variable signs were the dryness of the mouth, the 
 changes in its interior, especially about the tongue, where were 
 sometimes observed pustules the size of a pin's head and exulcer- 
 ations; tumours on different parts of the body; tension and 
 hardness of the belly; the fulness and hardness of the pulse, &c. 
 
 Vicq-d'Azyr, seeing the difficulty of diagnosing the disease, 
 proposed inoculation as a means of discovering its existence, 
 which could be ascertained in six or eight days afterwards. But 
 in producing the malady in another animal, says Paulet, the 
 diagnosis is no clearer; we may certainly assure ourselves that it 
 is contagious and communicative, like a hundred others ; but 
 we should not forget that eight days and a healthy animal are 
 lost. M. Doazan thought that the earliest symptom was stag- 
 gering, and as soon as this was noticed he recommended prompt 
 separation. He thought the milk of infected cows altered al- 
 most before anything else was noticed. It was less white than 
 usual, and a little more salt and slightly bitter; when put on the 
 fire it did not froth up like healthy milk, but became decomposed 
 and grumous. M. Guyot, of the Veterinary College, remarked 
 that before the disease declared itself, when he passed his hand 
 into the rectum, it felt very hot, and the arteries beat stronger 
 than usual. There was no eruption on the skins or tumours 
 seen. 
 
 Paulet remarks : ' If we compare all these symptoms with
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 477 
 
 those which manifested themselves in the epizootics of 1711 and 
 1745, and especially with the non-eruptive variety of the last, 
 observed in Holland, Vivarais, and Bourgogne, we cannot doubt 
 but it is the same malady which has been renewed many times 
 since then, and of which the symptoms, essential or pathogno- 
 monic, either from the circumstance of climate, pasturage, or 
 season, have been somewhat changed, but yet not marked enough 
 to constitute a new kind of disease. In fact, if we consider its 
 duration of seven, eight, or nine days, the continuity and nature 
 of the fever, the depression of the vital powers, the diarrhoea or 
 the dysentery which constantly appears towards the termination 
 of the disease, the emphysematous tumours, the signs of putridity 
 or gangrene, the variations in the fever, the results of the au- 
 topsies, the character of the prognosis, and the difficulty of treat- 
 ing it successfully ; — all proves that it is the same malady which 
 is always appearing either from the same sources as the preced- 
 ing invasion, or is renewed or reproduced without ceasing in 
 some part of Europe where its germs have not been completely 
 stamped out. Otherwise, it appears to be limited in its attacks to 
 a single species of animal. But the most striking resemblance 
 is that which exists between the means unsuccessfullv employed 
 at every period, and which we have recourse to now. In 171 1 
 and 1 71 2, bleedings, all the alexipharmics, cordials, febrifuges, 
 sudorifics, and the mercurial and antimonial preparations, were 
 used without benefit; in 1745, ^46, and ^48, nearly every known 
 method was brought into operation, but in vain. The physicians 
 have frankly avowed that all the cures were due more to nature 
 than to art, and the greatest doctors make the same confession 
 now-a-days. We have seen the most celebrated physicians con- 
 demn, one after another, nearly all the internal remedies employed. 
 
 In 1712, Lancisi and Gazola, a physician at Verona, 
 
 seeing the inutility of remedies, advised the slaughter of all the 
 diseased beasts; this counsel was followed in England in 17 14; 
 in 1771, all the diseased were killed in Austrian Flanders; in 
 1773, M. Dufot gave the same advice ; in 1 774, the Veterinary 
 College f)f Paris, M. Bourgelat, Vicq-d'Azyr, and others only 
 repeated it, and an order tf) that eflcct is given and executed in 
 1775.' Speaking of inoculation, he says, ' N'iecj-d'Azyr made
 
 47^ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 some experiments in 1775 on animals of the same and of a dif- 
 ferent species ; the symptoms and the danger were the same in 
 oxen ; three sheep died after inoculation ivithout taking the dis- 
 ease, in consequence of the gangrene which ensued ivhere the 
 wounds had heen made. The only difference between the results 
 of all these experiments is that the Marquis de Courtivron tries 
 to disabuse the public mind of an opinion which has already 
 cost the world so much — the belief that when an animal has once 
 had the disease it is safe afterwards ; whereas Vicq-d'Azyr en- 
 deavours to assure them of its truth. What is, then, the con- 
 clusion to be derived after so many experiments and researches 
 conducted with so much labour and cost? Have we no re- 
 sources against such a pestilence? It is only too true that 
 we have few ; but we have acquired a precious truth notwith- 
 standing, and that is the inutility of employing any of these 
 
 means The actual malady is a species of pest, which has 
 
 not perhaps its exact analogue in the human species (dont il n'y 
 a peut-etre pas d'exemple scmblable, a la rigueur dans Pespece 
 humaine). It is an acute, pestilential, piitrid, and gangrenous fever, 
 or, if we like it better, an ardent malignant fever, fomented by 
 a deleterious and contagious principle, of an erysipelatous nature, 
 capable of producing an inflammation or gangrenous phlogosis 
 in cattle, and infecting their humours, and whose chief seat is the 
 upper air and digestive passages, the brain and the spinal cord, 
 and generally the whole nervous system, particularly at its origin; 
 and which is proved by the extreme sensibility, especially about 
 the spine, the loss of power, and the state of the viscera. If it 
 were permitted to draw an analogy, we might compare the acci- 
 dents that the animal experiences to the effects of certain poisons, 
 which, while they act directly on the tracks they are in contact 
 with and cause a gangrenous inflammation, carry their action 
 at the same time to the nerves, causing stupor, tremblings, 
 convulsive movements, apoplexy, &c. ; while others infect the 
 blood, lymph, and the nervous fluid without sensibly injuring 
 the dicrestive canal.^ 
 
 It is supposed, as already noted, that this last attack of Cattle 
 Plague cost France 150,000 animals, valued at about 150,000,000 
 francs.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 479 
 
 During this unhappy period for the French afjricultural 
 community, amongst all the precautions and instructions pub- 
 lished, nothing was more spoken of or appreciated than the cir- 
 cular of De Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, which was 
 addressed to the clergy of his diocese. This enlightened and 
 worthy man clearly perceived the great necessity for keeping the 
 cowhouses in proper order, and that preventing all communica- 
 tion between the healthy and diseased animals was the first duty 
 to be attended to ; — a duty which did not interfere with prayers, 
 and even became an act of piety, agreeable, as he thought, to the 
 Creator; he insisted chiefly on this measure, and on the danger 
 of pilgrimages and assemblies. These were most important 
 points to enlighten the peasantry on. 
 
 ' Alitur vltium, vivitque tegendo 
 Dum medicas adhibere manus ad vulncra pastor 
 Abnegat et meliora Deos sedet omina poscens.' 
 
 This truth is applicable to all time, to all countries, and to 
 all religions. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable, that, during so many invasions of 
 'Cattle Plague^ over nearly the whole of Europe during this cen- 
 turv, Spain should have escaped a visitation of the dire scourge. 
 This exemption may be readily accounted for, however, if we 
 remember that Spain has never been a cattle-importing country, 
 and that her commercial transactions in this respect have been 
 confined to cxportations. Its distance from the usual sources of 
 animal contagions, the very efficient police that has been main- 
 tained to prevent their introduction, its geographical position, 
 and its natural salubrity, appear to have insured that kingdom 
 against the destructive plagues which harass other countries. 
 But the appearance of the pest in the south-west of France was 
 a grave danger for Spain. 
 
 Within a month after the contagion had been carried by the 
 raw hides to Bayonne, which lies near the Pyrenees, and not far 
 from the jealously-guarded border land, it by some means got 
 carried across the Spanish frontier to St Sebastian, and from 
 thence spread rapidly over a wide surface, causing sad losses.
 
 480 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 For the history of this remarkable invasion of Spain, we will 
 refer to the account given by Villalba.^ 
 
 'On the nth of July, 1774, the Marquis cle Bassecourt, 
 General-commandant of Guipuzcoa (a province of Spain), re- 
 ported to the supreme Board of Health, that in the province of 
 Labourd, in the Kingdom of France, a region adjoining that 
 which was under his command, there was spreading a grievous 
 sickness of a contagious character, and which was every day 
 sweeping off large numbers of cattle ; so that there was every 
 reason why the introduction of these French beasts should be 
 absolutely prohibited, and that even the importation of sheep 
 should be forbidden by new and stringent measures. In conse- 
 quence of this notice, the supreme court, looking wisely at the 
 aspect of affairs, and being desirous of defining precisely what- 
 ever was necessary for the preservation and welfare of the people, 
 urged upon the mayors the adoption of the most important 
 measures; and there were despatched, by virtue of their orders, 
 Ignacio de Michelena, Juan de Ordoi, and Martin de Lorz, 
 chief veterinary surgeons, to the vicinity of San Sebastian, to 
 investigate and report upon the malady. These men having 
 done so, certified before a commission that the disease consisted 
 in a dissolution or ramollisment of the brain, and they founded 
 this opinion on the happy results which had attended the inunc- 
 tion of strong ointments on the top of the neck, and also because 
 able anatomists had observed that after death there was ob- 
 served in the brain a greenish or bloody fluid, as if there had been 
 suppuration or gangrene; and also that the medullary substance 
 of the horns, which was much wasted, contained a yellowish 
 matter. The use of aquafortis, and other remedies which they 
 prescribed, produced tolerable results sometimes ; but in other 
 instances thev were entirely useless ; so that to prevent the dis- 
 ease spreading, or its introduction into other places, these au- 
 thorities most energetically endeavoured to persuade the au- 
 thorities that the only certain, just, and equitable remedy for 
 extirpating the contagion was to kill the animals, and to 
 inter them deeply in pits In such a way, that if in 
 
 } Villalba. Epidem. Espaiiola, vol. ii. p. 229.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 481 
 
 every place this salutary measure had been put in practice, 
 the epizooty which was introduced into Spain in 1774 would 
 soon have been suppressed, and there would have been avoided 
 the great mortality and suffering that occurred, inasmuch as 
 in manv towns and villages there perished every head of cattle 
 without a single one remaining, — as happened, for instance, in 
 Andoin in the province of Alva ; neither did the contagion work 
 much less ruin in its progress through Navarre, Guipuzcoa, Ar- 
 ragon, the mountains of Santander and those of Pas. Notwith- 
 standing the precautions taken to destroy everything obnoxious, 
 as had been recommended by Dr Ortiz during the epidemy at 
 Pampeluna (a city of Spain), so great had been the ravages of 
 this epizooty in the kingdom of Granada, that but few cattle 
 remained; and despite the enforcement of the measures of bury- 
 ing the dead animals in deep pits, it was impossible to prevent 
 the stinking particles from rising into the air, though large 
 quantities of lime had been used over the burial-places, and with 
 much care. Escovar has made mention of this vaccineepizocityand 
 its origin ; according to him, it was notorious that the contagion 
 could be communicated from one to other animals, and i)e again 
 produced in them ; from these it could be carried to other pas- 
 tures, and for a lono; time it had inflicted sufterino; on manv 
 kingdoms, without any ground for suspicion having been laid as 
 to the contagious particles being disseminated by the air since 
 1708; from which cause it has become so universal in Europe, 
 and has so fret]uently and persistently induced such mortality 
 amongst animals.' 
 
 An epizootv, supposed to be Cattle Plague, appeared at 
 Laxfield, in Suffolk. It would a])pear that it was conlincd to 
 this parish, if not to one herd of cattle. Its suppression was 
 supp(jsed to be due to the enforcement of the measures con- 
 tained in the Orders of Council, which were similar to those 
 already noticed as in existence in this country. Malignant 
 pneumonia prevailed in the provinces of Brescia and Crema, 
 Italv, during tbis and the precedini( year.^ 
 
 A.D. 1775. The winter was very cold, and the sunniicr 
 
 ' Bottaiti. Op. cit., vol. vii. p. 78. 
 31
 
 482 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 much warmer than usual. In September an earthquake shook 
 Wales and its neighbourhood. In October there were great 
 thunderstorms in England. From March until January^ 1766, 
 epidemic influenza travelled across Europe. Animals were 
 affected before, during, or after man, and with analogous symp- 
 toms. In Britain this was especially noted. DrFothergill says : 
 'During this time horses and dogs were much affected, those 
 especially that were well kept. The horses had severe coughs, 
 were hot, forbore eating, and were long in recovering. Not 
 many of them died that I heard of, but several dogs.'^ Imme- 
 diately before it set in, Dr Gumming writes : ' After the middle 
 of August, I have heard from good authority, that a disease 
 
 amongst horses prevailed very generally in Yorkshire 
 
 About the latter end of October, I remember to have heard that 
 one gentleman had lost six dogs, in the usual manner that these 
 animals are seized — a giddiness in the head, an inability to eat, 
 with a paralytic affection of the hinder extremities.^^ 
 
 Drs Glass and Pultney make similar observations; the 
 former asserts that in September many horses and dogs suffered, 
 and the latter that these were affected before mankind.^ 
 
 In France, Lorry writes in a like manner: 'The year 1775 
 had begun with misfortunes for the poor. The scarcity of grain 
 had afflicted a large part of France ; and even in the capital the 
 use of rye-bread, until then unknown to the artizans, became an 
 article of daily consumption amongst the poorer classes. Dogs 
 and fowls had experienced an epizootic malady of a different 
 kind : that of the dogs was evidently an inflammation of the 
 pituitary membrane and a catarrhal angina ; that of the fowls 
 had some analogy with the gout ; they both appeared to be con- 
 tagious.'* In 1776, according to Huzard, epizootic catarrh in 
 horses succeeded the epidemic influenza of man in the spring.^ 
 
 A remarkable mortality among the finny tribes appears to 
 
 1 Dr Fothcrgill. Med. Observations and Inquiries, by a Society of Physicians 
 in London, 1764. 
 
 '- Dr W. Cimwiing. Letter to Dr Fothergill, 1775. 
 
 2 Annals of Influenza. Sydenliam Soc, p. 112. 
 
 * Lorry. Mem. de la Societe Royale de .Medicine, vol. i. p. i. 
 5 Huzard. Journal de Medecine, vol. liv. p. y^^.
 
 Hhtory of Animal Plagues. 483 
 
 have been observed during the month of November at Sumatra ; 
 the sea was covered with their dead bodies.^ In France, an 
 epizootic ophthahiiia amongst fowls was observed and com- 
 mented upon by Huzard. ' I have observed, at the termina- 
 tion of the springtime of 1775, that the fowls, and more 
 particularlv those which had been hatched the preceding year, 
 have had inflammations {jiux'wns) of the eyes, which have de- 
 stroyed all attacked. The humour of this inflammation, which 
 was (jf an albuminous nature, was exuded in successive layers 
 over the cornea, forming a kind of secondary globe of a white 
 or yellowish colour, and projecting very mucli outwards, so that 
 the real eve was entirely hidden and buried in the bottom of the 
 orbital cavity, where it diminished in volume in proportion as 
 the external growth increased in size. This disease never affected 
 more than one eve; when it reached its last stage, and death 
 was approaching, on pressing the outer circumference of the 
 orbit, this mass of foreic^n matter became detached. It was 
 of a very firm consistence, resisting even the cut of a scalpel, 
 and there flowed from the eye a fetid sanious matter. The cavity 
 of the orbit was black and gangrenous-looking, and the crest of 
 the bird was shrunken and dry. The fowls leaned their heads to 
 the side which was not diseased, and gave vent to a dull cry, 
 like a rattling or gurgling sound, which only ceased with life, on 
 the fifteenth or sixteenth day.'^ 
 
 Small-pox in man, according to Professor Darluc, was very 
 prevalent at Aix and its vicinity ; and at the same time, and 
 in the same places, small-pox was making great ravages amongst 
 sheep.^ In Istria and Dalmatia, epizootics of malignant peripneu- 
 monia were frequent from 1774 to 1776.* In France, the Cattle 
 Plao-ue vet continued its devastations, and is described by Gri<r- 
 non.^ At Minden, in Westphalia, it also raged ; and its eruption 
 here was supposed to have arisen from the pastures being tainted, 
 in consequence of animals which had died from this malady some 
 
 ' I'hilosophical Transactions, vol. Ixxi. 
 
 2 Iluzard. Instructions et Observations, vol. iv. p. 315. 
 
 ' Hist, de la Societe Roy. de Medecine, vol. i. p. 250. 
 
 * Bottaiii. Op. cit., vol. xi. p. 229, 273, 379. 
 
 * Grignon. Observations sur Ics Epizootics Contagicuses. London ct Paris, 
 1776.
 
 484 History of Animal PlagiLcs. 
 
 vears before havino- been buried In the fields and meadows. In 
 Francej anthrax destroyed many horses and cattle in Beauce.^ In 
 Finland the same disease appeared, and was attributed to the evil 
 workings of the infernal furies. ' The summer of the last year 
 (1774) was unusually warm and dry, and caused in Finland, to- 
 wards July, a severe plague in cattle, which destroyed many. The 
 disease was very different from that which in a former year raged 
 in Schonen, for it did not aff'ect the animals over a large district, 
 but remained in certain parishes and villages. On the other 
 hand, it had this special and sad characteristic : it attacked 
 many people who incautiously went among the sick and dead 
 beasts, and some of these perished. Many of the cattle died 
 quickly and unexpectedly ; in others, however, the disease was 
 not so virulent. The following symptoms were noticed : hang- 
 ing ears and head; watery and red eyes; hot and dry mouth; 
 nostrils expanded ; laboured and snuffling breathing ; head and 
 horns hot; the tongue rough and hard ; the palate white; sus- 
 pension of the secretion of milk, and absence of rumination ; 
 many had diarrhoea, others had it not. On the neck, and also 
 on the flanks and under the belly, hard tumours arose; these 
 were moveable, and often swelled and burst, discharging a sharp, 
 acrid matter; after being emptied they commenced to form again. 
 The disease was of so putrid a character that the animals fell to 
 pieces after death ; indeed, in such a way, that if cords were tied 
 round their horns to drag them away, these appendages broke oflT. 
 Towards the end of September the malady gradually disappeared. 
 After it had killed many horses and cattle, it began to show 
 itself in mankind. Those who had been engaged about the 
 sick or dead animals were attacked at first with a pustule on the 
 face, hands, arms, or legs; which pustule itched a little, became in- 
 flamed, swelled, and increased so much that, if report be true, 
 the head looked like a two-gallon measure. The tumour became 
 covered with bladders or vesicles; these burst, and gave exit to 
 a red and yellowish fluid, which at last became black and 
 encrusted. They who had the tumour opened and dressed with 
 tar or oil of tobacco, recovered. It was not noticed that people 
 
 ' Barrier; Chabert. Instructions et Observations sur les Maladies des Animaux 
 Domestiques. Paris, 1813. Vol. i. p. 208.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 485 
 
 infected one another.^ In Sweden this disease was known as 
 the ' skott-sjukan/ and was beheved to be caused by a small 
 worm. It will be alluded to at another time. 
 
 In this year, from some unknown cause, a large bed of 
 oysters in the harbour of Wellfleet, Cape Cod, which had pre- 
 viously furnished large supplies, sickened and perished; they have 
 never grown since. At the same time, the oysters on the shores 
 of Connecticut w^erc in an unhealthy state, and sometimes ex- 
 cited vomiting in those who ate them. In 1776 the lobsters 
 in the vicinity of York Island all disappeared." Other author- 
 ities give the previous year for these events. 
 
 According to Lafosse,^ glanders in horses assumed an 
 epizootic character, and became widely spread over the southern 
 parts of France. This author, in observing that it succeeded 
 the Cattle Plague, asserts that it doubtless originated, to some 
 extent, through the excessive labour imposed upon the horse 
 species, consequent on the working oxen having been destroyed 
 by the plague; and also probably to some diseased horses having 
 been introduced among the large numbers purchased in other 
 countries, to repopulate those provinces from which the bovine 
 race had nearly disappeared. 
 
 A.D. 1776, An earthquake at Audries, in Italv, in July. 
 The Hessian fly {t'lpida trii'ici) appeared for the first time in 
 North America. The canine species are mentioned as sufl'ering 
 much. An observer in Africa, in the neighbourhood of Bonny, 
 describes a malady among foxes and wolves. 'We have observed 
 during two years (1776 and 17H0), that even the animals 
 which live in the forests were attacked with a particular epidemic 
 malady. The roads were, if we may so speak, strewed with 
 wolves and foxes, dead and dying. Their disease appeared to 
 draw them to the high-roads, and the stricken creatures seemed 
 no longer to dread the presence of man. We even heard it 
 said that these creatures threw themselves in the way, as if ask- 
 ing for assistance and remedies against their maladies. This 
 
 1 Odhdius. Von dcr Viehseuche, &c. Schwed. Abhandlung, vol. xxxvii. 
 
 2 Wdbstcr. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 429. 
 
 3 Traite de Pathologic Vcterinaire, vol. iii. p. 968.
 
 486 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 disease^ which was the same as that observed among dogs, con- 
 sisted in a weakness and trembHng in their extremities; they 
 staggered in walking, and showed the greatest aversion for food; 
 they vomited glairy matters, and even bilious-looking fluids; 
 they had fever and diarrhoea, sometimes stercoraceous, at other 
 times lienteric, at others bilious, and even dysenterical ; they 
 nearly all died. This disease appears to have a great resemblance 
 to intermittent fever/ ^ The French West Indies were visited 
 with epizootic rabies from 1776 to 1778. ' It was believed for 
 a longtime that the Antilles were exempted from rabies, because 
 until now no mad animals had been seen; but from 1776 to 
 1778, it has reigned almost continuously. At Guadaloupe, the 
 dogs w^ere at first attacked with dumb madness, such as we had 
 observed many years before, but without any other consequences. 
 To this dumb madness succeeded that of a furious character : 
 many cattle have been bitten and have died of rabies ; we have 
 also seen many people perish from this malady, negroes as well 
 as white people. Numbers of dogs which have been bitten died 
 only with symptoms of dumb madness {I'age muet) ; but others 
 have become really mad, and bit whoever and whatever came in 
 their way.'' ^ 
 
 In the autumn, an epizooty destroyed many deer in the 
 forests of St Germain, in France. It did not affect the bucks 
 or the roebucks. Its cause was supposed to be due to the 
 great drought during the months of August, September, and 
 October, and to the animals being obliged to drink corrupted 
 stagnant water.^ Anthrax was prevalent during the summer in 
 Lower Austria, and at Wilna, in Poland, and was frequently 
 communicated from animals to mankind."* In Holland,^ "in 
 many provinces of France, and in Corsica, the Cattle Plague con- 
 tinued its ravages. In Austria 'ekzema epizootica' was very 
 common. ' In the same manner as the anthrax {milzseiiche) 
 
 ^ Ratnel. De I'lnfluencedes Marais, &c., p. 221. 
 
