Introdtiction. xxvii 



is termed an epizooty. It is a very ancient word, and is to be found in 

 many languages besides English. For example, it appears in Italian as 

 ' moria,' and in French as ' murie.' Its root is found in the Greek 

 l^apaivco — marainoj in the Sanskrit ' mr/ the Latin ' mori,' German 

 ' mar,' and the Celtic ' muire.' 



Whatever term may now be employed, however, whether it be 

 murrain, plague, distemper, or pest, thanks to science we need not fear 

 its obscuring the real nature of the maladies designated, nor veil their 

 possible sources by attributing tliem to agencies beyond man's powers of 

 elucidation and control. 



But from the circumstances before-mentioned, the historian of 

 epizootic diseases who would endeavour to compile a satisfactory chron- 

 ological account of those visitations which have from time to time 

 swept the plain, the homestead, and the stable of their occupants, pre- 

 vious to the centuries indicated, has but a slender chance of doing more 

 than citing meagre facts, solitary, or in opposition to others which 

 might otherwise give these facts more interest and certainty. Even to 

 do this, he must labour earnestly, and gather from many sources the 

 clue necessary to guide him in fixing the advent and duration of these 

 maladies 5 and after all has been accomplished, in the immense ma- 

 jority of instances he will find himself unable to tell with precision 

 what were the morbid characters distinguishing them from each 

 other, or from diseases existing enzootically elsewhere. The only ad- 

 vantage he might obtain in thus studying the plagues of the domestic 

 animals, would be, at rare intervals, to find in the geographical in- 

 vasion of certain epizootics a marked connection between them and 

 contemporary events, which might authorize him in making deductions 

 of some value. It must be borne in mind, also, that famines, droughts, 

 and the destruction of vegetation by locusts and various causes, as well 

 as other mishaps, would atfect domesticated and feral creatures no less, 

 perhaps, than mankind 3 but that in very many instances the sufferings 

 of these would have remained unrecorded when the panic and mortality 

 among his own species entirely engrossed the attention of the historian. 

 Hence, in reading of particular epidemics, particularly in the early cen- 

 turies, we are only able to guess at the existence of contemporary 

 epizootics J and as it would be departing from one object of this work, 

 I have in most instances omitted any mention of plagues described as 

 affecting the human race only. 



It is not until we approach the commencement of the i8th century, 

 that the study of animal plagues becomes really interesting and satis- 

 factory, and that research is abundantly rewarded by the i'uUest descrip- 



