igS On an Epidemical D'lfeafe among Cats. 



The method in which this difeafe was treated was entircljr' 

 Brownonian; that is, half an ounce of Cyprus wnne, with a 

 i'cruple of pulverifed valerian root, was given four times a day 

 to the difeafed animals: aloes, and the juice of garlic, were 

 adminiftered in fome fpiritous vehicle^ and alfo fumigations 

 with vinegar. The propofal for deftroying every cat attacked 

 by this difeafe was, with great propriety, rejected; but it 

 was at the fame time ordered, that thofe which died of it 

 ifliould be buried at a fufficient depth in the earth j that the 

 bodies fliould be covered with lime ; and that the places 

 where they were found dead fliould be wafhed with vinegar, 

 ley of wood-aflies, or lime-w'ater. It was reconmiended 

 alfo to feparaic, as much as poflible, found animals from 

 thofe infcfted ; to give them nourifliing food j to lay before 

 them, in particular, their three favourite plants; and to fu- 

 migate them often with the fteam of vinegar. 



That excellent phyfician and naturalid ProfefTor Schacht, 

 of Harderwyk, informed me, by a letter dated in May 1796, 

 that the cats in his neighbourhood had for fome w'ceks 

 been attacked by a difeafe which bore fome refemblance to 

 a prurient eruption. The violent itching occafioned a de- 

 fluxion of the eyes, which continually watered, and they at 

 length became blind ; their teclh at the fame time dropped 

 out, and they died foon after with lamentable cries. It had 

 been obferved in the preceding months, from February to 

 April, that their cries in the night-lime, on account of thei# 

 pairing, had been extraordinarily ftrong and loud. 



Dr. Darwin, in his Zoonoviia *, mentions another epide- 

 niia which prevails at times among the cats, and which he 

 calls Parotldisfc'Iina. It announces itfelf by a violent fever 

 with inflammation, and abundant fuppuration in the region 

 of the falival glands beneath the lower jaw. He compares 

 it to a difeafe lately known called the Mumps {Arighia paro- 

 iidea), and is inclined to believe that it was firfl communi- 

 cated to cats by infeftion from the human race. He men- 



* Vol.11, p. 1:9. 



