Histojy of Animal Plagues. 1 1 



of its being pervaded by unhealthy exhalations from a soil 

 abounding in sulphur and alum, cannot be inhabited in summer 

 without danger, for then the population is driven away by fever, 

 and the maVar'ia frequently sweeps down the streets of Rome. 



The great Ostiensian marshes, similar to the Pontine, added 

 their insalubrious emanations to those from the other sources; so 

 that, during unfavourable seasons, Rome and its environs gen- 

 erally suffered severely. Even the most fertile and healthv 

 districts, on which the Romans depended for grain and cattle, 

 were sometimes exposed to these influences ; and Campania, 

 still one of the most beautiful and productive parts of Italy, once 

 the resort of the most distinguished patricians, and where, as 

 Goethe says, ' it is worth while to till the ground,' did not escape 

 those devastations for which the country in general was so noted. 

 Eusebius, the Father of Ecclesiastical History, when describing 

 a plague which reigned in the Roman Empire in a.d. 314, men- 

 tions the state of the atmosphere. ' The air was so noxious and 

 everywhere so deranged with corrupt vapours, fumes from the 

 earth so putrid, winds from the sea, exhalations from marshes 

 and rivers, so injurious, that a certain poisonous liquor, as it 

 were from putrid carcases, was brought by the elements, and 

 covered the subjacent seats or benches, walls, and sides of houses, 

 and the dew appeared' like the sanies of dead bodies.'^ Much 

 was also due, no doubt, to the unsettled state of the empire. 

 Constant wars and revolutions retarded agricultural operations, 

 desolation often reigned, and severe famine was but too frequently 

 a consequence. Hygiene was neglected, even the rivers and 

 fields were filled with putrefying matter; so that men and beasts, 

 birds and fishes, perished together, vulgato per omne genus anima- 

 Uum morlo. At tlic present day, notwithstanding attempts at 

 drainage around Rome, the plain of Latium and the country 

 near it are uninhabited deserts, miasmatic to a deadly degree. 



The e])izo6tic maladies of the domestic animals, I)ut especi- 

 ally of the ox, a creature particularlv susceptible of disease, would 

 be very serious with such a peo])le as the Romans, who dejiended so 

 much upon the services to be obtained from them. A destruction 



' Eitscbius. Clironicun. Paris, 162S. 