 ^ Des Moyens de Conserver la Sante des Blancs et des Negres, &c. St Domingo, 
 1786. 
 
 ^ Histoirede la Societe Royale de Mcdecine, vol. ii. p. 150. 
 * Adami. Vieseuchen in den K. K. Erbliindem, pp. 70, 82. 
 ^ Geert Rinders. Waarneminger en Proeven, &c., 1776.
 
 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 487 
 
 had attacked the woody and mountainous districts, so did the 
 mouth disease {maulweli) show itself ahnost generally in low and 
 flat districts, and it lasted from the spring until the autumn of 
 1776. In some neighhourhoods oxen alone were affected; but 
 in others, however, oxen and cows suffered, the latter with less 
 severity. In many localities and sheds it attacked nearly the 
 whole of the stock in one day, but in most cases the animals 
 were attacked one after another. Here and there this disease 
 accompanied the anthrax; and in some woody neighbourhoods 
 the oxen were attacked with the latter disease after they had re- 
 covered from the former/^ 
 
 In 1776, glanders continued to rage in an epizootic form in 
 France,^ 
 
 A.D. 1777- An earthquake in England. Scarlet fever was 
 epidemic in many countries, and in England and France was 
 complicated with malignant sore-throat or diphtheria. In the 
 month of May in the preceding year, glossanthrax had appeared 
 among cattle at Fossano, near Turin ; and in March of this year 
 'angina gangrenosa' developed itself among the horses of a regi- 
 ment of dragoons at Dora, near Turin. Brugnone describes it : 
 * This malady began in a single horse on the 29th of March, and 
 this animal died in the space of thirty hours ; the following day 
 it attacked two more, and these died — the one in eighteen and 
 the other in thirty-four hours; on the 31st ten more sickened, 
 four of which were cured, two in four days, one in five, and the 
 other in eight days; all the others died, one in nine hours, one 
 in twelve, one in thirteen, and one in twenty-one hours, another 
 died in three days, and the sixth horse in four days. On the 
 first of April other three became unwell, one of which was cured 
 in five days, and the other two died, — one in nine hours, and the 
 second in three days; on the 2nd of April only one was attacked, 
 which died in two days; on the 3rd three sickened, of which two 
 died in two days and one in three; on the 4th two others be- 
 came ill, and one recovered in three days; the other, after being 
 sick for four days, was killed when apparently recovered ; lastly, 
 
 • ^(/rtw/.J tViehseuchen in'den K. K. Erblandcrn, \). 105. 
 ^ Kirchiur. Magazin fiir Tliicrhcilkuiidc, 1S65.
 
 488 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 on the 5th^ three horses were seized with the same symptoms, 
 and these died — two in two days and one in three days. So 
 that out of thirty-six horses, twenty-five were diseased and 
 eighteen perished, while eleven remained unaffected/ The 
 symptoms were, ' a shght heating of the flanks, a loss of appetite, 
 a want of vivacity in the eyes and the whole physiognomy, an un- 
 common slowness and unwillingness to move; there was but little 
 sensibility when struck, and no heed taken of the voice; the head 
 was carried low and drooping; the skin over the whole body 
 rough and dry; the ears and the extremities, as well as the en- 
 tire surface of the trunk, alternately hot and cold ; there was a 
 great inclination to lie down ; a dry, but not excessive, heat in 
 the mouth and about the tongue, which disappeared at times, 
 and gave place to another temperature with a pricking sensation 
 [formicolamento) ; a great quantity of viscous saliva flowed from 
 the fauces ; the pulse was small and slow, and easily compressed 
 in the majority of cases in the early stages of the malady. 
 In a few hours all these indications became increased; the beat- 
 ing of the flanks was very strong; and if the back of the hand 
 was placed against the ribs, there was immediately perceived 
 a tumultuous and extraordinary action of the heart. In all those 
 which died suddenly there was no fever, no beating of the 
 flanks, and no palpitations. There flowed from the nostrils a 
 matter which was at first white, then afterwards of a viscous 
 consistence and yellowish tint, which adhered to the nostrils, and 
 formed clots or scabs around them and the lower part of the 
 face; the whole extent of the pituitary membrane as far as 
 could be seen, instead of being of a uniform rose-colour, was 
 either very pale or livid ; the horse moved but little, and that 
 very unsteadily, and continued lying down sometimes on one 
 side and sometimes the other, getting up and down every 
 moment; suddenly breaking out into a tremor, either in one 
 fore-arm, or both, or over the whole body. From beginning to 
 end there was obstinate constipation ; the small quantity of 
 faeces that was passed by the intestines was hard, shining, and 
 fetid ; when it happened that there was an inextinguishable thirst, 
 the feeces were as in health, solid, of their proper form, neither 
 too hard nor too soft, always of a yellow colour and shining.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 489 
 
 sometimes accompanied by a multitude of small worms {lumlrici); 
 
 the urine was abundant, turbid, yellow, and stinking 
 
 Not only was the difficulty in swallowing very slight, but, as has 
 been said, the obstruction to the respiration did not produce 
 much injury; compression of the upper part of the windpipe by 
 the hand did not make the animal evince any pain, neither did 
 it make it cough ; in a word, if the opening of the dead bodies had 
 not shown the seat of the disease, there would not have been the 
 slightest suspicion of strangles, or that which has been named by 
 veterinary surgeons esquinancy [angina). A post-mortem ex- 
 amination then showed that the fauces, — that is to say, the ton- 
 sils, and from thence to the soft palate, and all around the pillars 
 and the chief parts of the pharynx, to the openings of the eus- 
 tachian tubes — were of a black colour similar to soot, and truly 
 sphacelous ; where this sphacelated appearance terminated there 
 began a soaked condition of the membranes, which were filled 
 with a yellow gelatinous substance, occupying the soft palate 
 and the cellular tissue of the circumjacent parts, and extending 
 a long way on the exterior of the trachea and the oesophagus. 
 The pituitary membrane lining the air-passages of the nostrils was 
 black and gangrenous ; minor lesions were commonly met with in 
 the larynx, but not in its ventricles ; within the canal of the trachea 
 there was at times a small quantity of viscid mucus in a frothy 
 state, which also was noticed in the lungs and the bronchia?/' 
 
 A curions epizooty was noticed in Germany ; cows and breed- 
 ino; sows aborted in lar<2"e numbers.^ 
 
 In Hanover there was an epizooty among geese. Diarrhoea 
 was the most prevalent symptom during life. The appearances 
 after death were as follows : ' The stomach and intestines were 
 much inflamed, and the gall-bladder was full of a dark-green 
 and stinking bile. In the intestines were found many polypi 
 formed by the aggregation of small coagula of Ivmph, some of 
 them half an ell long, the thickness of a finger, and of a brown- 
 'sh-rcd colour. In the rectum was a quantity of white excre- 
 ment which had a most oflensive odour.' ^ 
 
 ' G. nru^none. Storia clclla Squinanzia Cancrenosa, &c. Turin, 1777. 
 
 ^ Cluihcrt. Instructions, &c. 
 
 3 Ruling. Med. Bcschrcibung dcr Sladt Northcim.
 
 490 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D, T778. An earthquake at Smyrna in July. Scarlet fever 
 and epidemic angina in mankind were very prevalent in many 
 countries, but particularly in England and Holland. From 
 July to September, an epizooty of anthrax showed itself in 
 Thuringia and many other parts of Germany. Cattle, horses, 
 asses, goats, pigs, and deer of all kinds were affected ; many 
 hundreds of the latter died.^ After this epizooty had ceased in 
 September, an epizooty of 'ekzema^ appeared.^ In Austria the 
 two diseases reigned at the same time.^ In Limoges, France, 
 anthrax was epizootic ; ^ and in Picardv, that peculiar form of 
 skin disease in sheep called nolr-museau was very common.^ 
 
 According to Kausch, bovine contagious pleuro-pneumonia 
 prevailed as a veritable plague in Upper Silesia from this year 
 until 1790.'^ It prevailed at the same time in the kingdom of 
 Wurtemberg; the commonalty of 7\ittlingen, in 1777, had lost 
 about 150 cattle from the malady.'^ 
 
 A.D. 1779. In the district of Belluno, in Italy, it was reported 
 that a number of people and domesticated animals had been bitten 
 by a mad wolf in the month of March, and that many of these 
 died of hydrophobia.^ At Bourges, in France, in the same 
 month, a mad wolf bit a child, and this manifested symptoms of 
 rabies.^ 
 
 At Philadelphia and Maryland, in America, rabies canina 
 was very common.'" 
 
 In Istria, bovine epizootic pleuro-pneumonia prevailed from 
 this year until 1780.'^ 
 
 In Switzerland, glossanthrax was observed/^ 
 
 In the marshy districts of Picardy, in France, an 'epizootic 
 typhoide,^ as it has been termed, appeared among cattle. It was 
 described by Vicq-d'Azyr, and at that time seems to have been 
 
 ^ Glaser. Von der Knotenkrankheit. pp. 3, 7, 32. ^ ibj^i, p, 122, 
 
 ^ Adami. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Viehseuchen. Vienna, 1781. 
 
 * Gazette d' Agriculture, 1778. 
 
 ^ Hist, de la Soc. Roy. de Med., vol. i. p. 251. 
 
 ^ Kausch. Originalbemerkungen Uber die Rindviehsterben. Leipsic, 1790. 
 
 ' IVirth.' Op. cit., p. 299. 
 
 ^ Odoardi ; Bottani. Op. cit., vol. xi. p. 328. 
 
 ^ Journal de Medecine, vol. liv. p. 398, 
 
 ^^ Richtcr. Chirurg. bibl., vol. xiv. p. 278. 
 
 '' Oriis ; Bottani. Op. cit, vol. liv. p. 380. i- Schnurrer, Op. cit.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 491 
 
 looked upon as a typlioid fever, accompanied by inflammation 
 and 2;an<rrene of the abdominal viscera, and of the luno-s. Bv 
 manv, however, it was regarded as identical with the Cattle 
 Plague, which yet lingered in France, and which also prevailed in 
 many provinces of Austria during this and the following year. 
 
 As Vicq-d'Azyr's celebrated Memoir on this outbreak has 
 always been considered a model report, and as it is now exceed- 
 ingly scarce, a translation of it may not be uninteresting to the 
 student. It is particularly worthy of notice how closely the 
 symptoms correspond with those of Cattle Plague, and it might 
 have been that careful investigation would have revealed a con- 
 tagious orio-in for it, and have established the identity of the two 
 maladies. 
 
 ' The epizootic disease which is the subject of this Memoir, 
 although very deadly and contagious, has been arrested in its 
 progress, without having recourse to the extreme measure that 
 necessity sometimes renders indispensable, and that the nature of 
 the malady demands in certain cases. ^ The treatment which 
 has been adopted at my suggestion has, in the majority of in- 
 stances, been followed by success; these two circumstances, then, 
 are sufficient to make the description of this epizouty interesting. 
 I shall show, in different articles, all that which concerns it : the 
 topography or situation of the localities in which it has reigned; 
 its local causes; its origin and increase; its symptoms; its ac- 
 cidental features ; the internal lesions which have been observed 
 in animals that have died from it; its connection with other 
 analogous disorders; the curative measures and those of a pre- 
 servative kind ; the manner of disinfecting ; the disposition of 
 the military cordons and other auxiliaries; and the general 
 tableau of the numbers of animals which have died and those 
 which have been cured : — all these will be shown in succession. 
 Besides the advantage which will result from this method, there 
 will be manifested, in these details, to those medical men who 
 may undertake similar labours, a just and precise idea of the ob- 
 jects they will have to keep in view. 
 
 'That portion of the generality of Picardy in wliich this epi- 
 
 > The Slaughter of the Cattle.
 
 492- History of Ajiinml Plagues. 
 
 zooty has reigned^ is situated beyond Abbeville, and near 
 Montreuil-sur-Mer j it consists of a very humid valley vi^hich is 
 watered by the Autie. Although horses are chiefly employed 
 there for labour, yet large numbers of cattle are reared; cows 
 are very numerous, and form the principal wealth of the farmer, 
 whose subsistence is principally their milk prepared in different 
 ways. The river which flows in this valley is retarded in its 
 course by a mill called Tigni, situated but a short distance from 
 the sea, whose waters cause a reflux that extends much beyond 
 the mill. The position of this building is such, that if it was 
 built in the usual manner, the water-wheel would not be turned 
 more than twelve hours at most out of the twentv-four, in conse- 
 quence of the tides. The greatest eflTorts have been made to render 
 this mill independent of the marshes, and this has been effected 
 by raising the flood-gates and embankments of the Autie very con- 
 siderably, and in such a way that the water has more than ten 
 feet of a fall, and the mill-wheel never ceases revolving. As a result 
 of this arrano-ement.the coarse of the river is retarded, and it often 
 overflows its banks, flooding all the low ground in its vicinity. In 
 that part of the course of the Autie which is on this side of the Tigni 
 mill, the water is on a level with the banks ; but on the other side, 
 on the contrary, it is rapid and many feet below its boundaries. 
 The pastures, too often submerged by the overflowing of the river, 
 produces herbage of a bulky and rank nature, such as is found 
 in marshes; while on the ground situated between the Autie and 
 the sea grows herbage of a good quality. This inundating and 
 the vapours to which it gives rise, acts alike on men and animals. 
 The human species is very liable to intermittent fevers, and other 
 creatures to be attacked by inflammatory or anthracoid fevers, 
 and sometimes other very serious epizootics at certain seasons of 
 the year. The heat was very intense in the months of June and 
 July, 1779; the damp soil was nearly dried up ; the putrefying 
 plants and insects exhaled a foul odour, and those people and 
 cattle inhabiting the vicinity of this morass were generally af- 
 fected. The first cow was attacked on the 12th of July, in 
 the marsh of Roussan. In a short time, another died in 
 the parish of Maintenai, after being ill for seventeen days. It 
 is necessary to observe that the cattle of Maintenai had been
 
 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 493 
 
 mixed up in the same pasture with those of Roussan. The 20th 
 of July saw eight cows affected at Roussan. The parishes of 
 Montigni and Preaux soon experienced the attacks of this con- 
 tagious disease. Nampont-Saint-Firmin was afterwards attacked, 
 and the disease extended to Nampont-Saint-Martin on the 6th 
 of August ; at the end of this month Noyelles has been infected? 
 owing to a certain person pasturing his cows in the communal 
 meadows of Nampont-Saint-Firmin. Vron and Avennes were 
 the last villages into which the epizooty was allowed to penetrate. 
 It is most noticeable that the progress of the disease has been in 
 direct relation to the communications, and to the imprudences 
 without number which took place ; the marsh of Roussan, which 
 is the most unhealthy, was the birthplace of the epizooty, and 
 the contagion, which had arisen in a low and damp situation, 
 was propagated by communication, and in this way penetrated 
 to the parishes of Vron and Avennes, which are more elevated, 
 more salubrious, and in a position which renders them less sub- 
 ject to diseases of every kind. 
 
 'The cattle in general coughed a long time before being ill ; 
 the cough has continued in some, but in others it has been but 
 rarely heard. The, first symptom was a grinding of the teeth with 
 a considerable noise; soon the milk became lessened in quantity, 
 or at other times was suddenly suppressed, the udder becoming 
 flaccid and less pendant; the belly appeared drawn up; the 
 hair of the back became rough and erect; the eye began to in- 
 flame; in pinching the animal about the throat it winced, and 
 when pressure was made on the xiphoid cartilage of the sternum 
 the back was raised like that of a camel, — a symptom, however, 
 on which much reliance cannot be placed, because it is often 
 observed in healthy animals ; the ears and the horns were some- 
 times hot, sometimes cold; the pulse was at this time full, a 
 little hard, and rather slow than (juickened. The animal did 
 not appear any more dull than usual; and often, even after the 
 suppression of the milk, the appetite was greater than before; in 
 a short time afterwards the rumination became unfrcquent, and 
 at last ceased altogether. These incidents belonged to the first 
 
 stage. 
 
 In the second, the milk had disappeared, and the cattle re-
 
 494 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 fused all solid aliment; many, however^ yet drank. There was 
 a very remarkable dulness present ; the head drooped ; the eyes 
 looked dry and inflamed^ but soon began to be watery and puru- 
 lent ; this was very much so in some cases. A slight discharge 
 from the nostrils began to be perceived ; the pulse was smaller 
 and more quickened; in many diarrhoea appeared, even from the 
 period of the cessation of milk. Other cattle were constipated, 
 and voided very hard excrement; we have seen four which never 
 had an evacuation during the whole time of their illness, and 
 have not even ejected the enemas given them, although some of 
 these were emollient and others purgative. This obstinate con- 
 stipation was followed by death. In the second stage many con- 
 tinued to cough ; the muzzle was cold, and there flowed from the 
 mouth spumy white saliva. In those animals which gave hopes 
 of a cure being effected, the number of the pulse was sustained 
 and preserved its strength; setons caused a considerable swelling, 
 the nose did not become too cold, and there was less dulness. But 
 in those cattle in which the disease, so far from beinp" diminished, 
 became aggravated, all the symptoms acquired a higher degree of 
 intensity. The pulse became small and hardly perceptible; setons 
 produced no efi^ect ; the animals yawned much ; some remained 
 lying without being able to get up ; others did not lie down at 
 all, and appeared very anxious. The eyes were dim and covered 
 with a glutinous matter; the nose was usually cold; the horns 
 and the ears were in the same state, and the head was carried 
 low ; many, however, carried it constantly round to the side, 
 especially in the last stage of the malady. The respiration was 
 then very laborious ; the majority kept their mouths open as if 
 gasping ; in some the tongue was protruded at each expiration : 
 the diarrhoea was then most fetid, and consisted of a thin, 
 purulent, and even sanious matter, consisting of debris and 
 mucosities, vulgarly called raclures de hoyaiix (gut-scrapings). 
 In all those which had diarrhoea, this was the nature of the 
 faeces. At last the affected animals died quietly, their heads 
 resting on their sides. 
 
