CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 57 



followiiif^year continued to be fatal to the products of the earth. No mention is made 

 of great epidemics oi feu sacre' during years which were characterized by productive- 

 ness, but local epidemics are met with which were circumscribed within the limits 

 where the center of ergotism still exists in our days, and which comprises /? Sologne, 

 le Daiiphine, le Lyonnaise, la Lorraine, and VArtois. 



If we take into account the conditions which concur in the evolution of fvu sacre, it 

 may be established, rt^no?/, that the sanitary state of the domestic animals was not 

 more favorable than that of the huiuan species, and that epizootics should have been 

 more fre<[uent thau they are mentioned by tlie chroniclers. Are indications found in 

 their annals which authorize us to attribute these epizootics to the same source, that 

 is, to the feu sacre? This question cannot be solved; more than that, the accounts 

 them.selves forbid an hypothesis relative to the form and nature of simultaneous dis- 

 eases. It is sufficient to cite this passage from the chronicle of St. Bavon, referring 

 to the year 1127 : I'laga diriua Franckini effliqit, ignis scilicet corpora crucians. Ptslilen- 

 tia maxima facta est (tnimalium. What was this jilague of animals? Formulated in 

 this manner it is impossible to conjecture. If in the presence of such profound ob- 

 scurities we are permitted to hazard an opinion, we would say that in all probability 

 the food of the animals did uot consist of rye in these calamitous years wheu scarcity 

 and famine were general, and when the cause of feu sacre was unknown. Eemoved 

 from the toxic factor, they did not escape its powerful accessories, and the diseases 

 which decimated the herds must have been other than ergotism.* Perhaps- the first 

 epidemic of feu swcrt' which ravaged Portugal in 1189 was an exce])tion, and it may be 

 necessary to attribute the concomitant epizootic to ergotism. It is thus described: 

 Hujus etiom tempore morln nunquam, ante, visi ingruebant, ferventissimis intra riscera ar- 

 doribus, qnibus homines quasi quadain rabie exagitabantur. Exoria etiam fames, fnigibus 

 1am ri tempestatis, quam rer7ninibun corruptis, et lues non minus noeens pecori quamhomini- 

 hus et multorum relictw racua- possessionibus (C. F. Heusinger, Fuchs). 



Tlie uncertainty relative to the form and nature of the epizootics is one of the most 

 common facts in the records of the Middle Age. Thus the beginning of the famous 

 black plague in 1347 was preceded in several countries by epizootics no less fatal. 

 In primis luvc acerba pestis in brutis animaUbus incohavit ; scabies et lepra: totaliter ap- 

 priviebant equos, botes, pecudes, et cajyras ; ita ut pili de dorsiipsorumdepilabantur et eade- 

 bant et effieiebaniur macri et debiles, et post paucos dies moriebantur. Deinde incipit hwc 

 rabiosa jjcs^is 2)er nniversum munduni discurrendo in iniserabiles homines letiialiter sa'rire 

 (Cutteis). This passage evidently refers to a gangrenous affection, which has noth- 

 ing in common with feu sacre, for with the exception of the epidemic of Brittany, 

 which occurred at the beginning of the black plague, no tiaccs of ergotism are found 

 until V^7'^, when it appeared anew in France (Tessier). 



During the whole period of the Middle Age l)ut rare epidemics of feu sac ir uro men- 

 tioned in tile north of Europe. Heusinger believes that those of the tifteenth and six- 

 teenth centuries, designated l)y the name of scorbutus, belonged to ergotism. This 

 opinion appears to us to have foundation; in fact the celebrated botanist, DodonaMis, 

 described the epidemic of scorbutus, which occurred in Belgium in 1556, and was 

 characterized by gangrene of various parts of the body. Ho attributed it to the 

 spoiled grain which was imported from Prussia, and says in another work (Historia 

 frnmentorum, Anto., 1569), that bread made from spoiled rye (seigle altere) causes the 

 disease called by the Germans scorbutus. The giingrenous form of this allection, 

 which did not conform exactly to that observed in France and Spain, was replaced 

 in the course of the sixteenth century by the convulsive form. When the epidemics 

 of ergotism of the South and those of the North of Europe are compared a very re- 

 markable, fact j)r(!sents itself; in the South tlu^ gangrenous form is the rule ; a few of 

 theepidemics were complicated l)y muscular contractions (co/i^fY/c^MVN); in the North, 



* The author appears to have overlooked the fact that such a disease might have 

 been produced by ergotized grasses. — D. E. S. 



