6 SMALL-POX IN SHEEP. 



that all kinds of animals fell victims to the scourge. 

 " The Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the 

 cattle in Egypt died." Are we to look upon this as 

 a Divine punishment, employed on a specific occa- 

 sion, and to cease for ever afterwards ? Or, rather, 

 may we not consider that here was a beginning of 

 certain diseases which, governed by j^articular laws, 

 were destined, froiii time to time, to lay low the flocks 

 and herds of other nations, sparing not even man him- 

 self? However much the origin or causes of these 

 maladies may be beyond our ken, we have ])ositive 

 proof of their effects ; and, since the period referred to 

 in the Bible, epizootic disorders have been so frequent, 

 as to attract the attention of historians in all countries. 

 To the early poets of Greece and Rome we are in- 

 debted for accounts of some of these visitations ; fre- 

 quent allusions being made to them in the writings 

 of Homer, who flourished about 900 years before the 

 Chiistian era. Virgil and Ovid also furnish graphic 

 descriptions of them. 



Virgil thus writes, 



" On winter seas we fewer storms behold 

 Than foul diseases that infect the fold. 

 Nor do these ills on single bodies prey, 

 But oft'ner bring the nation to decay, 

 And sweep the present stock and future hope away. 



A dire example of this truth appears, 

 When, after such a lengtli of rolling years. 

 We see the naked Alps, and their remains 

 Of scattered cots and yet unpeopled plains. 

 Once fiU'd with grazing flocks, the shepherd's happy reigns. 



Here, from the vicious air and sickly skies 

 A plague did on the dumb creation rise : 