 ' Many variations were observed in this disease ; its usual 
 course was run in from five to eight days ; beyond that period 
 there were hopes of a recovery. Death has been known to take
 
 History of Animal Plagites. 495 
 
 place in one or two clays, and even In from ten to twelve hours ; 
 some have had the neck covered with small tumours (boutons), 
 and this usually indicated a fortunate termination to the disease. 
 Beasts that were fat perished most promptly ; cows which were 
 in low condition, or lean, seldom died; but these were in small 
 proportion. According to the reports of the oldest agriculturists 
 in the country, thirtv-five years before this period there reigned in 
 the same locality a similar disease, which carried off nearly all the 
 cattle ; this epoch corresponds to the years 1744 and 1745, which 
 were deadly to the horned stock over nearly the whole kingdom. 
 'The dissection of the dead gave the following results : — i. 
 The abdomen was usually distended like a balloon. The ex- 
 tremity of the rectum was everted, forming a kind of violet, mush- 
 room-like tumour containing purulent and putrilicd fluid ; the 
 epidermis was easily removed in those animals which had been 
 dead for twelve or fifteen hours. The eyes were covered with 
 mueosities; the nose was excoriated, and the mouth, as well as the 
 tongue, was covered with a foul matter; the body, indeed, was very 
 fetid in all its parts. 2. The brain did not present anything 
 remarkable, except in some animals which had been examined, 
 when its ventricles were found filled with an abundance of lymph. 
 The posterior parts of the mouth were very little inflamed, but 
 this region was filled, more or less, with the same kind of fluid 
 that was discovered in the bronchial tubes. The commissures of 
 the nostrils were in a healthy state; the parotid, maxillary, and 
 sublingual glands were a little inflamed, and looked as if they 
 had been macerated in serum. 3. The only observation made 
 in the region of the neck, showed that the vesicatory setons 
 passed through the dewlap, did not, as a rule, operate well in those 
 animals which died; the cellular tissue in their neighbourhood 
 was in a relaxed and infiltrated condition, and this extended to 
 the anterior aspect of the thorax. 4. The axillary glands ap- 
 peared to us infiltrated like the parotids. 5. The trachea always 
 contained a large quantity of foamy mueosities, in whuh con- 
 cretions similar to broken-iip membrane were nuxicl. 'Ilie 
 liuinc membrane appeared to be inflanud iu ni.nu' instances. 
 6. The lungs were distended as if with ;iir; tin- large lobes were 
 usually but little affected, but tbe small anterior lobes were
 
 49 6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 jToro-ed with blood, of a livid colour, and often sphacelous. On 
 being cnt into, a puriform matter, similar to that which filled the 
 trachea and flowed from the mouth, exuded. The bronchial 
 glands, like the axillary, the inguinal, and the mesenteric, were 
 infiltrated. 7. The pleurae participated, in many cases, in the in- 
 flammatory state, 8. The epiploon [omentum) showed oftentimes 
 patches of inflammation and gangrene. 9. The rumen was very 
 much distended by an enormous mass of food, which we have fre- 
 quently found hot and as if fermenting. In nearly all the sub- 
 jects, the lining membrane of this viscus was detached, and 
 covered the alimentary matters in the form of a brown pellicle, 
 which was without consistence and easily torn.^ The reticulum 
 was often in the same state; the lining membrane which covers its 
 meshes was sphacelous, and could be removed at the slightest 
 touch. The third compartment [feidllet) was gorged with dry 
 food; in some cases this was excessively hard, and in many parts of 
 the viscus we perceived, on examining it closely, that the dryness 
 was very considerable. The internal membrane was separated 
 and remained attached to the food, where it appeared brown, like 
 bronze. The leaves of this division were also very soft and easily 
 torn ; but the hardness of this organ was not always the same. 
 The fourth compartment [caillette) was always very inflamed ; 
 many of its plicatures were livid; that portion which was nearest 
 the pylorus was the most aff'ected, and was not unfrequently 
 swollen and looking as if ulcerated. This cavity was filled with 
 . a very fetid greenish fluid. 10. The inflammation reached its 
 highest degree in the small intestines ; the blood-vessels were 
 gorged with blood, and the intestines themselves were filled with 
 a putrid matter and mucus concretions which covered their walls, 
 while the lining membrane itself was in a very unhealthy state. 
 The inflammation was less severe in the large intestines, where 
 the mucosities, however, were in greater abundance. We have 
 once found the rectum excoriated in many places, and covered 
 with a glutinous white substance like pus. ii. The gall-bladder 
 was very distended; on opening it bile of a dark-green or yellow 
 colour escaped, which in some cases had the consistency of olive 
 oil ; there always remained in this viscus a considerable sedi- 
 
 ^ This is a normal condition.
 
 Histo}'}' of Animal Plagues. 497 
 
 ment. 12. The liver was softer than usual, and was easily torn. 
 The whole of the muscles, and the heart itself, were in this state. 
 
 13. The majority of the cows opened were in calf, and in all of 
 them we perceived that the foetus had heen dead for a long time. 
 The other viscera of the abdomen were in a healthy condition. 
 
 14. The cellular tissue was in many places swollen, and as if dis- 
 tended by gas. Among these different alterations there was 
 much variety. 15. The mammary glands were retracted ; on 
 cutting into them a small quantity of yellowish-coloured milk 
 was found. In one case the milk appeared to be little altered. 
 The inflammatory engorgement of the small anterior lobes of 
 the lungs, the inflammation of the stomach, — above all, that of the 
 fourth compartment and the small intestines, — have been con- 
 stantly found in all the cattle which have died from this epizooty, 
 and have been examined with care. 
 
 'This disease had much analoffv to that which reigned in the 
 southern provinces of France in 1775 and 1776. The eruption 
 that appeared in many animals; the state of the stomach, the 
 intestines, and the gall-bladder was the same; the course of the 
 symptoms — which difi'ered very little in these two epizootics, — 
 and the non-equivocal existence of contagion ; — all combine to 
 establish a great degree of similarity between the two epi- 
 zootics. But the thorax was particularly affected in that of 
 Picardy ; the cough and the gangrene of the small lobes of the 
 lungs, — symptoms which never failed, — formed a distinction be- 
 tween them. In the epizooty of the southern provinces, the 
 lungs were certainly sometimes attacked with sphacelus, but 
 not always. The animals experienced tremblings and convulsive 
 twitchings, which were scarcely noticed in Picardy ; and the 
 rapidity of the contagion was incomparably greater. Malignant 
 pleuro-pneumonia often gives rise t(j the same lesions in the 
 lunffs; but in this case the abdominal viscera arc not con- 
 stantly involved. The disease, then, which I have described bears 
 a few features in common with the epizooty mentioned by 
 Lancisi and Kamazzini, and with malignant pleuro-pneumonia ; 
 but it differs from them in other respects. It might be regarded 
 as a putrid contagious fever, which exercised its ravages at the 
 same time f)n the viscera of the abclonicn and chest. 
 
 32
 
 498 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 'The first stage was announced by the cough and grinding of 
 the teethj by the diminution or suppression of the secretion of 
 milk, or by a hard and full pulse. It was only then that we 
 might hope for success from proper treatment. The beginning 
 of the second stage was characterized by the total loss of appetite 
 and by dlarrhcEa, without great depression or dulness. Towards 
 the close of this stage, and during the third period, these two 
 symptoms were very marked, and everything betokened a state 
 of putridity, which, towards the termination of the disease, be- 
 came extreme. 
 
 'The indications which it was proposed to follow in treatment 
 were these: — i. To diminish the general inflammation, and, 
 above all, that of the visqera contained in the chest and abdomen, 
 and to dilute the alimentary matters which gorged the stomach. 
 2. To attempt to arrest the progress of the putridity which always 
 existed in the last stage of this malady. 
 
 ' The first indication was met in the following manner : — No 
 food whatever was given to the animal from the moment it was 
 suspected to be ill. It was often rubbed and wlsped, and a 
 blanket was put over its back. When the ventilation of the 
 stable was imperfect, new openings were made. The diarrhoea, 
 which was always present, and was very fetid, demanded this 
 measure, and also that the stables should be often cleaned. 
 When called in at the commencement of the attack, it was 
 necessary to take advantage of this and to abstract blood from 
 the jugular vein. Several pounds of blood were withdrawn if 
 the animal was an adult ; if the disease was little advanced, and 
 the beast was robust and vigorous, this was repeated ; but if one 
 of these conditions was absent there was only the single bleeding. 
 When the malady had reached the second stage, venesection 
 was altogether abstained from, especially if there was an eruption 
 about the neck, and if the suppurative process set up by setons 
 was well established ; this, however, did not applv to those 
 animals yet in health, and in which setons had been used as a 
 preservative measure. Five or six hours after blood-letting, if 
 setons had not yet been applied, they were to be Inserted under- 
 neath the skin of the dewlap by means of a needle; the tape 
 was to be well smeared with some vesicatory ointment, and its
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 499 
 
 ends were to be loosely tied, so that it might be moved back- 
 .vards and forwards, in order to make the necessary dressings 
 more convenient and complete. The ointment was to be com- 
 posed of two parts of cantharides- with a sufficient quantity of 
 laurel oil. With the design of favouring the suppuration, the 
 tape was to be afterwards frequently smeared with digestive oint- 
 ment. Hellebore root was also frequently emplovcd in order to 
 excite the formation of an abscess in the dewlap; this was 
 opened, when fully formed, by means of a needle carryino- an 
 epispastic tape. The congestion of the lungs was attempted to 
 be relieved in the following manner : Angelica root, an ounce and 
 a half; sal ammoniac, two ounces, and camphor one ounce; all 
 were to be pulverized and mixed to the consistence of an electuary 
 with a sufficient quantity of simple oxymel, and then rolled up in a 
 linen cloth and fastened in the mouth of the animal. The use 
 of this billot was most salutary towards the end of the second 
 stage, because it contained antiseptic substances, the employ- 
 ment of which was then indicated. 
 
 ■^The ordinary beverage allowed was thin gruel, prepared, 
 when possible, with flour or oatmeal. When nothing but 
 bran could be obtained, care was taken to have it well steeped 
 in diflcrcnt waters and then filtered, in order to separate that 
 portion which is not soluble, and which is of a very septical 
 nature. 
 
 'There was also given, at the most four times a day, and at 
 equal intervals, a bottle of the decoction of turnips in which was 
 infused the flowers of mullein, and to which was added two or 
 three drachms of nitre in powder. Nitre was also dissolved in 
 the gruel, and a little vinegar added. 
 
 'Emollient enemas contributed to fulfil the same indication. 
 Thcv were prepared with the leaves of mallow and linseed. Tiic 
 mallow, mullein, and the turnips grow very abundantly in the 
 parishes where this cpizoiity raged, and it was for that reason 
 that I recommended their use. 
 
 'The nasal cavities were frcijucntlv cleaned out by iuicctions 
 of a decoction of hark\', to which was added a suOlcicnt (juau- 
 tity of vinegar and honey, 
 
 'The use of the following preparations fulfilled the second in-
 
 500 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 dication. They were had recourse to when the symptoms of 
 putridity became manifest, and when the pulse lost its tone, 
 became weak, and the artery flaccid. 
 
 Nitre, in powder one pound. 
 
 Cream of tartar ...... four ounces. 
 
 Camphor two ounces. 
 
 Pulverize the whole, and give half an ounce four times a day in 
 the gruel. 
 
 * Take also four ounces of Peruvian bark, put it in three bottles- 
 ful of water, and decoct until there are only two, and give this 
 in two doses. Sometimes this is sweetened with honey, and two 
 drachms of camphor dissolved in a small quantity of Rabel 
 water were added, 
 
 ^One or other of these preparations was resorted to, ac- 
 cording to necessity. 
 
 ' When the animals became convalescent they were always 
 very weak, and their strength had nearly gone; they have been 
 even seen to die at this period for want of care. This unhappy 
 termination was guarded against in giving a draught of infusion 
 of junipers, or in mixing the extract of juniper with their drink. 
 The dose of berries was an ounce to two pounds of gruel; that 
 of the extract of juniper was an ounce and a half or two ounces. 
 
 'The treatment was terminated by a purgative prepared as 
 
 follows : 
 
 • Senna leaves one ounce. 
 
 Boiling water one pound. 
 
 Infuse the leaves in the water; afterwards dissolve an ounce of 
 Socotrine aloes in it ; allow it still to infuse, and when done 
 enough give it in a tepid state to the animal. 
 
 'The cattle which it was desirous to preserve from the 
 epizooty were treated as follows : They were shut up, or kept as 
 far from any dangerous communication as possible; one person 
 only looked after them, and he never went near either infected 
 stables or infected beasts. All doo-s and other animals were 
 carefully prevented from communicating with the cattle so 
 guarded. The stables were kept well and properly aired, and if
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 501 
 
 necessary new openings were made. The quantity of their food 
 was much diminished; they got green herbage to eat, and their 
 drink was thin gruel, sometimes nitrated. The person who 
 looked after them brushed and wisped them often. A seton of 
 hellebore or medicated tape was inserted in the dewlap. Some- 
 times an appliance was fastened in the mouth, to which a piece 
 of linen tied in a knot was fixed. This contained some stimu- 
 lating substance, such as assafoetida, in a dose of one or t\vc5 
 ounces. These simple and ready precautions sufficed to maintain 
 a great number of dairies in a good state, and kept away the con- 
 tatjion. 
 
 'Besides these, the different precautions demanded by the 
 law were carefully enforced. The syndics of the several parishes 
 remitted to the sub-delegate a very exact account, containins; the 
 names and residences of the various parties whose cattle were 
 attacked by the epizootv, with the view of enforcing disinfectant 
 measures, and preventing fraud and deception with regard to 
 these. 
 
 'The dung and straw were removed from these stables or 
 cow-sheds. The first was buried beneath a layer of earth as 
 deeply as possible. If the straw was only in small quantities it 
 was entirely burnt, but if there was a great deal of it, only that 
 lying uppermost was burnt. 
 
 ' The buildings were thoroughly cleansed ; every corner was 
 washed out — the walls, mangers, racks, and all woodwork were 
 scraped, and the ground was dug up to a certain depth. Every- 
 thing was freely washed, and plentiful use was made of boiling 
 water in which lime or vinegar was mixed. For the same pur- 
 pose a strong lye, made from the cinders of new wood, was em- 
 ployed ; and this was sprinkled in all the angles, holes, and most 
 out of the way corners. Brasiers full of red-hot charcoal were 
 put in these habitations, and at intervals sulphur and nitre were 
 burnt in them. The doors and windov.s were then left open, 
 and some days afterwards all the walls throughout were white- 
 washed with lime. No persons except those engaged in the dis- 
 infection were allowed to enter the stables. 
 
 'Among the necessary measures employed, some were of a 
 purely medical character, the others belonged to the legislative
 
 502 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 department. I divided the infected country into three districts, 
 in each of which a veterinary surgeon [artiste vet^rinaire) was 
 stationed, to see that the treatment of the cattle was conformable 
 to the plan which had been traced. 
 
 'The disease being contagious, and the locality in which it 
 reiffned beino- in the immediate neiffhbourhood of Mercantere, — 
 a canton very rich in cattle, — the district of Hesdin, and the valley 
 of Conche in Artois, I believed it to be indispensable to have 
 cordons of troops to prevent the epizooty from spreading into 
 them. With this view, detachments of soldiers were lodged in 
 the localities yet unaffected, and within half a league of the 
 suffering districts. The sentries on duty marched continually 
 backwards and forwards in communication with each other, and 
 prevented all dangerous communication. Rivers, and other likely 
 places, were taken advantage of to intercept intercourse; no 
 cattle were allowed to enter these cordons, neither were any per- 
 mitted to come from the interior of those districts where the 
 epizooty was prevalent. When it made further. progress, the 
 cordons fell back to the proper distance in the yet healthy dis- 
 tricts. There were also detachments of troops in all the infected 
 or suspected localities. Their duty was to make a particular 
 enumeration of all the cattle; to visit these twice a week, but 
 yet not to touch them ; to give timely notice to the veterinary 
 surgeons, or other inspectors empowered to carry out the orders 
 of the king, when there was an animal affected ; and, above all, to 
 watch that the numbers of the cattle in these places were neither 
 diminished nor increased without being duly reported to their 
 superiors. They were also to see that all graves were at least 
 eight feet in depth, and that there was one for each dead beast ; 
 that these were to be covered with firmly-trodden earth; they were 
 also to inspect the old graves, and to have them filled up when 
 sunk below the level. The disinfection of the stables, though 
 under the direction of the veterinary surgeon, was to be carried 
 on in their presence. They were to prevent cattle from travel- 
 ling or stopping on the highways or in the communes; all dogs 
 were to be shut up, or if found at large, or even in the yards of 
 their owners, they were to be destroyed, and the masters' names, 
 if discovered^ were to be reported. When necessary, they were
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 503 
 
 to resort to severe measures, in order to carry out the orders of 
 the king. In giving these orders to an officer who was to have 
 command under such circumstances, it was easy for him to dis- 
 tribute his men in such a way as to prevent the transmission and 
 the deadly eflects of the epizootic contagion. 
 
 ' I thought that the best way to make known the danger of 
 this epizooty would be to lind out how many head of cattle had 
 died in a district of eight parishes, and how many had been cured 
 from the loth of Julv, the date of the outbreak, till the 7th of 
 September. In consequence of this, the syndics of these parishes 
 ordered an exact statement to be prepared, and it is from these 
 that I have been able to draw up the following table. 
 
 Animals which Animals cured . • i Animals 
 
 Parishes. ' have died of of the Animals ^^^ 
 
 the epizooty. epizooty. a l -. j healthy. 
 
 De Rossan 68 61 — — 
 
 De Maintenai .... 41 20 10 151 
 
 De Nampont-Saint-Firmin 95 99 10 57 
 
 De Montigny .... 43 20 2 4 
 
 De Preaux 56 27 — 22 
 
 De Nampont-Saint-Martin 33 4 — 187 
 
 De Noyelles 36 31 33 16 
 
 De Vron 13 i 13 390 
 
 Totals . 385 263 68 821 
 
 ' The results of this enumeration are as follows : from the 
 loth of July to the 7th of September — i. 385'Jicad of cattle died, 
 and of these 298 succumbed before help could be given ; 2. 263 
 animals were cured, out of which 207 had been treated according 
 to the method laid down in this Memoir; 3. 68 cattle remained 
 sick, of uhich number 51 have been cured; 4. 821 beasts re- 
 mained unaffected. In this statement it is seen that the total of 
 those which died surpasses the number cured; but it is necessary 
 to observe — i. That the majority (jf the cattle perished before 
 my arrival. 2. 'I'hat the peasants had killed a number in 
 having recourse to a regime truly incendiary. As a proof of 
 this, I may mention that 13 cows at Vron succumbed in a 
 few days to the treatment of a shei)herd, who administered 
 to them a decoction of the most irritating kinds ol" herbs, such
 
 504 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 as hellebore and others, 3. That when skilled people have been 
 called in in good time they have succeeded in curing nearly two- 
 thirds. 
 
 ^The various measures I have indicated, and which were 
 carried out by an enlightened and active magistrate (the Count 
 d'Agay, intendant of Picardy), conformably to the views of a 
 minister whose memory will always be dear to the French nation 
 (M. Necker), and by whose orders I went to this district, have 
 had the greatest success. Mercantere and the neighbouring 
 districts of Artois have been preserved, and the contagion has 
 ceased towards the middle of the month of September, 1779/ ^ 
 
 At Steyermark, in Austria, according to Adami, 10,000 head 
 of cattle perished from the Cattle Plague alone.^ In Styria, 
 nine-tenths of those attacked died, and Belgium was nearly 
 robbed of the whole of her herds.^ 
 
 A.D. 1780. The winter of this year was very severe in Europe 
 and America, the spring-time cold and damp, the summer dry 
 and in some places very hot, and the autumn cloudy and heavy. 
 There was an eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna, 
 and a tremendous earthquake at Tauris. Catarrhal and other 
 fevers were very common in mankind. Spain was ravaged by 
 locusts. In Saxony a disease or ' rot ' affected the eggs of bees 
 {couvain pourri) from 1780 to 1783. Catarrhal fever or *" influ- 
 enza ^ among horses occurred at Paris;* and at Lille epizootic 
 ophthalmia attacked horses and cattle.^ Anthracoid maladies 
 were very frequent over the whole of France, particularly in 
 the provinces of Paris, Provins, Bas Berry, in Sologne, Poitou, 
 Orleans, Franche-Conite, Champagne, and Dauphine ; afl:ect- 
 ing all the domestic quadrupeds, and even the geese, fowls, 
 and turkeys. Heusinger calls attention to the fact that gloss- 
 anthrax broke out this year in France, and that in the preced- 
 
 ^ Vicq-d'' Azyr. Precis Historiqiie tie la Maladie Epizootique qui a regne dans 
 la generalite de Picardie en 1779. Memories de la Societe Royale de Medecine. 
 An. 1779. 
 
 2 Adami. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Viehseuchen, &c. Vienna, 17S1. 
 
 3 IVirt/i. Op. cit, p. 185. See also Zaw/rr and ^mj. Ueber das Ansteken 
 der Viehseuch. 1 783. 
 
 * Huza7-d. Journal de Med., vol. liv. p. 337. 
 
 5 Chabert. Instructions, &c., vol. i. p. 391. See also p. 379.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 505 
 
 ing epizootics of this malady its origin could be generally traced 
 to this part of Europe, from whence it spread \\ ith its usual 
 celeritv and distinct characteristics. It commenced in April, 
 and advanced regularly and progressively from Forez to Lyons, 
 and on the Rhone to Dauphine; as well as on the banks of 
 the Saone. It was supposed to have been caused by the heavy 
 fogs and dews prevailing on the pastures, as all the animals kept 
 in stables and fed on dry forage escaped.^ In the spring-time, 
 the same malady was afi'ecting cattle at Mantua.'^ 
 
 Previous to this period, the sugar-eating ants {formica sac- 
 charivora, Linnaeus) appeared in such numbers in the Island ot 
 Grenada, as to put a stop to the cultivation of the sugar-plant, 
 and a reward of j^20,ooo was offered to any one who should 
 discover an effectual method of destroying them.^ 
 
 A.D. 1 78 1. The summer was very hot. Locusts in Germany. 
 A great epidemy of influenza commenced in September of last year 
 in China, and travelled through Asia in this year; in December 
 it was at Moscow ; and in February, 1782, it arrived at Revel and 
 Eastern Prussia ; still spreading over Europe, it was in Spain and 
 Italy in the months of August and September.'* In the spring 
 it was in America. In England, an epizooty was ftital to horses 
 and horned cattle; of one hundred and sixteen horses located in 
 one barrack stable, all but thirteen were attacked, and seventy- 
 eight died.^ 
 
 The bovine epizooty appears to have been the Cattle Plague, 
 or what was then named the 'distemper.' The Annual Register 
 savs, for March: 'At the be^innino; of this month the distem- 
 per among the horned cattle broke out in the Isle of Thanet. It 
 began at Mrs Cowell's, at Salmston, near Margate, and is sup- 
 posed to have been brought over from Ostend by two sheep-skins, 
 which being thrown on the beach were taken up with some sea- 
 weed, and laid on a duii<j:hill. At these a cow smelt, and rolled 
 
 ^ Brcdin. Ibid., p. 379. - Volpi TVC^iS. Fcrdcnzy. Ibid., p. 212. 
 
