282 ANTHRAX, OE CARBUNCULAR FEVER. 



several animals died of what at that time was supposed to be 

 diphtheria. Some of the oldest inhabitants remember that 

 in the year 1826, during the summer of which there was 

 intense heat and long-continued drought, the pike died in 

 large numbers in the forty-foot, and animals were carried off 

 to such an extent, that out of one flock of fifty-three, only 

 two were saved. This season has been a dry one; the land 

 is cracking up for want of moisture; the canal has little 

 water in it ; its water is saltish and fetid ; it contains a great 

 abundance of putrefying vegetable matters ; and the pike are 

 dying in large numbers. I found half-a-dozen large dead 

 fish on the canal side in walking a very short distance, and 

 could see many more on the opposite bank. Boatmen and 

 other persons have noticed the pike rising to the surface, 

 swimming rapidly round, and then turning on their backs 

 quite dead. 



About the 10th June, one sheep, out of a flock of 130, 

 was taken ill, and died. Others soon appeared ill, until 

 ninety were seized, and thirty of these succumbed. The re- 

 mainder were disposed of healthy and fat, whilst the malady 

 was progressing. 



Amongst the sheep were six head of cattle, and they all 

 took ill; one died speedily, and the others are now conva- 

 lescent, but one has been kept alive with difficulty. Another 

 lot of twenty cattle in another field that had been amongst 

 the sheep were soon seized. They have all had the disease, 

 and only nine survive. Perhaps one or two more will die. 

 Fourteen pigs were driven backwards and forwards amongst 

 the cattle and sheep. They soon manifested the symptoms 

 of malignant quinsy, and several have died. Two other lots 

 of pigs in the district have been seized, and the mortality 

 has been heavy. 



The list of casualties is not ended, for the district has been 



