History of Animal Plagues. 3 



widespread, attacking the oxen in the villages and towns, and 

 all over the country ; as well as the government herds. It is a 

 murderous disease, destroying life with great rapidity. . . . The 

 dysentery of camels is sometimes acute, sometimes chronic, and 

 kills a very great number; when it is acute its course is very 

 rapid. At Cairo, the camels are lodged in great enclosures open 

 on nearly every side. There they pass their days and nights in 

 the cold season, after a very hot summer, and in this state, of 

 course, they must experience the troublesome effects of the sud- 

 den diminutions of temperature which take place.' 



One of the forms of anthrax, which is enzootic and epizootic 

 in i^gypt, appears to be very destructive among cattle in the form 

 of gangrenous sore-throat. ' This disease reigns over the whole 

 of Egypt in winter, summer, springtime, and autumn. It is con- 

 tagious, and carries off the animals in two, four, and six hours. 

 It has its seat in the throat ; a tumour appears there, quickly 

 increases in size and extent, and at last causes death. The ex- 

 pired air and the saliva communicate the disease, as experience 

 has testified. It is sporadic, enzootic, and epizootic, and its 

 causes are unknown. If the practitioner arrives in the com- 

 mencement of the disease, he ought at once to apply the actual 

 cautery to the throat, then some blistering ointment.' ^ 



Splenic apoplexy is also very frequent among ruminants, and 

 malignant pustule is seen in the horse in the months of May and 

 June, during the prev^alence of the very hot wind of the Kames- 

 sine. On the extreme confines of history — but not until long 

 after civilization had made great progress — and among its earliest 

 notices, do we find striking descriptions of the havoc that reigned 

 in that ancient region. 



In the 80th year of the life of Moses, in the reign of Pharaoh 

 IV., King of that country, ^a very grievous murrain,' known as 

 the ' Fifth Plague,' fell upon the flocks and herds of the Egyptians, 

 and destroyed them. Many perturbations in the natural world 

 were noted. After a damp winter, an unhealthy sunnner set in, 

 the days being hot and fiery, the nights cold and dewy, and 

 sometimes rainy. Towards the autunui there was thunder and 



' Ilamoiit. T.'Egypte sous Mehcmct Ali, vol. i. pp. 564, 565, 574, 577, 5S3. 