 3 Castle. Philosopliical Transactions, vol. xxx. p. 346. 
 
 * Gluge. Influenza. 
 
 * Bascome. Op. cit., p. 138. This author's accounts arc exceedingly brief 
 and unsatisfactory, and in consciiucncc of his not giving his authorities, arc almost 
 M'orthless.
 
 5o6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 on them. Six other beasts died at Mansion ; five more were 
 shot there, and buried on the 9th ; several others died ; some 
 were shot. On the 13th, an Order of Council was issued (as 
 usual) prohibiting the removal of distempered cattle, and or- 
 dering them to be killed, and buried at least four feet deep, 
 with their hides slashed, &c. Two more were seized with it at 
 Minster on the 16th, and innnediately killed and buried. By 
 the above and other precautions, it is hoped that it will spread 
 no further. Some had been previously removed to Ash and 
 Chislet, though nothing seems easier than to confine them in 
 this island, there being only three outlets, viz. at Sandwich, Sarr, 
 and Reculver.'^ 
 
 A communication in the same volume refers to this con- 
 tagious distemper, and makes the following remarks : ' Farmers 
 have no need to be informed how important a matter the pre- 
 servation of their cattle is. The considerable advantages they 
 reap from them when free from accidents, and the losses they 
 suffer when distempers spread among their herds, are sufficient 
 motives to make them feel the interest they have in preserving 
 their cow-houses, stables, &c., from the infection, and in using 
 all possible means to prevent its progress. But as fatal experience 
 has proved that the use of medicines, with the powers of which 
 they are not well acquainted, has been frequently more prejudicial 
 than salutary in the epizooty, and that country people, by placing 
 an unlimited confidence in pretended specifics, purchased at a very 
 high price, have very often been drawn into a double loss, by 
 the death of their cattle, as well as the expense of such drugs ; it 
 is thought the communication of an efficacious and cheap man- 
 ner of treating cattle when attacked by this distemper,^ &c., the 
 treatment being bleeding and giving drinks.- Epizootic oph- 
 thalmia appeared among cattle in Flanders; it was attributed 
 to the hot weather, and to the use of forage full of insects. 
 
 A.D. 1782. The brown-tailed moth occasioned such alarming 
 devastations in the vicinity of London, that rewards were offered 
 for collecting the caterpillars ; and the churchwardens and over- 
 seers attended to see them burnt by bushels.^ 
 
 1 The Annual Register, vol. xxiv. p. 168. - Ibid. p. 99. 
 
 3 Kirby and Spoue. Entomology, vol. i. p. 209.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 507 
 
 Influenza was epidemic in many countries, and remark- 
 able for its bilious characteristics. Forster says for 1781 : 'In 
 spring prevailed the influenza in America, and next year in 
 Europe. . , . Clouds of sand martins in London. Beetles and 
 cockchafers this year were numerous ; hornets in plenty, wasps 
 few or none.^ For this year: 'Earthquake in Calabria, contem- 
 porary with great fall of barometer in Scotland. Early spring 
 severely cold, with April floods. In March the memorable influ- 
 enza prevailed all over Europe ; in England its particular range 
 was very easily to be traced ; effects of this epidemic were sudden, 
 and it was among the most recent striking proofs of the atmo- 
 spherical nature of these peculiar morbific stimuli. Theepidemy 
 assumed more of a violent nature towards May.^ 
 
 An epizobty of influenza in horses appears to have prevailed 
 in Europe at the same time as the epidemy in man. Huveman 
 observed and reported upon it, as it manifested itself in Ger- 
 many ; and Abilgaard, the talented founder of the Veterinary 
 School at Copenhagen, has left an admirable monograph on the 
 disease, which he had ample opportunity for studying during the 
 period it affected the King of Denmark's stallions. 
 
 The Annual Register says for May, 1782: 'The weather 
 was uncommonly severe, not in England only, but almost all 
 over Europe. At Vienna the frost continued so rigorous, that 
 the vines were thought to be materially injured. In Italy such 
 a fall of snow as has never been remembered. In Russia many 
 thousands have perished of a sickness owing to the rigour of the 
 season. In Sweden men and cattle have perished for want of 
 food. In the Highlands of Scotland cattle die, or are killed, for 
 want of fodder. In short, the severity of the weather has been 
 generally felt.^ - 
 
 In Gcrn)any, Metzger mentions a bilious disease affecting 
 horned cattle at the same time as influenza in man.^ From this 
 year until 1785, at Bray, in the Seine-Inferieure, France, epi- 
 zootic ophthalmia, complicated with 'albugo' or ulceration of 
 the cornea, was observed in cattle.^ In the arrondissemc.nt of 
 
 ' Forster. Op. cit., p. 171. ^ Tlic Annual Register, vol. xxv. p. 207. 
 
 3 Mdzger. Gcschichte dcr Friihlings-epidemie, p. 35. 
 
 * Cloqud ; Chabert. Instructions Velcfninairc, vol. iv. p. 312.
 
 5oS History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Chartres, from this year until 1784, Barrier witnessed ' distemper' 
 in dogs prevailing as an epizocity. There was also an epizooty 
 among cats at this period, which was thought to be of the same 
 nature as the distemper in dogs : ' The cats are also subject to 
 this disease (distemper). We have had occasion to see many 
 farmers in the neighbourhood of Chartres, who have usually a 
 score of cats on their farms, lose the whole of them by this 
 disease during the winters of 1783, '83, and '84/ ^ 
 
 The Cattle Plague was so severe in Holland in the last and 
 this year, that more than 300,000 head of cattle were lost.^ 
 
 With regard to the epidemic influenza prevailing in England 
 at this time, Dr Darwin has the following remarks, which I think 
 worthy of reproduction. *The catarrhus contagiosus is a fre- 
 quent disease amongst horses and dogs; it seems first to be dis- 
 seminated amongst these animals by miasmata diffused in the 
 atmosphere, because so many of them receive it at the same 
 time, and afterwards to be communicable from one horse or dog 
 to another by contagion. These epidemic or contagious catarrhs 
 more frequently occur amongst dogs and horses than amongst 
 men, which is probably owing to the greater extension and 
 sensibility of the mucous membrane which covers the orjran of 
 smell, and is diffused over their wide nostrils and their large 
 maxillary and frontal cavities. And to this circumstance may 
 be ascriljed the greater fatality of it to these animals. 
 
 * In respect to horses, I suspect the fever at the beginning to 
 be of the sensitive, irritated, or inflammatory kind, because there 
 is so great a discharge of purulent mucus; and that, therefore, 
 they will bear once bleeding early in the disease, and also one 
 mild purgative, consisting of about half an ounce of aloe and as 
 much white hard soap mixed together. They should be turned 
 out to grass both day and night for the benefit of pure air, unless 
 the weather be too cold (and in that case they should be kept in 
 an open airy stable without being tied), that they may hang 
 down their heads to facilitate the discharge of the mucus from 
 their nostrils. Grass should be oflered them, or other fresh 
 vegetables, as carrots and potatoes, with mashes of malt or of 
 
 1 Barrier. Ibid. ^ Heusin^er. Op. cit., p. 261.
 
 Hist 07'}' of A ni7nal Plagues. 509 
 
 oats, and with plenty of fresh warm or cold water frequently in 
 a day. When symptoms of debility appear, which may be 
 known by the coldness of the ears or other extremities, or when 
 sloughs can be seen on the membrane which lines the nostrils, a 
 drink consisting of a pint of ale with half an ounce of tincture 
 of opium in it, given every six hours, is likely to be of great 
 utility. 
 
 ^ In dogs I believe the catarrh is generally joined with symp- 
 toms of debility early in the disease. These animals should be 
 permitted to go about in the open air, and should have constant 
 access to fresh water. The use of being as much as may be in 
 the air is evident, because all the air which they breathe passes 
 twice over the putrid sloughs of the mortified parts of the mem- 
 brane which lines the nostrils and the maxillary and frontal 
 cavities — that is, both during inspiration and expiration — and 
 must therefore be loaded with contagious particles. Fresh new 
 milk and fresh broth should be given them very frequently, and 
 they should be suffered to go amongst the grass, which they 
 sometimes eat for the purpose of an emetic; and if possible 
 should have access to a running stream of water, as the con- 
 tagious mucus of the nostrils, both of these animals and of 
 horses, generally drops into the water they attempt to drink,^ ^ 
 
 A.D. 1783. The winter was mild; the spring and summer 
 damp ; but the latter season was particularly hot and stifling. 
 Early in the year, singular atmospherical phenomena were ob- 
 served in the kingdom of Naples, and on the 5th of February a 
 series of earthquakes began at Calabria, which lasted until the 
 28th of March. Eruptions of Vesuvius were continuous. On 
 the 5th of February a dense black cloud hung over Calabria, 
 which necessitated the lighting of candles at mid-day, so much 
 did it obscure the davliifht ; and at the same time the odour of 
 sulphur and asphalt was insupportable. This vapour or smoke 
 spread over the whole of Italy, and even to 'i^^lis, in Africa, and 
 had not disappeared in September. 'On the 9th of Fei)ruary, a 
 fog having the odour of burnt leaves spread over New England, 
 the groimd there being under snow. A famine in the Carnatic 
 
 ' G. Darwin, M.D. Zoonomia, or tlic Laws of Organic Life. London, 1 796. 
 Vol. ii. p. 230.
 
 5IO History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 followed. On the night of the 29th of March, a splendid lumen 
 horeale in America. In England it appeared January 13th, and 
 in February the marshes of the Lea were under water for 10 
 days. There was much mistiness, which began to overspread 
 Europe in June, during the eruption of Hecia ; and previous to 
 it, Ireland was covered with blue vapour, and the springs dried 
 lip. On the 31st of May, a large meteor was seen in Virginia. 
 On St Helen's day, Monday, i8th August, in England, was 
 observed the great and memorable meteor, which crossed Eu- 
 rope from NN.W. to SS.E., blazing and leaving coruscations in 
 its train. It was seen about half-past eight, by Mr B. M. 
 Forster, at Walthamstow, who was so amazed at its magnitude 
 that he jumped out of a window to observe it better from the 
 garden, and he describes its course as attended with noise. The 
 same year, in October, tremendous gales and high tides occurred. 
 In some parts great rains fell, and in others earthquakes were 
 felt. Great fog at Amsterdam in December. The disorders of 
 health kept pace with these convulsions of nature. Distemper 
 among cattle hegan in England at Derhy. Greece, Smyrna, and the 
 Crimea were subject to the plague, and that disease produced 
 the most dreadful ravages in Egypt, where it continued all the 
 next year. In various parts of Europe and America the scarla- 
 tina and the measles were epidemic.'^ ' A distemper among the 
 cattle in Derbyshire; a royal proclamation issued to prevent the 
 spread of the disease.^ ^ In the month of May volcanic erup- 
 tions took place in Greenland, and an island was thrown up 
 from the bottom of the sea, between that country and Iceland ; 
 while a heavy black cloud hung over the latter place, which, on 
 the 24th of May, was observed at Copenhagen. On the ist of 
 June there were frequent shocks of earthquake felt in Iceland, 
 and on the nth a tremendous eruption of the volcano Skaptar 
 Jokul. These eruptions and earthquakes lasted until Novem- 
 ber, and more than 20 villages were destroyed ; 9336 human 
 beings perished, with 28,000 horses, 11,461 cattle, and 190,488 
 sheep. This loss of life and property was caused partly by the 
 noxious vapours which impregnated the air, partly by the depre- 
 
 ' T. Forster. Op. cit., p. 172. 2 n^ebsier. Op. cit.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 511 
 
 dations of the lava, and, in part, by the fiiminc resulting from 
 the showers of ashes throughout the island, and which destroyed 
 the vesietation ; and also bv the desertion of the eoasts bv the 
 fish.^ A black smoke covered the island, and was observed 
 throughout Europe during the whole summer, especially towards 
 the end of June was it observed in the most distant regions 
 when the wind began to blow from the north. In Germany we 
 have the effects of this terrestrial commotion noted as follows : 
 ' This vapour arose first in June, and lasted the whole of July 
 and August almost without cessation. It caused a sensation of 
 warmth, and the weather was often excessively hot; the sun 
 was not quite obscured, but had generally a fiery red appearance, 
 which was noticed by night as well as by day. I observed no 
 particular smell, but the haze was of a dry nature, and it did not 
 prevent rain or storms, though it appeared injurious to the 
 plants; I well remember that most of the trees lost all their 
 leaves from it. . . . Since 1783, I have never again seen such a 
 dense wide vapour with all its peculiarities; all those I have 
 since observed have been the usual fogs.' ^ 
 
 The best description of this serious catastrophe in Iceland 
 is that given by a competent observer, the Etatsroed Stephenson, 
 who was present during the latter part of the calamity, Erom 
 this description we will make the following pertinent extracts. 
 ' After the first breaking out of the fire (after the 1st of June), 
 a great quantity of ashes, sand, and sulphureousdust was thrown 
 over the adjacent districts, particularly those of Siden and Fliotsh- 
 verfet. The long continuance of westerly winds, too, drove the 
 sandbank away from Skaptarlungen to the place just mentioned; 
 and the vast quantity of burning sand falling around scorched up 
 all the grass in the fields about Eliotshverfet to such a degree, 
 that there were no means of support for the cattle, and the in- 
 habitants fled from all the farms in this district, excepting the 
 most easterly one, called Nupstad, which, together with the 
 neighbouring fiirm of Raudaberg, remained uninjured by the hot 
 
 ' Lyell. Principles of Geology. 
 
 - Finke. Nalurhist. bumcrk. iiber flen Moor(l;inii»f., ]i. 26. 
 3 Kort IJeskrivclsc over den nye Vulcans Ildspruduiiig i Vcstcr-Sknptcficlds 
 Syssel paa Island i aarct, 1 783. Copenhagen, 17S5.
 
 5 1 2 History of A nimal Plagues. 
 
 ashes It will be easily conceived, that, in proportion 
 
 as the air became more and more filled with ashes, sand, sulphur- 
 dust, and the smoke and aqueous vapours arising from the burnt 
 districts, it must likewise become more fetid and unwholesome; 
 and, indeed, even intolerable to those who, at such a time, could 
 scarcely draw their breath. The presence, too, in the atmo- 
 sphere, of this mass of extraneous particles, obstructed in some 
 measure the light and warmth of the sun, and caused to prevail, 
 even at the height of summer, a most piercing and unnatural 
 cold; in addition to which, what was still more unseasonable, a 
 heavy fall of snow took place on the nth and 21st of June. It 
 was, however, soon melted. Almost all the new eruptions were 
 accompanied by showers of hailstones, of an extraordinary size, 
 equalling that of a sparrow's egg. These caused much damage 
 and destruction to the grass, and nearly killed both men and 
 cattle; but the mischief occasioned by these was trifling, in 
 comparison of what was caused by the heavy rains,^ which, mix- 
 ing wnth the sand, ashes, and sulphur, that had before fallen in 
 immense quantity, incrusted the fields with a kind of black coat, 
 somewhat similar to ink, but thicker, which poisoned the grass, 
 and rendered the water stinking and unfit for use. Even the 
 rain itself, in descending, became impregnated with sulphur and 
 ashes, which sorely affected the eyes, caused a giddiness in the 
 .head, and was attended with pain as often as it fell on the naked 
 
 body I have already hinted that the damage which the 
 
 pastures have sustained from the torrents of rain are incalculable, 
 for these, accompanied with the most dreadful peals of thunder, 
 have not only in many places rendered the surface of the earth 
 for ever unproductive, by dislodging from the neighbouring 
 eminences great fragments of rock, but have elsewhere materially 
 
 1 During one of tlie heavy falls of rain, it is stated by Holm, that ' there was 
 observed at Drontheim and at other places in Norway, and also at Feroe, an un- 
 common fall of sharp and salt rain, which' was so penetrating, that it totally de- 
 stroyed the leaves of the trees, and every vegetable it fell upon, by scorching them 
 up and causing them to wither. At Feroe, there fell a considerable quantity of 
 ashes, sand, pumice, and brimstone, which covered the whole surface of the ground, 
 whenever the wind blew from Iceland ; and the distance between these two places 
 is at least eighty (Danish) miles. Ships that were sailing between Copenhagen and 
 Norway were frequently covered with ashes and brimstone, which stuck to the 
 sails, masts, and decks, besmearing them over with a black and pitchy matter.' _
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 513 
 
 injured vegetation by covering the ground with black dust, mixed 
 with the hair-hke ravelings, ashes, sand, and sulphur ; thus 
 poisoning the animals, and consequently cutting oft' the verv life- 
 springs of the inhabitants. The feet of the poor cattle, and their 
 heads, as far at least as their eyes, and the inside of their mouths, 
 became changed, by their going into these pastures, especially 
 such as are damp and marshy, to a sulphureous yellow colour, 
 
 and were filled with wounds and boils The volcano 
 
 likewise affected the fisheries in the year 1783; as the thick 
 clouds of smoke and dust, which continually covered the land, 
 rendered it too dangerous for the fishermen to put out to sea. 
 In the district of West Skaptefield the fire had a still greater and 
 more destructive effect on the trout-fisheries, in the fresh-water 
 lakes; foralarger quantity of volcanic ashes and sand had naturally 
 fallen here than in other parts of the country, and these imparted 
 an unusually blue colour, sometimes tinged with yellow, to the 
 waters, which at length became so foul and putrid, that great 
 
 numbers of the fish were driven dead upon the beach 
 
 Exclusively of the damage and loss occasioned to the fisheries bv 
 the fire, this calamity has likewise driven from the country vari- 
 ous kinds of birds that used to build their nests there, among 
 which the jjrincipal were the s\\;ans. The inhabitants were well 
 acquainted with the time that these birds cast their feathers, 
 which was in the month of August, when the people used to 
 climb the rocks and take a great number of them ; but the sul- 
 phureous smoke and stench effectually banished them all; and 
 the few Q.SLS^% that were found in the deserted nests were so 
 
 CO 
 
 thoroughly impregnated by the smoke, as to be unfit for eating. 
 .... What influence the volcanic eruption lias had on the 
 growth of the grass, and the miserable consequences that have 
 ensued from the failure of the latter, cannot be described in lew 
 words. It is easy to conceive that the progress of veuctation, in 
 the district of Skaptefield, where the fields were iinmediatelv 
 covered by the poisonous black substances, nui>t unavoidably be 
 stopped. But the misery was far from being cnnlinetl to this 
 place alone; for, even out of the district, where the volcanic 
 sand and sulphureous ashes did not fall in any considerable 
 (juantities, the growth ol the grass, which, until the eruption
 
 514 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 took place, was in a most promising state, was after this time 
 totally prevented. Plants of all kinds withered, and became so 
 brittle, that the mere treading upon them reduced them to 
 powder. The first that felt the baneful influence were the But- 
 tercup {Ranunculus acris), in Danish called Smorurt, and the 
 Fisilen [Leontodon Taraxacum). The Elting {Equisetum fluvia- 
 t'lle) was the last to suffer. The same poisonous dust also 
 attacked the cabbages and other vegetables in the gardens, totally 
 checking their growth ; and having thus extended itself over the 
 whole country, caused a general failure of the crops of grass. 
 Not, however, equally in all places ; for the want was particularly 
 experienced in the northern district, where, according to report, 
 the united produce of several farms at Langanaes was not more 
 than sufficient to feed a sinde cow. It is true that the number 
 
 O 
 
 of horned cattle and sheep was already greatly decreased, previ- 
 ously to the eruption ; a circumstance which was partly occasioned 
 by a succession of bad years, and partly hy the infection that had 
 recently prevailed among the sheep, and had induced a necessity of 
 destroying great numhers. But still the loss was most severely 
 felt; for, in the autumn of 1783, the natives were obliged to 
 kill more than a third, nay, in some parts, even the half, of their 
 remaining stock of cattle, for want of fodder. What is further 
 remarkable is, that in the summer of 1783, the pastures in many 
 places swarmed with little winged insects, of a species hitherto 
 unknown in Iceland. These were of blue, red, yellow, and 
 brown colours, and appeared nearly to resemble the earth-fly. 
 They were particularly troublesome to those employed in secur- 
 ing the hay, who were soon covered with their unwelcome 
 guests. Many people have assured me that they even found 
 numbers of them still living among the hay, in the depth of the 
 ensuing severe winter; and, what is yet more extraordinary, that 
 they left their quarters after a day or two of thaw or mild wea- 
 ther In consequence of the deficiency in the pastures, 
 
 and particularly of the poisoned state of the herbage, a great 
 mortality naturally ensued among the cattle. In the district of 
 West Skaptefield, where the fields were entirely covered with the 
 infectious sand, ashes, and sulphur, mixed into a pasty consist- 
 ency by the heavy rains; where the showers of red-hot stones
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 515 
 
 and pumice had totally destroyed the foce of vegetation ; where 
 a stinking and suffocating smoke^ accompanied by tempests, con- 
 tinual lightnings, thunder, and noises in the air, heavy subter- 
 raneous reports and dreadful shocks of earthquakes, obscured the 
 atmosphere; where a terrific stream of fire, a melted mass of 
 lava, had urged its impetuous course; in short, where all the 
 most fearful phenomena in nature had concentrated themselves, 
 as it were, in one spot, it was common to see the animals run- 
 ning about the pastures as if in a state of madness; and I am 
 credibly informed, that many of them, unable to find food, or 
 even shelter to defend themselves from the surroundinji horrors, 
 in a fit of desperation, plunged into the fire. The cows were in 
 many instances secured and fed in stalls, but the sheep and horses 
 were dispersed in such a manner, that scarcely half of the original 
 number could again be collected. All the quadrupeds of the 
 island had thriven wonderfully, and gained strength, during the 
 mild winter and beautiful spring of 1783, but this did not prevent 
 them from dyiner off in considerable numbers durino- the week or 
 
 .0 O 
 
 fortnight immediately subsequent to the eruption, with inflam- 
 matory diseases caused by the poisonous quality of the food. 
 Such was particularly the case with the sheep, of which, in the 
 district of Skaptefield, it was remarked that, whereas in Iceland 
 they generally walked facing the wind, they now regularly turned 
 away from it ; naturally anxious to avoid the strong sulphureous 
 smell, which the infected breezes brought along with them. 
 
