CHAP. 5. 1. ON VITAL FUNCTIONS. ] 



the air.* There are many other instances on 

 record of epidemic distempers among animals, 

 which have prevailed only for a time, and 

 which seem to be referable to the atmosphere. 

 A few years ago, in Essex, a mortality prevailed 

 among Cats, which carried off considerable 

 numbers. The mange is said to be contagious; 

 but, if this be the case, it is one of those 

 disorders which arises from unknown causes 

 in a great many animals at once, and may be 

 afterwards propagated by contagion. The 

 same mode of reasoning seems applicable to 

 the glanders of Horses, and to many other 

 distempers of Cattle. 



How far electricity may be concerned in all 

 this, it is difficult at present to say ; but the 

 discoveries which philosophers are daily making, 

 relative to the extensive operation of this fluid, 

 (for such I must call it, till a better name be 



* Virgil aptly alludes to the influence of unhealthy air on 

 animals, though not subject to the general causes of human 

 diseases, namely, wine, gluttony, and mental anxiety. 



Atqui non Massica Bacchi 



Munera non illis epulae nocuere repostae, 

 Frondibus et victu pascuntur simplicis herbae 

 Pocula sunt fontes liquidi atque exercita cursu 

 Flumina, nee somnos abrumpit cura salubres. 



Virg. Georg. lib. iii. 530. 

 O 



