50 MEMOIR OP CAMPER. 



Our author's investigations regarding this epide- 

 mic, and other matters relating to cattle, are of 

 so much interest, that our readers, we doubt not, 

 will thank us for the following notices concerning 

 them. 



The first epidemic disorder among the cattle to 

 which we shall allude, is one which made its appear- 

 ance at Groningen and its neighdourhood in 1768. 

 The visitation proved most disastrous, especially in 

 those rural districts where the inhabitants depended 

 almost wholly on the prosperity of their flocks. In 

 some villages it left not a solitary individual of the race 

 behind ; so that we need not wonder that it excited 

 the most general attention, and created no small panic. 

 In West Friesland, the province in which Groningen 

 is situated, it attacked, according to tables published 

 by order of the Etats de Holland, within the period 

 of six months, upwards of 64,000 head, in East 

 Friesland 68,000, whilst in Holland proper the num- 

 ber exceeded 153.000 : in the three provinces toge- 

 ther, the number attacked amounted to 286,647, of 

 which 208,354 died within six months ! 



Under these circumstances, many of the inhabi- 

 tants of the country, as well as the magistrates 01 

 the capital, applied to Camper, and consulted him 

 on the best mode of combating, and, if possible, of 

 extirpating this disorder. This was a sufficient sti- 

 mulus to his zeal, and, availing himself of the occa- 

 sion, he endeavoured, in a variety of ways, to serve 

 hie countrymen. He determined to gratify their 