 'As the cold, too, at a distance from the fire, was unusually 
 piercing, they instinctively approached the current of lava, by 
 which many of them were overwhelmed and destroyed, in spite 
 of all the exertions that were made to save tliem. Nor was the 
 situation of the cows and horses much better; for, although the 
 disease was to them not equally fatal, yet they became excessively 
 lean, and, even in the best season of the year, the cows gave 
 scarcely any milk. It was the same beyond the West Skaptefield 
 district, and Indeed nearly throughout the whole island. It was 
 still further remarked in different parts of Iceland, during the 
 sunnner of 1783, that the sheep, in diixrt ()])p()siti()n to the ex- 
 perience of the inhabitants, and to the supposed natural pro- 
 pensity of the animals themselves, avoided the dry elevated places,
 
 ^i6 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 and even the heaths and commons^ which most abounded in 
 rich grass; and^ as soon as they were driven up to the heights, 
 snuifed at the earth and searched among the grass, but without 
 tastino- it : then immediately turning round, ran to the morasses 
 and wet places. The cause of this I attribute to the circumstance 
 of the ashes and sulphureous dust having had a more permanent 
 influence upon the elevated pasturage, than upon the herbage in 
 moist and low situations, v/here a proportion of the ashes and 
 sand must have sunk into the water, and where, besides, the 
 grass, when rain fell, must have been much purified and re- 
 freshed. It may possibly be objected to this, that the rain 
 would naturally also produce the same beneficial effects in the 
 higher grounds ; but it is, on the other hand, to be remarked that 
 the grass and herbage on heaths and 'commons, where sheep 
 principally delight to go, is small and short. Consequently, as 
 often as a heavy rain fell upon the ashes and sulphureous dust 
 here collected, these were converted into a kind of paste which 
 could not penetrate the soil ; so that all vegetation was covered 
 with it : whereas, in the morasses, this paste was gradually dis- 
 solved in the watery soil, and, as the grass in such situations 
 generally rises to a considerable height, the mixture of ashes only 
 affected the lower part of it. This I therefore consider to be the 
 cause why the sheep, during the summer of 1783, uniformly 
 sought the moist places ; and it may further be added, that they 
 there in some degree found a shelter from the penetrating cold 
 and frequent tempests, which are much more prevalent in the 
 hilly country than down in the valleys. 
 
 ^ In addition to the inflammatory disease just mentioned as so 
 fatal to the sheep, so early as the commencement of autumn, 
 1783, when they were collected from the hills, several of them 
 were found to be attacked with a distemper hitherto unknown 
 to the natives. The poor animals could neither walk nor stand: 
 their teeth were loose, so as to prevent them from chewing their 
 food; their cheeks were full of swellings; and their joints were 
 contracted. Towards Christmas the sickness began to show 
 itself in a still greater degree, even among the stall-fed sheep, 
 and also among the horned cattle, which rendered it necessary 
 for them to be slaughtered. Many, however, fell victims to the
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 517 
 
 distemper much sooner than was expected, when the disease 
 attacked them internally. Thus it was often found that the 
 heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys of these miserable animals were 
 covered on all sides with boils and ulcers. They were in some 
 cases much swollen, in others quite destroyed and hollowed out; 
 one of the kidneys was frequently greatly enlarged, while the 
 other was proportionately shrivelled. The jaw-bones were per- 
 forated, as if they had been bored with an instrument, and the 
 ribs were knit together in a most extraordinary manner. The 
 bones were reduced to a substance resembling gristle, and even 
 the hardest became so tender at the joints, that they might easily 
 be separated from each other. When the entrails that had been 
 diseased were boiled, they shrivelled very remarkably, and, if 
 merely rubbed between the fingers, turned at once to powder. 
 Of these particulars I was an eye-witness; for, when we arrived 
 in Iceland, in the middle of the month of April, 1784, this 
 plague was in its full vigour, and I can with truth assert, that 
 the greater number of the cattle then alive on the island fell vie- 
 tims to the distemper during my stay there. Having said thus 
 much concerning the sickness of the quadrupeds, I will only 
 add, that it has been generally more destructive among the 
 sheep than the horned cattle, and that there are some parishes, 
 amongst which are Muhle and Rangervalle, and others in the 
 west country, where the latter have been comparatively but little 
 affected. 
 
 'According to information that we have received, the disorder 
 has in some degree made its appearance in the districts of Guld- 
 bringue and Kiose, and likewise in various places in the west 
 country ; but still its greatest ravages have been in Skaptcfield, 
 Aarnes, Borgefiorde, Myhrc, and Hnappedal, and, indeed, through 
 the whole of the north of the island. From the east no intelli- 
 gence has yet been received of its having broken out there. In 
 some horses, which I had the opportunity of seeing during my 
 journey to the place of the eruption, the distemper exhibited the 
 same external appearances as in the other cattle ; but the teeth in 
 those I examined were not yet become loose. It was a melancholy 
 sight to see the miserai)le and deplorable state to which tliese 
 poor creatures were reduced. In one instance in particular, it
 
 5i8 Histoij of Animal Plagues. 
 
 was really astonishing how the wretched animal could walk, or 
 even stand upon its legs ; and yet its owners, in the confusion 
 and distress occasioned by their flight from the spot, were under 
 the necessity of laying a burthen upon it. No striking external 
 marks of the disorder were perceptible among the horses out of the 
 district of Skaptefield, but it has nevertheless prevailed there, if 
 not as the sole cause, yet certainly in union with others, to pro- 
 duce a general destruction both among them and the horned 
 cattle; many having died suddenly when they had a plentiful 
 supply of hay ; others when in pastures where there was a suffi- 
 ciency of grass, of which they were never deprived either by ice 
 or snow. To our utter astonishment, we saw horses in the most 
 miserable state of leanness in the richest meadows, and even 
 actually starved to death, having preferred eating substances the 
 most injurious, such as the wood of houses, the hair from each 
 other's coats, or whatever else was within their reach, rather 
 than touch the grass of last year's crop, still remaining in the 
 pastures. This appears to me to be a sufficient proof of the 
 poisonous state of the herbage during the year 1783; and, 
 although the circumstance has not yet been investigated, I am 
 fully convinced that the internal organs of the horses have been, 
 equally with those of other animals, infected with the dis- 
 temper. The few inhabitants who had still left them some of 
 the old hay in the year 1783, preserved their cattle in a healthy 
 and good condition; but even here, when the new hay came 
 into use, the disease began to appear among them. 
 
 ' I have further to remark, that during the last summer 
 several of the younger beasts were recovered by feeding upon 
 the new grass. 
 
 ' It might seem contradictory were I here to assert that the 
 whole destruction among the cattle is to be considered merely 
 as an effect of the volcanic eruption; because I have before 
 stated that, in certain districts which vyere within the operation 
 of the fire, no particular distemper has yet made its appearance. 
 I must, nevertheless, still maintain my opinion, that the fire has 
 mostly contributed towards it, since this was, beyond a doubt, the 
 cause of the unwholesome air and frequent tempests, as well as of 
 the failure of the crops of grass and hay, in the summer of 1783.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 519 
 
 The cattle had, at the close oF that season, become remarkably 
 lean, and consequently were rendered unfit to withstand the 
 rigours of the ensuing winter, one of the most severe hitherto 
 known. The inhabitants had not by any means a sufBciency of 
 provender for them, nor were they aware at first of the unwhole- 
 some and poisonous quality of that which they did possess. It 
 may be easily supposed that the inclemency of the weather 
 greatly contributed to the destruction, although the fire itself 
 
 was the principal and original cause of it That the 
 
 eruption had likewise a powerful effect on the human frame is 
 certain, and is the less to be wondered at, as the unwholesome 
 and pestilential air, operating together with the noxious water 
 and food, and with the want and distress occasioned by the 
 destruction of the cattle, must naturally be productive of sick- 
 ness and distempers. Diseases of the most inveterate kinds, in 
 the form of scurvy, broke out in sundry places, and those even 
 far distant from the fire; as, for instance, in the districts of 
 Guldbringue, Borgefiorde, and Myhre, especially in the first. The 
 district of West Skaptefield was, however, the chief seat of this 
 distemper; and .in only six parishes there, no less than one 
 hundred and fifty persons were carried off between the com- 
 mencement of the new year and the month of June following, 
 but some of these perished by famine. The same symptoms 
 showed themselves in this disorder in the human race as among 
 the cattle. The feet, thighs, hips, arms, throat, and head were 
 most dreadfully swelled, especially about the ankles, the knees, 
 and the various joints, — which last, as well as the ribs, were 
 contracted. The sinews, too, were drawn up with painful 
 cramps, so that the wretched sufi'ercrs became crooked, and 
 had an appearance the most pitiable. In addition to this 
 they were oppressed with pains across the breast and loins ; 
 their teeth became loose, and were covered by the swoll- 
 en gums, which at length mortified and fell olV in large 
 pieces of a black or sometimes dark-blue colour. Disgusting 
 sores were formed in the j)alate and tlu-oat, and not uncom- 
 monly, at tlie termination of the disease, the tongue rotted 
 entirely out of the mouth. This dreadful, though api)arently 
 not very infectious, distemper prevailed in almost every farm in
 
 520 History of Animal Plagties. 
 
 the vicinity of the fire during the winter and spring Tt 
 
 is necessary for me here to remark, that the disorder principally 
 attacked those who had previously suffered from want and 
 hunger, and who had protracted a miserable existence by eating 
 the flesh of such animals (not even excepting horses) as had 
 died of the same distemper, and by having recourse to boiled 
 skins and other most unwholesome and indigestible food. (I 
 have been assured, in the district of Skaptefield, that the flesh 
 and milk of sick animals had a remarkably unpleasant taster 
 and that, in particular, the milk was of an unusually dark and 
 
 yellow colour.) The loss of the horned cattle 'and sheep 
 
 was very severely felt by the Icelanders ; but that of the horses 
 was equally so, especially by the inhabitants of the interior of 
 the country, who thus found themselves deprived of their last 
 resource, the means of having provisions and other necessaries 
 conveyed from the coast through long and tedious roads. Nay, 
 many who are totally destitute of horses, are under the necessity 
 of carrying every load of hay into the outhouses upon their own 
 backs, and frequently from a very considerable distance ; nor is 
 there any prospect of these invaluable animals being soon re- 
 placed.^ ^ 
 
 In this year ^rabies canina^ was epizootic in the Island of 
 Jamaica, and, it is asserted, for the first time. Moseley says : 
 'During my residence in the West Indies, I never heard any- 
 thing of this disease; and from the most particular inquiries, I 
 am fully convinced that, before 1783, the rabies had not ap- 
 peared upon many, if any, of the islands.' ^ It appeared in the 
 spring in Hispaniola, and in June in Jamaica, where it continued 
 until March, 1784. It was supposed to have originated spon- 
 taneously, and it became general. Many negroes were bitten 
 and died ; and swine, goats, and horses were also wounded and 
 perished with symptoms of hydrophobia. 
 
 The epizooty of malignant anthrax which has been noticed 
 as prevailing in the French West Indies, or Antilles, for some 
 
 ^ Hooker. Tour in Iceland, vol. ii. See also Britgmans. Verhandeling over 
 een Zwavelagtige nevel, p. 11. Knobloch Sammlung, vol. ii. p. 522. Lord Duf- 
 ferin. Letters from High Latitudes, p. 113. 
 
 2 Mosdcy. Von den Krankheiten zwischen denwendezirkeln, p. 29.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 521 
 
 previous years, appeared this year in the Island of Grenada in a 
 most severe form. We are indebted to Mr Chishohii for a de- 
 scription of it; and, as Heusinger remarks, this description is not 
 only important with regard to the epizooty itself, but to veterinary 
 surgeons and others it is most worthy of notice, from the fact that 
 it may serve to explain the famous ' milk disease ' of modern days 
 which has appeared in the United States of America, and also 
 because it is the only epizooty of this kind in which the con- 
 comitance of malignant angina in man can be placed beyond a 
 doubt. Chisholm says: Mn the year 1783, in the Island of 
 Grenada in the West Indies, a very sinoular coincidence took 
 place. Late in that year the cynanche maligna appeared in 
 several parts of the island, for the first time observed, I believe, 
 by the oldest inhabitant in that or any other of the West Indian 
 islands. The symptoms of this disease were most violent, and 
 its rapidity to a fatal termination most alarmin<i;. But the cir- 
 cumstances which o;ave the greatest singularity to this disease 
 was its concomitancy with a contagious distemper of a very ex- 
 traordinary nature, — an epidemic among the cattle and mules in 
 the same parts of the island wherein the cynanche maligna ap- 
 peared. Both were new and unknown, and both were concomi- 
 tant, insomuch as to render it difficult to perceive whether they 
 proceeded from a cause common to both, or whether the cy- 
 nanche was an effect on the human race of an imported con- 
 tagion, which seemed peculiarly, in the first instance, to affect 
 the horned cattle and mules. These animals whilst feeding, and 
 apparently in perfect health, in the pastures, suddenly fell down 
 dead. The malignity of the disease had so rapid a progress, that 
 seldom could other symptoms, or rather any symptoms, be ob- 
 served : — sometimes a few minutes before death the animals were 
 languid, lay down, and neglected their food. Sometimes a swell- 
 ing of the glands of the throat formed a large tumour, which 
 might be perceived for some days before death ; but though this 
 swelling sometimes suppurated, and though the matter was dis- 
 charged, it never proved critical. On dissection, the whole course 
 of the trachea or oesophagus, the stomach, and greater jiart of the 
 intestines, were found in an niflamed or gangrenous state. \'arious 
 modes of cure were adopted, Init, except in a few cases, always
 
 522 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 without effect On those plantations where care was taken 
 
 to burn the carcases of the diseased cattle, no further conse- 
 quences resulted. But they unhappily were few. On those 
 where this precaution was not used, and, indeed, it is surprising 
 that it should be used in any, seeing that the disease was new, 
 and its effects unknown, the flesh of the cattle that died being 
 dug up and eaten by the negroes, proved most dreadfully septic, 
 producing a pestilential carbuncle, attended by a malignant fever. 
 There were not wanting instances of the iniquitous practice of 
 offering the flesh of the diseased cattle for sale, and on these 
 occasions, such was the highly septic nature of this poison, that 
 even touching the flesh, in such manner as that part of the sanies 
 adhered to the finger, produced the same fatal consequence. . . . 
 It will be considered a very extraordinary fact that the cynanche 
 maligna disappeared a short time after the lues bovina. My 
 friend, Dr John Stewart, who had the best opportunities of see- 
 ing both diseases, for it was chiefly within his practice they oc- 
 curred, writes to me: " I went to Grenada early in 1774, but^ I 
 neither witnessed nor heard of any instance of the cynanche 
 maligna in that island until the end of 1783, nor did it appear 
 after 1786, until I finally left the island in 1797.^^ .... The lues 
 bovina, I have said, is a very rare disease within the tropics. I 
 have been assured by a gentleman long resident in Jamaica, and 
 owner of considerable cattle-pens, that nothing of the kind has, 
 to his knowledge, occurred there; and it is certain neither 
 Brown nor Ling have noticed it in their valuable works : it has 
 appeared in Barbadoes only, as far as I have been able to learn ; 
 and there it seems to have assumed the same alarming aspect, 
 and to have produced the same devastation among the horned 
 cattle, and, in many instances, to have given rise to similar con- 
 sequences among the human race we have found it marked by 
 in Grenada. The learned historiographer of Barbadoes, the 
 Reverend Mr Hughes, gives no information relative to the origin 
 of this distemper in that island, but he thus describes it : 
 "■ Among the distempers which infect the horned cattle, there is 
 one of a very contagious and pestilential kind, for a beast shall 
 seemingly, by his feeding heartily, and in appearance, be other- 
 wise well, yet in a few hours, without any symptom of a pre-
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 523 
 
 vious disease, drop down and die. These, when dead, are by the 
 most judieious planters immediately buried, and often there is 
 a watchman appointed to prevent the new-bought negroes and 
 others of the poorer sort from digging up the carcases and feed- 
 ing upon them; for when this happens it generally costs them 
 their lives, especially if they eat the liver, or any part of the en- 
 trails. In this case the distemper breaks out in the shape of 
 plague-boils, near the armpits or temples." He adds : " I have 
 known one very extraordinary instance of its virulency — a negro 
 woman was carrying upon her head, in a wicker basket, a piece ot 
 this flesh that had been newly cut off from a dead distempered 
 carcase, and a few bloody sanious drops fell through the basket 
 upon her breast. In a few hours she was swelled all over, and 
 was not able to move a limb, and in about two days there ap- 
 peared mortifying ulcers in every part where the drops fell, and 
 though speedv methods, &c., were used, the whole breast and 
 adjacent affected parts were taken off close to the bones.". . . . 
 A distemper equally fatal prevailed in some districts of Barba- 
 does in the year 1795. In the month of April of 1796, I made 
 a tour of the island, and at the plantation Apeshill, near Hole's 
 town, had the following very curious information from our host, 
 Mr Cummins, a very intelligent and respectable planter. The 
 malady was fatally epidemic on this plantation, and carried off 
 more than 50 head of cattle, and the number of negroes who 
 died in consequence of eating the flesh of the diseased animals 
 was also considerable. The description which Mr Cummins 
 gave of it, proved its identity with the Grenada distemper of 
 1783-4, but he could assign no cause for it. A very singular 
 instance of the excessive virulence and diffusive power of this 
 poison occurred in his own family. One of his children, a girl 
 of three years old, during the prevalence of the epidemic, took 
 for her breakfast one morning so large a portion of milk as to 
 leave a very scanty allowance to the other children. This milk 
 was taken from a cow which unfortunately then labouretl under 
 the distemper. At the end of four days, the child was seized 
 with all the usual symptoms of the j^laguc, sore or malignant 
 carbuncle, which had been observed to take place in the negroes 
 who ate of the llcj-h oi' the diseased cattle. She recovered with
 
 524 History of Animal Plagues. • 
 
 the utmost difficulty, but the deep mark left by the carbuncle on 
 her arm still remained,' ^ 
 
 After the great heat of the summer at Wetzlar, in Germany, 
 cattle were observed to die very suddenly, probably from the dis- 
 ease we have just been describing.^ The same malady (anthrax 
 — here called Femjn) was very frequent in Dutch Friesland in 
 the month of September.^ 
 
 The same affection was remarked in France in August,* and 
 Brugnone tells us that it committed dreadful havoc among the 
 horses of some regiments of dragoons at Fossano, near Turin. ^ 
 Gangrenous pneumonia was observed among cattle at Limousin 
 by Bourgelat,*^ and this author says that glanders (which may 
 have only been catarrh) was general among horses at Paris 
 in the spring and summer.'' A malignant and contagious form 
 of dysentery, which may have been the Cattle Plague, appeared 
 among the cattle in the Venetian provinces of Friuli, Padua, 
 and Verona, from the month of September, 1783, until March, 
 
 1784-^ 
 
 A.D. 1784. The winter was long and cold. In Siberia the 
 Yasva, or anthrax, was calculated to have destroyed more than 
 100,000 horses.^ ' In July, 1784, at Chalons and in its neigh- 
 bourhood, the cows and mares have nearly all aborted.' ^^ Ac- 
 cording to Bottani, in February glossanthrax prevailed at Bergamo, 
 Italy.^-^ 
 
 It is recorded in the Russian Agricultural Archives, that the 
 Cattle Plague passed from Flungary into Italy in this year. 
 This probably refers to last year's invasion. Wirth says it ex- 
 tended to Germany. 
 
 A.D. 1785. Canine madness raging all over the Northern 
 
 ^ C. ChisJwlm. On the Lues Bovina Intertropica. Edinburgh Medical and 
 Surgical Journal, vol. vi. pp. i},, 36. 
 
 ^ Held. Anweisung das Rindvieh zu behandeln. Wetzlar, 1783. 
 
 ^ Camper. Krankheiten welche Thieren und Mcnschen gemein sind, p. 23. 
 
 * Chabert. Op. cit., vol. iv. p. 259. 
 
 ^ Bnignone. Instructions, &c., vol.'^vi. p. 227. 
 
 ^ Journal de Paris, 1785. '' Beitrage z. Thierarzneik, vol. i. p. 226. 
 
 ^ Bottani. Vol. iii. p. 97. 
 
 9 Annal. de Med. Vet, 1854. 
 
 ^" RIoiseaii. Instructions, &c., vol. vi. p. 130. 
 ' ^- Bottani. Vol. iii. p. 113. 
 
 n
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 525 
 
 States of America, concurrently with measles in the human 
 species.^ The Gazettes of this year abound with accounts of its 
 dreadful effects.^ It continued durinsrthe followinir vear. Many 
 cases of hydrophobia were observed in the Southern States of 
 America, and in July, in that country, the weather was so hot 
 that the thermometer in the shade stood at 103°. 
 
 In the summer, glossanthrax broke out in the duchy of Nas- 
 sau. ^ In the year 1785 a long and severe winter was followed by 
 a wet and cold summer, in which the disease spread itself over 
 this district for the third time, and this epizooty appears to have 
 continued in other districts during the years 1786-7. In April 
 of the year 1785, the malady broke out at Nassau, and till May 
 and June of the same year it ravaged the district between the 
 Rhine and the Lahn. It was the general opinion at that time 
 that hairs grew out of the tongues of the animals, and these 
 were supposed to be the cause of the disease. In a report it is 
 stated, that at the root of the tongue these sprung up so strong 
 as to be like thorns, injuring the palate, and producing putridity 
 of both these parts, whereby at last the cattle lost their tongues 
 and died. In this epizooty, however, but few animals appear to 
 have perished. From that time anthrax of the tongue has never 
 been seen in the dukedom ; whether it be owing to altered con- 
 ditions for developing the malady in this neighbourhood, or 
 whether it will again appear at. another time, are questions 
 beyond the power of answering.' ^ 
 
 White, in his Natural History of Selborne, mentions in this 
 vear a remarkable visitation of aphides, or^ ' smother-ily,' in his 
 village on the ist of August/ 
 
 A.D. 1786. Anthrax was very prevalent and severe this year 
 in many countries. In the country of Lippe, for instance, it 
 rei""ned at the end of this and beginning of the next year, among 
 horses and cattle. ' \n a cow attacked by tbe disease, where the 
 pustule will break, you will first perceive a redness on the fraMuun 
 of the tongue, and within six hours a hard swelling will a]i|iear. 
 In some animals, either at once or soon alter this enlargement 
 
 > Courant. Aug. I, 1785. ^ Wdstcr. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 455. 
 
 ' Fraiu/tte. Op. cit., p. 122. 
 
 * G. IV/iiU: 'J'lic Natural lliblory of Selborne. Jardinc's Edit., para. 53.
 
 526 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 shows itself, there will be seen a small vesicle about the size of a 
 pea; in others only a yellowish-brown spot. Hereupon — often 
 within six hours — you will find a hole about two inches in diameter, 
 which^ in many instances, is from three to four inches deep, and 
 appears as if eaten out of the organ. The interior of these cavities 
 looks like a yellowish-grey fringe, or as if covered with short hair 
 of that colour, and smells very foul. The tongue begins to swell, 
 a ropy mucus flows from the mouth, and in bad cases the cattle 
 have a painful tumour under the jaw.^ ^ 
 
 At the end of August, the disease entered by the frontiers of 
 Suabia and Franconia into Bavaria, and attacked not only cattle 
 and horses, but also sheep and pigs.^ In Italy, it passed into the 
 States of the Church by the frontiers of Ancona, and continued 
 to spread, in 1787, in Piceno and other places. Its symptoms did 
 not vary much, but in some quarters its ravages were very severe, 
 and possibly in various localities where Cattle Plague prevailed, 
 the destruction caused by that scourge may have been attributed 
 to the glossanthrax.^ Malignant anthrax also attacked animals in 
 many countries : in Transylvania, in Schonen, and in Sweden 
 horses, cattle, and pigs suffered ; * in Hanover gangrenous ery- 
 sipelas (a variety of the same disease) destroyed many pigs : to 
 such an extent, indeed, did they perish, that in some provinces 
 one-third, one-half, and even two-thirds of their number disap- 
 
 ^ Lippische Verordnung. Beitr. z. Thierheilk, vol. iv. p. 133. 
 
 ^ Will. Kurzer Unterricht iiberdenjetztherrschendenZungenkrebs. Miinclien, 
 1786. 
 
 ^ The following works contain a description of this serious epizooty. Bonsi. 
 Istruzione A^'eterinaria sulla presente Epidemia Contagiosa. Venice," 1801. 
 G. Fantini. Sull Epidemia Contagiosa insorta nel Piceno. Jesi, 1787. P. Orlandi. 
 Sulla vera Origine del Cancro Volante, che produsse Grave Mortalita de' Buoi 
 Nello Stato Pontificio. Rome, 1787. L. Pdriiti. Memoria dell' Epizoozia 
 Bovina del 1786. Loretto, 1786. Heusinger admits that the history of this epi- 
 zooty of glossanthrax is incomplete, and his observations on the disease are very in- 
 structive. History shows us that all the great invasions of the malady have origin- 
 ated in sub-alpine France — in Dauphine or Auvergne, and have spread from 
 thence as from a centre, sometimes but a short distance, at other times a long way 
 in every direction, and generally by Germany into Poland, though never reach- 
 ing England. Of this, however, we cannot be quite certain. It is remarkable that 
 the invasions of ekzema ('foot and mouth disease'), when on a large scale, have 
 always followed an exactly opposite course — from east to west — from Russia even 
 to England. See that for 1838-41. 
 
 * Flormann, Neue Schwed. Abhandlung, vol. viii. p. 209.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 527 
 
 peared.^ In France anthrax appeared at Moulins, and in Dau- 
 phine,'- but, perhaps, most notably in the month of July, in the 
 province of Ouercy, department of Lot, where it was propagated 
 over a wide extent of country ; it only broke out among cattle, 
 but it was in many instances transmitted to men and mules.^ 
 In Savoy epizootic croup was prevalent. ' Although the croup 
 was not contagious, yet it was sometimes epizootic. In the 
 latter case, it was surprising that the animals of every age should 
 be observed in the year 1786 to suffer in a few communes of the 
 department of Sesia. The greater portion of the bovine species 
 was attacked by the disease/* 
 
 In some parts of Bavaria pneumonia seriously affected cattle, 
 and rot also prevailed among sheep.^ 
 
 Arquinet observed the catarrhal fever or ' distemper' of dogs 
 in an epizootic form at Pezenas, in the month of July. He also 
 complains of the dreadful ravages it had caused among dogs 
 in that nci^hbonrhood for upwards of twenty years." 
 
 A.D. 1787. The epizootics of glossanthrax and pneumonia 
 continued this year in Italy and Germany. In February, on 
 the banks of the Iser and the Danube, in Bavaria, an cpi- 
 zootv of sheep small-pox broke out, and was very deadly/ This 
 attack lasted for many years; the disease has, indeed, been sup- 
 posed to prevail there more or less since that time. 
 
 In Ireland, 'The wetness of the season excited apprehension 
 of disorder among the sheep — particularly the murrain;'^ which 
 was characterized by blisters itpoji the mouth. Was this a mild 
 form of the glossanthrax so prevalent on the Continent ? 
 
 A.D. 1788. The weather in this year was very irregular, the 
 changes of temperature being very sudden and severe. The 
 winter in England was long and hard. The sunnner tempera- 
 ture was very high, and storms were frequent. Influenza was 
 
 « Ilannov. Magaz. 1786, p. 1207. 
 
 * Chabert. Instructions Vctcr., vol. ii. p. 279. 
 
 3 Dcsplas. Sur la Maladie Cliarbonncusc qui a attaqu6 les Bestiaux du Qucrcy 
 en 1786. Instructions, &c., vol. ii. p. 283. 
 
 * Togt;ia. Mai. de Buoi, vol. i. p. 31. 
 
 * Plank. V(;terinar-topo{,aaphic von Baicrn, p. 137. 
 Wirth. Op. cit., p. 215. 
 
 ' Laubcndcr. Op. cit., p. 1 33. " Dublin Chronicle.
 
 5 28 History of Animal Plag^ies. 
 
 observed in mankind. During and after the heat^ anthrax ap- 
 peared so suddenly in some parts of Germany, that in the small 
 districts of Pfaffenhofen^ Neustadt, Vohburg, and Krandsberg, 
 247 horses, 389 oxen, and 201 pigs died before any assist- 
 ance could be obtained.^ 
 
 The same malady raged in Silesia during the summer, and 
 in the month of August it made great havoc among cattle in the 
 marshy country of Villeneuve-les-Cerfs, department of Allier, in 
 France.^ 
 
 A.D. 1789. The winter was cold in Europe, and the long and 
 severe frost did much damage; the summer was wet, and the 
 autumn cold. Earthquakes were felt in Iceland in July, Sep- 
 tember, and November; the latter shocks were experienced in 
 Scotland and in Italy. A remarkable circumstance was observed 
 in this year: the codfish did not appear at the usual fishing- 
 ground at Newfoundland, neither did it visit the English coasts 
 or the Baltic at the usual time. In the month of July, however, 
 great quantities were observed about the coasts of Norway, Lap- 
 land, and Archangel, dead or dying.^ It had been remarked in 
 1788, that almost all the codfish taken on the Banks of New- 
 foundland were thin and sickly, and when dried w^re little better 
 than skeletons, and scarcely saleable in foreign markets. Mildew 
 destroyed much corn in Scotland.* In America, in the month 
 of October, an alinost universal darkness overspread the land, 
 and diseases were very prev^alent in the form of anginas, croup, 
 and bilious fevers.^ In this year the crops failed, and cattle also 
 perished in considerable numbers in North America. In that 
 country, dogs likewise suffered much from rabies, and in the 
 State of New York a man died of hydrophobia, induced, it was 
 •supposed, from his having skinned a cow that had died of that 
 malady. Influenza was very severe in New York and Philadel- 
 phia, and over a large tract of that continent ; at the same time 
 there was great mortality among the horses in Maryland.'' 
 Canine rabies was epizootic at Miinstcr, in Westphalia.^ 
 
 ^ 'Laiibender. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 134. ^ Instructions, &c., vol. iv. p. 256. 
 
 3 Abbs. Philosophical Transactions, 1792. 
 
 '* Sinclair's Scotland. ^ Bascome. Op. cit., p. 140. 
 
 •^ Courant, Dec. 31, 17S9. ' Wirth. P. 236.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 529 
 
 There was a great epizooty among fowls in Upper Italv, 
 which has been described bv Dr Baronio. It was contagious 
 and very deadly. Baronio says : ' The disease manifested itself 
 by an universal dulness, which was accompanied by a grave 
 diminution of strength ; the combs were perceptibly flabby and 
 pendulous ; the interior of the mouth was covered with a viscid 
 matter; the anus was very red, and the feathers looked soiled 
 and shrivelled. To these phenomena there succeeded fever, 
 which was revealed by the sudden and great heat that could be 
 felt under the win^s and in the limbs. The fowls looked ex- 
 cessively dull ; they drooped their wings, and their crests became 
 livid ; the feathers became curled up under the head ; they refused 
 all food and water, and death soon ensued,^ Examinations of 
 the dead bodies of these fowls were made by Monteggia and I'er- 
 lasca; the lungs were perceived to be more or less inflamed, and 
 often covered with a great exudation of plastic lymph ; the liver 
 was healthy ; in the crop and the stom.ach grains of oats were 
 found blackened, but not otherwise changed ; the intestines were 
 filled by a large quantity of greenish mucus, but sometimes this 
 was of a reddish tinge like the mucus of dysentery; in all those 
 opened after death round worms {ascarides), in great numbers, 
 were found in the intestines. The dead bodies soon passed into 
 a state of putrefaction. The mortality began to show itself in 
 the beginning of September, 1789, around Pavia, and from thence 
 northwards in Lumellina, Casale, Vercelli, and other places to- 
 wards the mountainous districts ; while southerly, it advanced 
 to Milan and the lower Milanese territories. In August, 1790, 
 it was still reigning, and a tremendous loss of fowls had been 
 the consequence of its visitation ; in a single village, for example, 
 in a few days three hundred fowls had l)cen destroyed by it. 
 Its propagation by contagion was proved by many and frequent 
 observations, and it was undoubtedly demonstrated that those 
 fowls which were kejjt entirely apart from diseased ones 
 escaped.^ 
 
 ^ G. Baronio. Sulla Corrcnte Epidcmiadelle Pollastre. Milan. 17S9. 
 
 * Sec also Toi^i:;ia. Sloria dclla Costituzionc Vermin, cd Epizootica dci Polli, 
 in the 'Giomale Scientifica et Letterar. di Torino.' 1798. Bnii^iiotic. Dcscrizione 
 dcir Epizoozia dell Galline serpeggiante in (jucsla ciltJl. Milan, 1790. 
 
 34
 
 530 History of Animal Plagues, 
 
 In Wurtemberg, in this and the following years, many cattle 
 and sheep died from rot and flukes in the liver, ^ In the past 
 spring, one had, at Klein Glattbach, frequent opportunities of 
 verifying the following observations : many of the pregnant 
 ewes suffering from flukes in the liver brought forth lambs, all 
 of which, although they had no other sustenance than their 
 mothers' milk, nor had been ever driven to the meadows, or 
 drunk water, yet after a short time died from the malady their 
 parent had; in all about thirty-five perished. On examination, 
 flukes of a small size were found in their livers, the ffall-bladders 
 were much enlarged, and half a measure of water was found in 
 the cavity of their abdomens/ ^ 
 
 In Croatia, Krain, and the Tyrol, an epizooty of what was 
 said to be malignant dysentery was very deadly,^ but Heusinger 
 is of opinion that it was probably the Cattle Plague. 
 
 Enzootic anthrax killed many cattle in Auvergne, France.^ 
 
 At Cairo, during the plague in man, cats died in large num- 
 bers.* 
 
 Drous:ht and death of cattle in Antigua, West Indies. ' In 
 the year 1789, there was no fall of rain for seven months, where- 
 by there was not only no crop of sugar, but 5000 head of 
 horned cattle perished for want of water.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1790-1. In America the winter was very severe; the 
 spring and summer was cold, but dry, and catarrhs and yellow 
 fever prevailed. Blight destroyed the fruit and other vegetable 
 productions, and caterpillars and other parasites ate up the grass 
 and corn, especially in Maryland." In April, 1790, was a pro- 
 digious draucrht of shad fish at New York, which was said to 
 forebode the pestilential fever that began in autumn.^ In Ger- 
 many every species of clover was covered with honev-dew blight 
 {mehlthait). In many provinces of France rot, dropsies, and dis- 
 eases caused bv vermin were prevalent. From May until Sep- 
 
 ^ BilJnther. Ueber die Egelkrankheit unter dem Rindvieh und den Schafen. 
 Tubingen, 179 1. 
 
 2 Bottani. Op. cit. , vol. iii. p. 124 — 140. 
 
 ^ Instructions, &c., vol. ii. pp. 268, 280. 
 
 "^ Enrico di Volmar. Pest., p. 178. 
 
 ^ B. Edwards. Hist. West Indies, vol. i. p. 485. 
 
 ^ Bascome. Op. cit., p. 141. '' T. Eorster. Op. cit., p. 174.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 531 
 
 tember, the several varieties of anthrax were frequent, and in 
 Normandy small-pox in sheep was rile.^ In Bavaria and Suabia 
 anthrax appeared in the month of June ; and in Saxony haema- 
 turia in sheep^ which was supposed to be caused bv the larvae of 
 the curcuVio pisl? In Bavaria, pleuro-pneumonia was epizootic 
 amono; cattle.^ 
 
 Huzard describes the appearance of the same maladv, which 
 prevailed for a considerable distance around Paris in this year 
 and in 1794.^ Up to 1789, according to Lafosse, this most de- 
 structive disease had been nearly always, if not cntirelv, confined 
 to the Jura and Swiss Alps, the mountainous districts of Dau- 
 phine, the Vosges, Piedmont, and Upper Silesia. Towards the 
 end of the century, however, it is very probable that the wars 
 following the French Revolution were the cause of the extension 
 of this plague : the requirements of the various contending 
 armies necessitating droves of cattle beinff drawn from the resrions 
 where the contagion reigned enzootically; and these, attached 
 to the commissariat parks, and travelling into other countries, 
 would convey the oermsof the disease amono- hitherto untainted 
 herds. Neither the altitude, physical configuration, ge()gra])hi- 
 cal position, meteorological conditions, nor geological character 
 of a countrv, appear to have exercised any palpable influence in 
 the diffusion or vitality of the contagion; neither does the na- 
 ture of the food, plants, stabulation, or race afford exenij^tion 
 from its attacks when once introduced. As we shall see here- 
 after, tliis is one of the most wonderful maladies, in these re- 
 spects, with which we are acquainted, and its history affords a 
 most interesting study/' 
 
 In Townson's Travels in Hungary, mention is made of an 
 epizoijtv of an anthracoid nature, which attacked the horned 
 cattle in that countrv, Servia, and the Bannat of Tcmeswar, in 
 the year 1790, This attack, acccording to Kirby and Spence, 
 was caused by a minute fly or gnat; for, concerning its true 
 genus, they tell us there is some doubt amongst entomologists — 
 
 1 Chabert. Instructions, &c., vol. i. p. 399. 
 
 2 I nuhmder. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 160. ^ Ibiil. p. 1 61. 
 < Wirlh. Op. cit., ]>. 300. 
 
 * La/ossc. Traitc dc i'alhologic Veterinairc, vol. iii. p. 616.
 
 532- History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 Fabricius calling it a ^Rhagio^ {Rhngio Columhaschense); while 
 Latrielle, a more modern and perhaps better authority, sets it 
 down as a 'Similium;^ but to whatever genus it belongs, says 
 Kirbvj it is certainly a most destructive little creature. In 
 Servia and the Bannat of Temeswar, it attacks the cattle in 
 infinite numbers, and penetrates, according to Fabricius, their 
 generative organs; but according to another account, their 
 noses and ears, and by its poisonous bites destroys them even in 
 the short space of four or five hours. ^ 
 
 On the authority of Chabert, we are informed that the Spanish 
 sheep foot-rot (the pedero of the Spaniards), a contagious ma- 
 lady, was imported into the Pyrenees, and was particularly pre- 
 valent on the banks of the Gironde and Lower Medoc.^ 
 
 A.D. 1792. The year was damp and rainy. In May and 
 June locusts devoured the grain in New York, and the wheat 
 insect caused great destruction to the crops in Long Island and 
 in Maryland. The lime-trees at Philadelphia were destroyed 
 by a kind of caterpillar.^ Rot in sheep caused great destruction 
 in England.* 
 
 Pneumonia was epizootic among cattle in Franconia,^ and 
 what was called malignant fever (but which may have been the 
 Cattle Plague) raged in the Tyrol and in the province of Pole- 
 sine.^ Abortion v/as epizootic among cows in Italy. Toggia says : 
 ' It was most difficult to successfully prevent pregnant cows from 
 aborting in damp or wet localities, where the heavy fogs at the 
 end of the autumn had been very chilly, and had lasted for many 
 consecutive days; for to all these influences the animals had 
 been exposed. On account of this, abortions were very frequent 
 in mares and cows around Mantua and Lumellina, and more 
 especially was this accident inevitable if the cow came from a 
 dry climate, and passed all at once into a damp or rainy atmo- 
 sphere, particularly if it were also cold. This was what hap- 
 pened to the cows from the mountainous regions of Lanzo, 
 and also to those from Cuorgne, which chiefly in the month of 
 October descend to the plains and meadows to pasture; and it 
 
 ^ Entomology, vol. i. p. 150. - Chabert. Op. cit. 
 
 •^ Basco7iic. Op. cit., p. 142. 
 
 * E. Harrison. An Inquiry into the Rot in Sheep and other Animals. 1804. 
 
 ^ Journal von und lur Franken., vol. vi. p. 710. ^ Bottaiii. Op. cit., p. 144.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. ^'^'^^ 
 
 not unfrequently happens that the autumn is very rainy and 
 accompanied by thick fogs and cold winds when they are de- 
 pastured there. From a similar cause, this accident was very 
 prevalent towards the end of November, 1792, and, indeed, 
 became epizootic among the cows belonging to the farmers of 
 Lanzo. So serious did it become in the pastures around Turin, 
 that the number amounted to about seventy.' ^ 
 
 Epizootic dysentery caused great destruction among the 
 horses and cattle lodged in the casemates, during the siege of 
 Mayence. It was supposed to have been induced by insuffi- 
 cient or improper food, and a neglect of cleanliness and ventil- 
 ation.^ 
 
 A.D. 1793. The winter was cold, the spring dry, and the 
 summer one of the hottest on record for a hundred years. A 
 curious incursion of lemmings [Myodes Norvegicus) took place in 
 a district of Lapland. ' In August, 1793, an incredible number 
 of mountain-mice, called lemmar, descended upon Enontekis, and 
 in the followino; summer some were still seen scattered here and 
 there; whereas, during forty years nothing of the kind had ever ap- 
 peared before, nor have any of them been seen since.' ^ Dysentery 
 and yellow fever w-ere severely felt as epidemics in America, and 
 the last-named disease was very deadly in the West India is- 
 lands. In Europe, dysentery was very prevalent, and at the same 
 time anthracoid diseases destructive in the lower animals; more 
 especially was the latter class of diseases common in France, 
 accordincr to the statement of Gilbert. 'The extraordinary and 
 sudden heat in the summer of 1793, developed the germs of this 
 destructive pest. In addition to this, the damp mouldy fodder of 
 the previous year had predisposed those which fed on it. At the 
 commencement of the hot weather, carbuncular diseases appeared 
 in the departments of the Nievre, of the Upper and Lower 
 Rhine, Vicnne, and of the Indre, as well as other of the south- 
 ern departments. Citizen Godin treated this disease in the 
 districts of Belac and St Innien with much success, and ])ub- 
 lished an excellent treatise on his experience of it. He remarked 
 
 ' Toggia. Malattic dci Buoi, vol. ii. p. 313. 
 "^ Nouveau Diet. &c., Vcterinaires, art. * Dysenteric' 
 
 ' Clark. Travels in various Countries of Scandinavia, &c. T.nndon, 1838, vol. 
 i. p. 410.
 
 534 History of Animal Plagiies. 
 
 that the animals which were first attacked with the disease, and 
 which nearly all died, had been fed during the whole winter 
 with mouldy, muddy forage of the very worst quality. 
 
 ' This is confirmed by the statement of Lacroix, veterinary 
 surgeon of Poitiers, who, in an excellent description of the disease, 
 indicates the best treatment to control it. I myself have had a 
 hundred opportunities of observing this malady and its causes in 
 Argenton, in the department of Indre, where I also had occasion 
 to treat it. It raged there fearfully; attacked all animals without 
 distinction, and destroyed nineteen-twentieths of those affected by 
 it. It was only transmitted to mankind by the sting of those insects 
 which had sucked the blood of the diseased beasts. I have con- 
 vinced mvself that all the cattle which took the complaint spon- 
 taneously, and not by contagion, had been kept on bad, mouldy, 
 
 and spoilt forage After the small-pox of sheep, I know 
 
 no disease of animals more contagious than this putrid gangren- 
 ous fever. I do not know a single species which is exempt from 
 attack, and it passes with extreme facility from one to another. 
 It seldom prevails that it does not cost the life of some selfish or 
 imprudent men, who contract it either when removing the skin 
 from the dead animal, or emptying its rectum with the naked 
 arm when alive. 
 
 ' When I arrived, in 1793, in the district of Argenton, to 
 combat this malady, a great number of citizens had already been 
 affected with veritable carbuncles, and many had died. I had 
 the satisfaction of saving all those who had any confidence in 
 my advice. When opening an ox that had died from the 
 malady, a drop of blood which had got through the texture of 
 the glove I usually wore on my hand sufficed to induce a small 
 ulcer, which I only checked on the spot by burning it deeply 
 with a red-hot iron. The horse I rode was also attacked, not- 
 withstanding my precautions for preventing him touching, im- 
 mediately, any diseased animal ; it was cured in the same manner. 
 I have seen a sow and eight young ones die nearly all together, 
 after having smelled the bloody traces left by a cow when 
 dragged away to be buried. Fowls, turkeys, geese, and even 
 blackbirds and starlings, died after having pecked at the blood 
 of animals affected with the disease. In a dairv belon<>;ing to
 
 History of Animal Plagues. <)'})S 
 
 the citizen Godcau, owner of the forges of Ablon, the manager 
 having lost some cows, was advised, in order to stop the malady, 
 to burv one in the cowshed. The carcase was soon interred, 
 but the two animals which stood nearest to the spot were quickly 
 affected. I could not disinfect this stable until the little soil 
 that covered the dead beast was removed and replaced by a large 
 quantity of lime ; then a small hillock of earth was raised over 
 it, in order to prevent the escape of the putrid emanations. A 
 farmer of Saint-Benoit-du-Sault, district of Argenton, after hav- 
 mg lost all his cattle from the malady, had them replaced by others 
 which he had brought from an estate twenty leagues off, where 
 the disease had not been seen. But about fifteen days after their 
 occupation of the same cowshed these also were attacked, and 
 owed their preservation to my assistance. 
 
 ' Nothing contributes so much to the dissemination of these 
 kinds of maladies as the shallow pits in which the dead 
 bodies are interred. Dogs, wolves, and bears disinter them, and 
 in doing so nearly always perish ; but, frequently, not until after 
 they have communicated the malady to other animals, and have 
 sometimes carried the virus to very great distances. I have seen 
 two bears and a wolf perish in one day from eating the flesh of 
 a horse that had died of the malady. After havins; been assured 
 that the flesh of an ox that had died from this affection had 
 caused the death of several dogs, I was anxious to know if the 
 cooked flesh would possess this deleterious property ; the dog to 
 which I gave it was not affected. This experiment, however, 
 does not suffice to allay apprehension with regard to the danger 
 of eating the flesh of diseased cattle; for I have also observed, 
 though rarely, that dogs could eat the raw flesh of animals that 
 
 died from anthrax with impunity I have seen a horse 
 
 attacked with a carbuncular tumour on the haunch some hours 
 after having carried on its crouj) the fresh hide of a diseased 
 beast enveloped in a sack.' ^ 
 
 In Bavaria, anthrax was dreadfully fatal among horses and 
 
 • F. II. Gilbert. Rcclierchcs sur les Causes dcs Maladies Cliarbonncuses dans 
 es Animaux, &c. Paris, 1795. ^ruiti Vii'm Gilbert and LacroLx. liistrucUon sur les 
 Moyeii-s do gucrir la Maladie cjuc Regne bur les Besliaux dans Ics Depart, de la 
 Ilaulc Rhine. Vienne, 1793.
 
 53^ History of Aniiual Plagues. 
 
 cattle from July until October, after the great heat of the wea- 
 ther, scanty forage, and scarcity of water.^ 
 
 In this year, the events of war again made that terrible scourge, 
 — the Cattle Plague, known to many countries. It was imported 
 into Lombardy by Russian and Austrian troops, who drew their 
 supplies of cattle and oxen from those regions in which the disease 
 is indigenous, or the cattle of which are liable, when exposed to 
 certain exciting causes, to develope it. At the end of the year it 
 was introduced into Piedmont by Hungarian cattle destined for 
 the supply of an Austrian army, and which communicated it to 
 the cattle of Lomeline, and of Alessandria, Novara, and Tortona; 
 it was soon spread all over Italy, where it prevailed until j8oi. 
 The Italian epizooty has been ably described by the undermen- 
 tioned authors.2 Sheep were said to be attacked by it in Friuli, 
 as well as the horned cattle. In 1795, it was carried into 
 Southern Germany, and it raged with great fury in Bavaria, Sua- 
 bia,^Baden,|Wurtemberg, Franconia, Hesse, and Nassau, being 
 brought or maintained there by the continual passage of droves of 
 Hungarian cattle, which traversed those countries to reach the 
 Austrian army on the Rhine, or by the passage of troops who took 
 with them infected cattle as their supplies. The German writers 
 have left us exact descriptions by which the disease may be easily 
 identified; those of Walz for Wurtemberg, Ackermann and 
 Will for Bavaria, Stoll, Metzler, Reich, and Megele maybe here 
 mentioned, as well as Albert, Reich, and Schaller for Erlangen.^ 
 
 ^ Laube7ider. Ueber den Milzbrand. Munich, 1814, p. 163. 
 ^ Bimiva. Memoire sur I'Epizoutie Bos-Hongroise, &c. Turin, 1793. Ibid. 
 Mem. cont. le provvidenze contio I'Epizoozia nelle Bovine. Turin, 1797. Ibid. 
 Raggionamento sull'..Eccidio, &c. Turin, 1798. Moscati. Compendio di Cog- 
 nizioni Veterinarie. Milan, 1795. This work contains also the observations of 
 Deho, Gherardini, and Bonviciuo. Bottaiii. Vol. vii. pp. 149— 217. Aduiolji, 
 Sanseverino, and Zacchiroli. Compendio di Osservazioni, &c. Spoleto, 1801. 
 
 2 The principal German works on the epizooty at this period are the following :— 
 C. G. Fred. Albert. Historia Pestis Bovillce, by Gothfredus Fleischmann. Erlan- 
 gen. De Lues BovillcTS. Origine et Natura. Erlangen, 1797. A'ansc/i. Kame- 
 ralprinzipien iiber das Rindviehsterben. Berlin, 1793. Schallern. Deutliche An- 
 weisung die Loserdiirre zu erkennen und sicher zu heilen. Baireit, 1797. Reich. 
 Richtige und gewissenhafte Belehrung fiir den Landmann iiber die Rindvieh- 
 seuche und Inoculirung derselben. Numberg, 1798. Stoll. Beobachtungen 
 iiber die Rindviehpest far Thierarzte, Physiker und Polizeibeamteten. Zurich, 
 1800. Fi-ank. Ueberadie Rinderpest und die Mittel sic zu heilen und auszurotten. 
 Berlin, 1802. Walz. Natur und Behandlungsart der Rinderpest, &c. Stuttgart,
 
 History of Animal Plagues. $'^'] 
 
 In the year 1796 it was brought to France, entering by the eastern 
 departments. Here it was, as usual, attentively observed by Hu- 
 zard/ Brassier, and Guersent,- and in Holland, where it also ap- 
 peared in this year, it was reported upon by Forsten. From 
 1798 until 1801, it prevailed in Switzerland, and in 1799 it was 
 causing great destruction in Bohemia, Westphalia, Poland, and 
 other regions in that part of Europe.^ The various authors 
 who have written on this epizooty, as will be observed, are too 
 numerous to be quoted in our brief chronological history; it 
 niav therefore suffice to say that it was neither so general nor 
 so deadly as the visitations of 171 1 and 1745, owing perhaps 
 to its nature and the means for suppressing it being better un- 
 derstood. Its prevention, and not its cure, was discovered — or 
 rather once more proved — to be most profitable. It is calculated 
 that it destroyed more than a hundred thousand cattle before it 
 was extinguished in 1802. The descriptions of the symptoms, 
 the facts of its contagious and deadly nature, and the inutility of 
 attempting to cure the infected, are but repetitions of what was 
 written by observers in the previous invasions of the plague. 
 
 A.D. 1794. An earthquake at Naples, and an eruption of 
 Vesuvius, which destroyed the city of Torre del Greco. In 
 Britain, during the month of January, rains were frequent and 
 heavy, and as a consequence floods did much damage. The 
 summer was very hot, and anthrax was again very deadly in 
 Bavaria.* In the Tyrol and V^erona 'ekzema epizootica ' was 
 prevalent among cattle.^ In the south of France, the horses and 
 mules of the French army were affected with ' mange ^ to a very 
 serious degree; the disease was transmitted to, and propagated 
 among, the soldiers." 
 
 1803. Saitter. Beitriige zur Kenntniss unci Ilcilung der Rindviehseuche. Ulm, 
 
 1804. Will. Bemerkungen liber die gewohnlichsteii Entstehungs- und Verbrei- 
 tungsursachen der sich in Baiern so sehr vermehrenden Viehseuchen allcr Art. 
 Miinchen, 1799. Beiickmdorf. Abhandlung von verschiedenen Seuciien dcs 
 Rindvichs. Berlin, 1791. 
 
 1 Instruction surlesMaladiesInflammatoiresEpizootiques et particuliiniment sur 
 celle qui affccte Ics Betes i Comes des departements de I'Est, &c. By RIM. Htizard 
 and Desplas, Veterinary Surgeons, Paris. 
 
 2 Guersent. Essai sur les Epizootics. Paris, 1815. 
 
 3 Loriiiscr. Op. cit., p. 29. Nebel. Op. tit. , p. 9. 
 
 * Lauhender. Op. cit., p. 165. '•' Botlaiii. Op. cit., vol. vii. ]i. 14S. 
 
 • Lon^champs. Mcmoirc sur la Maladic Galcuse qui affccte cu cc moment Ics
 
 ^^8 History of Animal Plagtces. 
 
 A.D. 1795- '^'"'6 winter was cold and the summer hot^ damp, 
 and rainy, after a late spring. Fruits were destroyed by blight, 
 and disease caused great loss among vegetables, especially pota- 
 toes and cabbages. Paper hangings and other furniture were 
 destroyed by the universal damp, which generated a white 
 mould. Anthrax yet very common and fatal in Bavaria ; and 
 in France sniall-pox committed great ravages among sheep.^ 
 An epizooty appeared among horses in Bavaria which was named 
 ' epizootic catarrh/ but which Plank says was acute glanders 
 [akuter rotz) ; it was believed to have been imported from 
 Aust 
 
 ria 
 
 2 
 
 In this year^ and also in i8ii, Despallens describes the dis- 
 ease in calves due to the presence of filaria in the air-passages, 
 as being very prevalent.* 
 
 A.D. 1796. The summer was hot and dry. A severe earth- 
 quake destroyed the whole country between Santa Fe and Pana- 
 ma, including the cities of Cusco and Quito. The seasons were 
 intemperate in the United States, and bilious and remittent 
 fevers were common among mankind.* Malignant anthrax 
 appeared among cattle in Lombardy.^ The Austrian troops in- 
 troduced the acute glanders mentioned last year as prevailing 
 among horses in Bavaria, into Franconia; one author, however, 
 (Pilger) asserts that he had already observed this disease in 1795, 
 and from that time until 1797, on the banks of the Rhine. It 
 destroyed many horses. The Military Train horses particularly 
 suffered from the malady, which was transmitted to very many of 
 the solipeds in the towns and villages, and caused great damage.** 
 
 From 1796 to 1803, but especially in the years 1797 and 
 ^98, the egg rot was very destructive among bees in Saxony. 
 'The disease showed itself in 1796, after the bees had suffered 
 
 Chevaux, Mules, et Mulcts de I'Armee Francaise, du Midi, qui s'est propageesur 
 presque tous les Chevaux des proprietaires, et atteint les particuliers qui les soignent. 
 Castres. During the Crimean war, I was in medical charge of a large number of 
 horses which were severely affected with mange, and had ample opportunity for 
 observing that the Turks who attended to them, rode them, and slept beside them, 
 using the saddles as pillows, suffered greatly from itch. 
 
 1 Gilbert. Op. cit. ~ Flank. Op. cit. 
 
 ^ Despallens. Proces- Verbal, &c., a I'Ecole Vet. de Lyon, 181 2. 
 
 * Bascome. Op. cit., p. 144. ^ Bottani. Op. cit., vol. vii. p. 144. 
 
 ^ Lmibcnder. Op. cit., p. 241.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 539 
 
 much from the severe and long winter, and an unusually cold 
 and hungry spring. It continued during similar springs, when 
 the irregular weather and the severe storms damaged the vines. 
 Not a single vine was spared, and this misfortune spread as far as 
 the Elbe, lasting for seven vears.' ^ A great mortality among 
 geese and fowls occurred in America; death was very rapid.- 
 
 An epizooty among cats in Holland. 'The excellent phy- 
 sician and naturalist. Professor Schacht of Harderwyk, wrote to 
 me in May, 1796, that the cats of that neighbourhood had been 
 attacked with a peculiar skin disease, which had the appearance 
 of scabies. They had also an acrid, stinkins; discharge from the 
 eyes, which at last blinded them. It was observed that in the 
 previous months, from February to April, they were excessively 
 lascivious and their night cries were particularly loud.' ^ 
 
 In this year Dr Darwin of Derby whites: 'The parotitis siip- 
 piirans, or mumps with irritated fever, is at times epidemic 
 among cats, and may be called parotitis felina ; as I have reason 
 to believe, from the swellings under the jaws, which frequently 
 suppurate, and are very fatal to those animals. In the village 
 of Haywood, in Staffordshire, I remember a whole breed of Per- 
 sian cats, with long white hair, was destroyed by this malady, 
 along with almost all the cats of the neighbourhood ; and as the 
 parotitis or mumps had not long before prevailed amongst human 
 beings in that part of the country, I recollect being inclined to 
 believe that the cats received the infection from mankind, 
 though in all other contagious diseases, except the rabies canina 
 can be so called, no different genera of animals naturally com- 
 municate infection to each other; and I am informed, that vain 
 efforts have been made to communicate the small-pox and 
 measles to some quadrupeds by inoculation.' ^ 
 
 A.D. 1797. The winter was long and cold, and the summer 
 rainy. Catarrh in Entrland in the sprinsf. ' Was also a year ot 
 great blight.' "' The same epidemics that were noticed last year 
 were causing much mortality in America. ' In Quito, so destruc- 
 
 ^ Die Faulbruroder Bienenpcst. Dresden, 1804. 
 
 2 IVfl/sti'r. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 520. ^ lilumfiibuch. Voigt Magazin. 
 
 * Dr Danuin. Zoonomia, London, 1791, vol. ii. p. 229. 
 
 * Sir J. Banks. On Diseases in Corn.
 
 540 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 tive were the gases given out from the lake Ouilotoa, that whole 
 herds of cattle on its shores were killed, ' ^ In Saxony^ during this 
 and the next year, small-pox was very fatal in sheep, and inocu- 
 lation was attempted by Fink.^ Rabies canina was epizootic iu 
 Rhode Island, North America.^ In the kingdom of Wurtem- 
 berg anthrax was very severe, and people were frequently affected 
 by transmission of the poison.* 
 
 In Bavaria, according to Wirth, there appeared an epizooty 
 among the horses ; it was a putrid disease, accompanied by 
 malignant quinsy and nervous fever; all the thoracic organs 
 were involved.^ It was probably the malady alluded to in 1795. 
 An extraordinary epizooty among cats, remarkable not only 
 for its prevalence in many countries, but also for the peculiarity of 
 its origin and spread, is recorded for this year. It appears to 
 have been developed in America about the same time as the 
 epidemic yellow fever of the preceding year. Such may be 
 inferred from Erdmann's account of it." 
 
 ' Shortly before the commencement of the yellow fever in 
 1798, there was a great disease among the rats and cats, from 
 which many hundreds died. This was also the case here in 
 Philadelphia before the breaking out of the yellow fever in the 
 past year 1797, and in 1796 at New York. Asfaras we can learn, 
 the symptoms of this disease have not been sufficiently observed. 
 The animal, however, usually lost its appetite, but drank a 
 great deal, slept much, looked very ill, and many began to 
 grow emaciated. Some died in a kind of stupor ; others, on the 
 contrary, towards the termination of the disease, became mad, 
 vomited, and foamed at the mouth. Also among the dogs, 
 at the beginning of the yellow fever, there was a sickness of 
 which many died. This disease among the domestic animals has 
 often been observed to precede the breaking out of yellow fever, 
 and now it is looked upon by many as a certain forerunner of 
 
 ^ Humboldt. Voyages, p. 317. 
 
 2 Fmk. Beschreibung der Pockenkrankheit, p. 22. 
 
 3 New York Medical Repository. * Wirth. Op. cit., p. 86. 
 ^ Ibid. p. 136. 
 
 " With regard to the commencement of this feline epizooty, however, we must 
 not overlook Blumenbach's mention of a somewhat analogous, if not identical, 
 malady in Holland, in the middle of 1796.
 
 History of Animal Plag7ces. 541 
 
 this epidemic^ and this fact is adduced to favour the opinion of 
 those who assert that it is not brought here by contagion, but is 
 generated spontaneously. In the months of March and April, 
 a remarkable disease appeared among cats in London and other 
 parts of England, and it is said that in three parishes of London, 
 within fourteen days, above five thousand died. This was 
 probablv the same disease ; which had raged among these 
 animals in nearly all the towns of New England and New York 
 in this year. It seems to have been confined to the towns, 
 as nothing has been heard of it from the country. In France 
 the same happened in this year, as we learn from the Bordeaux 
 newspapers. As, however, in these years no yellow fever was 
 present in any of these places, except Philadelphia, the opinion 
 that that malady always follows the sickness in cats is seriously 
 shaken.^ ^ It was calculated that five thousand cats perished 
 at Philadelphia, and four thousand at New York.'^ ' This cat 
 distemper appeared in Philadelphia as early as June (1797), and 
 proceeded northward and eastward, like the catarrh of 1789. In 
 August it was very fatal in New York, and in the course of the 
 summer and autumn, it spread destruction among those animals 
 over the Northern States.' ^ 
 
 In London, the cat epizooty manifested itself during the 
 months of March and April, 1797. 'In England a pestilence 
 among cats swept away those animals in thousands. It seems 
 that this disease began as early as April, and succeeded an epi- 
 demic catarrh among the human race. The same cat-plague was 
 soon after epidemic in France.'"' In Ireland it was also observed. 
 'The feline race in this country are dying in numbers by a mere 
 murrain similar to that which sometimes seizes and spreads among 
 the black cattle; for some of the skins of the cats which died of 
 the disorder now prevalent among them, being dried,'and the hair 
 taken offby lime, appeared full of small holes caused by numbers 
 of worms or insects that thus penetrate ; when seized with the 
 distemper the poor animals appear to be in the greatest agony.'* 
 
 From the commencement to the cud of Septen)ber, seven 
 
 ' Erdmann. Das Gelbe Fieber zu Philadelphia, &c., p. lo. 
 
 2 New York Medical Repository, vol. i. '' Webster. Op. cit. 
 
 i IljiJ. * Hibernian Magazine.
 
 542. History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 thousand cats died of this epizooty at Copenhagen.^ In the next 
 month, October, it was prevailing at Bordeaux.^ 
 
 In Stockhohn it was also observed in this year/ and in 
 Lusatia in the month of December.* 
 
 In 1798 it showed itself in Holland/ and has been briefly 
 described by Schelver, probably in the following year. ^ The 
 disease in cats, which has lately raged in so many countries oi 
 Europe, had also spread itself over the diocese of Osnaburgh and 
 the neighbouring districts. For a year past it has now been gra- 
 dually disappearing.'" At Lyons it does not appear to have mani- 
 fested itself until 1798. ' An eruption of itch [gale) similar to that 
 of 1762, has shown itself at Lyons among the cats, and has nearly 
 destroyed them all." ^ In Piedmont it was observed by Buniva in 
 1798/ and in the same year in Lombardy,by Brera, it was remark- 
 ed in the summer months.^ At Vienna, according to Penada, the 
 disease killed more than twenty-five thousand cats; from this 
 localitv it spread by Carinthia and the Tyrol, into Friuli, Venice, 
 and Padua, in which place Penada saw it in the spring of '98. 
 It appears also to have extended to the Island of Zante, one of 
 the Ionian Islands to the south of Cephalonia, in the Mediter- 
 reanean, as it was noticed there by Rhuliere in this or the suc- 
 ceeding year/" The authority whom we have so often named — ■ 
 Heusinger — is of opinion that the dates of these various attacks 
 may lead us to infer that the direction taken by this singular epi- 
 zooty was from the north-west to south-east ; and the accounts of 
 it by Caldwell, Erdmann, and others would permit of the hypo- 
 thesis being received as at least plausible, that this malady was 
 
 1 Hund'ms. Dissert. Morbi Epizootici Felibus an. 1797 fatalis liistoria. Viteberg, 
 1800, p. 6. 
 
 - Journal de Sante de Bordeaux, vol. ii. p. 247. 
 
 •* Electriska Kraftens marbardige starka rorelse och verkan or 1797, afoer 
 anmiirkd sosom formodad orsak til Katta Slagtes besynncrliga Pest i Hufvuclstaden. 
 Stockholm, 1798. 
 
 ■* Knebel. Laiisitzische Monatsschrift. Miirz, 1799. 
 
 ^ Seftstroin. Ny Journal uti hushollningen. 1 799. 
 
 ** Wiedemann. Archiv. fiir Zoologie und Zootomie, vol. i. 
 
 ■^ Ozanam. Hist, des Maladies Epid., vol. v. p. 371. 
 
 * Buniva. Sedillot. Recueil per. de la Socicte de Medecine, vol. vii. p. 273. 
 
 " Brera. Memoria sul attuale Epidemia del Gatti. Pavia, 1 798. 
 
 ^^ Hundius. Op. cit.
 
 History 0/ Animal Plagues. 543 
 
 developed among cats during the yellow fever, and that it had fol- 
 lowed a route similar to that pursued by the distemper in dogs in 
 1 761. Tiie descriptions given by the various observers are very 
 much alike, especially those of Brera and Biuiiva. The latter says, 
 ' Citizen Dumas, professor of medicine at Montpellier, has rightly 
 said that the symptoms of the disease are dullness, loathing, 
 debilitv, rigiditv of the members, drowsiness, frequent yawn- 
 ing, alteration of the voice, and trembling of the head and ex- 
 tremities. We mav observe that in the succession and the 
 nature of the symptoms there are great differences. Here are the 
 results of our experiences in this matter. A few davs after the 
 animal has imbibed the contagious principle, it appeai^s to be un- 
 easy and unwell ; it loses its vivacity and nimbleness, manifests 
 no desire to seek for food, its winning graces are gone, and so is 
 its courage. In proportion as the disease advances it becomes 
 timid, melancholy, restless, and feeble; it evades its master, and 
 drags itself along with slowness and difficulty ; it withdraws to 
 the most secret places in the house, and neither eats nor drinks 
 with its accustomed avidity; its claws are less active and move- 
 able ; the Valeriana, manim, and the ncpeta catarla no longer 
 excite it. Quickly the feebleness and the stupidity augment, 
 and the creature becomes sleepy ; it can scarcely maintain itself 
 on its feet, the tail is drooping, the head bent down, and the 
 neck looks as if lonofer than usual ; the ears hano; flaccid and 
 are cold, the eye is diminished in size, sunken, and tearful, while 
 the pupil is narrowly contracted ; the tongue is dry, and covered 
 with a vellow mucus; the mouth dribbles forth a frothy saliva 
 of a whitish tint deepening down to green. 
 
 ' In the commencement of the disease there are rarely any 
 faeces passed ; the respiration is laboured and very short, the 
 pulse small, quick, and frecjuent; the heat of the skin is very 
 intense. The animal becomes insensible to the voices of those 
 who tend it. The belly becomes tympanitic; there are frecjuent 
 tremblings and violent convulsions. An universal cold ensues, and 
 the sick beast makes ineffectual efforts toxomit. Citizen Tuffet 
 has nevertheless remarked that in tln' prison at Stapleton, near 
 Brist(»l, England, in the nimitli " gtrniinal " of the \ear 7 
 (March, 1799), of twenty cats which were in that prison eight
 
 544 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 perished from this disease, and two of these he particularly ob- 
 served threw up, by repeated and severe retchings, a yellow fetid 
 matter. The bodies of these animals, as death began to approach, 
 assumed more and more of a yellowish tinge. (The epidemics 
 in man, in America and elsewhere, at this time, were remarkable 
 for their bilious complications.) 
 
 ' Lastly, it was after this succession of symptoms that the cats 
 affected by the epizooty perished, — an event which ordinarily 
 took place on the fourth or fifth day after being attacked. A 
 personal remark we may here make is, that from the second day 
 of the disease it was very difficult to draw any electric sparks 
 from these*animals by frictions on the back. The post-mortem 
 examinations have revealed gangrenous patches in the whole of 
 the viscera, but particularly in the stomach and intestines. The 
 nostrils, the mouth, the oesophagus, the trachea, the lungs, and 
 also the intestines, were full of a serous and mucus matter, 
 which was sometimes white, sometimes yellow, and at other 
 times blood-coloured, I shall not mention the many other 
 alterations that I found after death in those I opened. Professor 
 Halle has found a purulent mass of matter at the base of the 
 brain, near the ethmoid bone, and the gall-bladder very distended, 
 in a cat which he opened. This disease has been observed in 
 the department of the Lower Seine by citizen Cloquet; it has 
 also reigned at Bordeaux, Strasburg, and other places,' ' The 
 past year (1798), as I was walking through the forests in the 
 neighbourhood of the menagerie of the National Venerie (at 
 Turin), I came upon the dead bodies of two wild cats which 
 appeared to have died recently. So far as I could judge by the 
 foam and saliva about their mouths, by the discharge from their 
 noses, as well as from the alterations observable in their viscera, 
 I was of opinion that they had been the victims of the same 
 malady which had destroyed the domestic cats. My conjectures 
 acquired yet greater probability after I had questioned a sports- 
 man on the subject, for he assured me that the mortality was 
 then very great among wild cats. The Society of Agriculture, 
 and also that of Medicine at Paris, was informed that the 
 epizooty, which is the subject of this memoir, so far from hav- 
 ing disappeared, had recommenced its ravages in some depart-
 
 History of A nivial Plagues. 545 
 
 ments, and even in the cities. These societies have invited Pro- 
 fessor Huzard to gather information on this subject, and to 
 make any researches he may deem necessary. The Society of 
 Medicine has Hkewise authorized the citizen Bouvier to pursue 
 his investigations conjointly with M. Huzard. This cpizocity pre- 
 vailed during last year in the Island of Zante. I am informed 
 oF this by citizen Rhuliere, who was then intrusted with certain 
 functions by the French Government at that place.' ^ 
 
 From the description afforded us by Hundius, it appears that 
 vomiting was a most prominent symptom in a great many 
 countries.'^ 
 
 Brera, in his post-mortem examinations, discovered that ' the 
 cavity of the stomach did not show anything except a greenish 
 mucus, which was also found alone: the whole course of the in- 
 testinal canal. ^^ 
 
 A disease in fowls in the United States is described by Dr 
 Wiesenthal, Professor of Anatomy at Baltimore. He says : 
 ' There is a disease prevalent among the gallinaceous poultry in 
 this country called the gapes, which destroys eight-tenths of our 
 fowls in many parts, and takes place in the greatest degree 
 amons; voung turkeys and chickens bred upon established farms. 
 Chicks and poults, in a few days after they are hatched, are 
 found frequently to open their mouths wide and gasp for breath, 
 at the same time sneezing and attempting to swallow. At first 
 the affection is slight, i)ut gradually becomes more and more op- 
 pressive,and ultimately destroys. Very few recover; they languish, 
 grow dispirited, droop, and die. It is generally known that 
 these symptoms are occasioned by worms in the trachea. I have 
 seen the whole windpipe completely filled with these worms, 
 and have been astonished at the fowls being capable of respira- 
 tion under such circumstances.'^ 
 
 ' Buniva. Op. cit., pp. 273, 286, 292. 
 
 ^ Hundius. Op. cit., p. 9. " Brera. Op. cit., p. 12. 
 
 * Since the clays of Dr Wicscnthal, this worm or parasite has been receiving 
 some attention. In scientific classification it has oljtaincd tlie honouraljle title of 
 Sckrostoma Syngainus . Dr Spencer Cobljold informs us that ' this parasite has 
 been found and recorded as occurring in the trachea of the following birds, namely, 
 the turkey, domestic cock, pheasant, partridge, common duck, lapwing, lilack 
 
 35
 
 54^ History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 A.D. 1798. Catarrhs, anginas, and pleurisy were frequent in 
 mankind. The epizooty in horses, which has been remarked 
 as prevalent in Bavaria and Franconia in 1795 and 1796, had 
 extended in this vear to Eastern and Western Prussia.^ Glan- 
 ders prevailed in an epizootic form in Piedmont.^ 
 
 Mr White, of Exeter, speaks of Mnfluenza' affecting horses 
 in this year, but I have not the work containing his reference to 
 hand at present. The epizooty appears to have been attracting 
 some attention, for two years previously Dr Darwin, in his 
 philosophical treatise, ^Zoonomia,^ devotes some space to its 
 consideration, and designates it as a contagious disease, as we 
 have already noticed for 1782. 
 
 A.D. 1799. The winter was cold, the summer humid. The 
 former season had been very severe and destructive to cattle in 
 Sweden. In the month of November appeared the influenza 
 in man in Russia, which in January, 1800, had reached Prussia, 
 and soon thereafter became epidemic throughout Europe. In 
 Morocco, famine and pestilence arose, and were said to be due 
 to elemental disturbance. Plague raged in mankind in that 
 empire ; and it was remarked that birds deserted their former 
 abodes while it lasted.^ Jackson says: 'Before the plague, in 
 1799, the face of the earth, from Mogador to Tangiers, was 
 covered by locusts. The whole region, from the confines of the 
 Sahara, was ravaged by them ; but on the other side of the river 
 El Kos not one of them was to be seen, though there was nothing 
 to prevent their flying over it ; till then they had proceeded north- 
 ward, but on arriving at its banks they turned to the east, so that 
 all the country north of El Araiche was full of pulse, fruits, and 
 grain, exhibiting a most striking contrast to the desolation of the 
 surroundino; districts.' * In November and December of this 
 year, and in the following year, an epizooty of aphthous fever 
 
 stork, magpie, hooded crow, green woodpecker, starling, and swift. I do not 
 doubt that this list might be very much extended if our British ornithologists would 
 favour us with their experience in the matter. Hitherto I have been surprised to 
 find how few of those to whom I have mentioned the subject appear to be acquainted 
 either with the nature of the parasite, or with the various methods to be adopted in 
 curing the disease to which its presence in the windpipe gives rise.' 
 
 1 Amnion. Tennecker Zeitung, vol. iii. ^ Toggia. Op. cit. 
 
 3 Bascome. Op. cit., p. 145. ^ Jackson. Travels in Morocco, p. 54.
 
 History of Animal Plagues. 547 
 
 [ekzema epizootica — foot and mouth disease) manifested itself 
 in Piedmont among cattle. ' This disease broke out so rapidly, 
 that when one animal in a stable became affected, it was com- 
 municated with incredible rapidity to the whole of the cattle with- 
 out distinction of race or sex, and no place escaped. It was ac- 
 companied by a slow fever, and at the same time there might be 
 observed an eruption of pustules [pustulette) occupying the outer 
 and inner surfaces of the lips, the fauces, palate, and especially the 
 tongue, though more rarely the eruption appeared upon the 
 udder. This eruption soon degenerated into ulcers, which were 
 not long in healing up.' ^ From the month of January this 
 epizooty had been present in the Venetian States, and in Lom- 
 bardy ; but in these countries it appears to have been designated 
 'cancro-volante' (glossanthrax^). Not long after this the 
 terrible Cattle Plague was introduced, and ' contemporaneously 
 appeared an epizooty which destroyed a great number of dogs, 
 especiallythosc of a sporting kind.'"'' fn the same region sheep 
 suffered much from small-pox.* With reference to the epizooty 
 among dogs, Chabert alludes to the great prevalence of canine 
 distemper in and around Paris during this and the following 
 ycar.^ 
 
 In England, this year, a contagious disorder among horned 
 cattle had broken out in the neighbourhood of Frostenden, 
 Suffolk, which was believed to be the ' Cattle Plague,' as an 
 Order in Council, dated April 25th, applied the provisions of 
 the Order of 1747. All fairs and markets for cattle within ten 
 miles were stopped, and compensation to half the value was 
 offered for all animals slaughtered and buried to prevent the 
 disease spreading. 
 
 In the county of Orkney, a most malignant and contagious 
 distemper also broke out among cattle, particularly in the parish of 
 Sandwich, and a similar Order to that already noticed was issued 
 by the I'rivy Couiuil on the 15th of January, 1800. We may 
 remark that some of the later outbreaks of what was supposed to 
 
 ' Toggia. Mai dci Buoi, vol. ii. p. 346. 
 
 * Faggiaiti. Topojjrafia di Padova, p. in. •* Ibid. p. 112. 
 
 * Ibid. p. 113. * Op. cit.
 
 548 History of Animal Plagues. 
 
 be ^Cattle Plague' may have been other diseases. At any rate I 
 can find no sufficient proof that these alarming eruptions were due 
 to that malady ; and it is not improbable that some of the local 
 diseases, assuming a more virulent character than usual, may 
 have been mistaken for this scourge of horned cattle. 
 
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 £1. IS. 
 
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 CHRISTMAS BOOKS : Containing— The Christmas Carol ; 
 
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 21 
 
 DICKENS'S (CHARLES) WORKS- Continued. 
 
 LIBRARY EDITION. 
 
 In Post Svo. With the Original Illustrations, jo z'ols., cloth, £12. 
 
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 2 vols. 
 2 vols. 
 
 .. 40 
 
 •• 39 
 .. 24 
 .. 17 
 .. 16 
 .. 8 
 
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 2 vols. 
 2 vols. 
 2 vols. 
 2 vols. 
 2 vols. 
 
 I vol. 
 I vol. 
 I vol. 
 I vol. 
 I vol. 
 I vol. 
 1 vol. 
 I vol. 
 I vol. 
 I vol. 
 
 J. 
 
 16 
 16 
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 PICTURES FROM ITALY & AMERICAN NOTES 8 
 
 UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER 8 
 
 CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND 8 ,, i vol. 8 
 
 EDWIN DROOD and MISCELLANIES 12 ,, i vol. 8 
 
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 BLEAK HOUSE 
 
 LITTLE DORRIT 
 
 OUR MUTUAL FRIEND 
 
 BARNABY RUDGE 
 
 OLD CURIOSITY SHOP 
 
 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 EDWIN DROOD and OTHER STORIES ... 
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 SKETCHES BY "BOZ" 
 
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 GREAT EXI'ECT.VriONS 
 
 TALE OF TWO CITIES 
 
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 UNCOMMERCIAI- TRAVICLLKR 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS. Numerous 
 THE LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS „ 
 
 
 J. 
 
 d. 
 
 8 Illustrations .. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 
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 4 
 
 
 
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 8 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 strations. 2 vols. 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 2 vols. 
 
 8 
 

 
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 trations by Cattermole, &c. 
 
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 GREAT EXPECTATIONS. With 8 Illustrations by Marcus Stone. 
 
 OUR MUTUAL FRIEND. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Marcus Stone. 
 
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 MR. DICKENS'S READINGS. 
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 CHRISTMAS CAROL IN PROSE. 
 
 is. 
 CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, is. 
 CHIMES : A GOBLIN STORY, is. 
 
 STORY OF LITTLE DOMBEY. is. 
 POOR TRAVELLER, BOOTS AT 
 
 THE HOLLY-TREE INN, and 
 
 MRS. GAMP. IS. 
 
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 24 BOOKS PUBLISHED B\ 
 
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 THE POPULAR LIBRARY EDITION 
 
 OF THE WORKS OF 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS, 
 
 In 30 Vols. , large crown %vo, price £6 ; separate Vols. 4^. each. 
 
 An Edition printed on good paper, containing Illustrations selected from 
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 SKETCHES BY "BOZ." 
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 . . 2 & -3 
 
 4 
 
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 (incomplete 
 
 S 
 
 \ Gymnospermous . 
 ( Pctaloid 
 
 ( Glumaceous 
 
 . ( Superior 
 ( Inferior .. 
 
 6 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 . 
 
 9
 
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 ^^")Uitorg of Jlrt in Chaliiii^a&^sjsmTa. 
 
 Bv GEORGES PERROT and CHARLES CHIPIEZ. 
 
 Translated by Walter Armstronc;, B.A., Oxon. ^Yith 452 Illustrations. 
 
 2 vols, royal 8vo, ^2 2s. 
 
 "It is profusely illustrated, not merely with representations of the actual remains presen'ed 
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 sentations of the principal buildings from which those remains have been taken. To English- 
 men familiar with the magnificent collection of Assyrian antiquities preserved in the ]5ritish 
 Museum the volume should be especially welcome. We may further mention that an English 
 translation by Mr. Walter Armstrong, with the numerous illustrations of the original, has 
 just been published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall." — Times. 
 
 "The only dissatisfaction that we can feel in turning over the two beautiful volumes in 
 illustration of Chalda;an and Assyrian Art, by MM. Perrot and Chipiez, is in the reflection, 
 that in this, as in so many other publications of a similar scope and nature, it is a foreign narne 
 that we see on the title page, and a translation only which we can lay to our national credit. 
 The predominance of really important works on Archaeology which have to be translated for the 
 larger reading public of England, and the comparative scarcity of original English works of a 
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 "The work is a valuable addition to archaiological literature, and the thanks of the whole 
 civilised world are due to the authors who have so carefully compiled the history of the arts of two 
 peoples, often forgotten, but who were in reality the founders of Western civilisation." — GraJ>/iic. 
 
 T)i5torii of ^ncknt (Egjipiiau ^rt. 
 
 By GEORGES PERROT and CHARLES CHIPIEZ. 
 
 Translated from the French by W. Armstrong. Contai.iing 616 En- 
 gravings, drawn after the Original, or from Authentic Documents. 
 2 vols, imperial Svo, £2 2s. 
 
 "The studyof Eg:3rptologyis one which grows from day today, and which has now reached 
 such proportions as to demand arrangement and selection almost more than increased collec- 
 tion of material. The well-known volumes of MM. Perrot and Chipiez supply this rcciuire- 
 ment to an extent which had never hitherto been attempted, and which, before the latest 
 researches of Mariette and Maspero, wonld have been impossible. Without waiting for the 
 illustrious authors to complete their great undertaking, Mr. W. Armstrong has very properly 
 seized their first instalment, and has presented to the English public all that has yet appeared 
 of a most useful and fascinating work. To translate such a book, however, is a task that 
 needs the revision of a specialist, and this I\Ir. Armstrong has felt, for he has not sent out his 
 version to the world without the sanction of Dr. Birch and Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole. The 
 result is in every way satisfactory to his readers. Mr. Armstrong adds, in an appendix, a 
 description of that startling discovery which occurred just after the French original of these 
 volumes left the press — namely, the finding of 38 royal mummies, with their sepulchral furniture, 
 in a subterranean chamber at Thebes. It forms a brilliant ending to a work of great value 
 and beauty."— /"a// Mall Gazette. 
 
 The Saturday Review, speaking of the French edition, says : " To say that this magni- 
 ficent work is the best history of Egyptian art that we possess, is to state one of the least 
 of its titles to the admiration of all lovers of antiquity, Egyptian or other. No previous 
 
 work can be compared with it for method or completeness Not only arc the best 
 
 engravings from the older authorities utilised, but numerous unpublished designs have been 
 inserted. M. Chipiez has added greatly to the value of a work, in which the tr.iined eye of 
 the architect is everywhere visible, by his restorations of various buildings and modes of con- 
 struction ; and the engravings in colours of the wall paintings are a noticeable feature in a 
 work which is in every way rcm.arkablc. 'i'liis history of Egyptian art is an invaluable 
 treasure-house for the student ; and, we may add, there are few nirjre delightful volumes 
 for the cultivated idle wlio live at case to turn over— every page is full of artistic interest."
 
 32 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHAPMAN &^ HALL, LIMITED. 
 
 THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. 
 
 Edited by T. H. S. ESGOTT. 
 
 q^HE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW is published on the ist of 
 every month, and a Volume is completed every Six Months. 
 
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 SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK. 
 
 MATHEW ARNOLD. 
 
 PROFESSOR BAIN. 
 
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 THE EARL OF CARNARVON. 
 
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 PROFESSOR SIDNEY COLVIN. 
 
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 PROFESSOR A. V. DICEY. 
 
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 SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, B.\ut. 
 ' W. T. THORNTON. 
 HON. LIONEL A. TOLLEMACHE. 
 H. D. TRAILL. 
 ANTHONY TROLLOPE. 
 PROFESSOR TYNDALL. 
 A. J. WILSON. 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
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