1 6 History of Animal Plagues. 



Aristotle excluded fishes from the list of animals subject to 

 pestilential diseases. ' Morbus pestilens null us insidere piscibus 

 videtur, qualis plerumque hominibus et quadrupedibus^ equis, et 

 bubus, et reliquis generis nonnullis accidit turn feris tum urbanis/ 

 (Histor. Animal, lib. viii. chap. 19.) 



B.C. 333^ 296, 391, 278. The Tarentian war was succeeded 

 by a most desolating pestilence, invading both cities and suburbs, 

 and carrying off' chiefly women and cattle. In 278 it was known 

 as the Abortus epidemicits, and was particularly fatal to pregnant 

 females and cows at Rome. 'A grievous pestilence invaded the 

 city and its environs, which attacked all, but especially the women. 

 The fcEtus was killed in the womb, and discharged from it. 

 Miscarriages exposed mothers to great danger; so much so, that 

 it was feared that a future population and breed of animals would 

 be wanting.^ ^ 



B.C. 218. In Spain there was a fatal epizooty among dogs 

 and birds." 



B.C. 216. Polybius mentions that the horses of HannibaPs 

 army were attacked by a disease while they were in the marshes 

 of Etruria, and through which they lost their hoofs. ' Equorum 

 etiam multis, ob longum per paludes iter, ungulae exciderunt.^ ^ 



B.C. 212. At the siege of Syracuse, a putrid disease broke 

 out among the Cartha2"inians and Romans who were under the 

 command of Marcellus. It was supposed to have arisen from 

 over-crowding, a badly cultivated and undrained country, scarcity 

 and bad quality of provisions, and the inundations from a stag- 

 nant lake which was always suspected of being the cause of 

 maladies. After speaking of the excessive heat of the autumn, 

 and the miasma arising from the marshes, Silius Italicus goes on 

 to say, — ' First the dogs felt the effects of the plague ; next, the 

 pestilential vapours in their rapid course attacked the birds, then 

 laid low the wild beasts in the woods. Still surely onwards 

 crept the infernal pest, and finally devastated the camp by 

 destroying the troops. The tongue became drv, and a cold sweat 

 crept over the trembling body; the drooping jaws denied the 



' P. Orosii. Ilistor. Lib. iv. p. 2. ^ Mariana. Op. cit. 



^ Universal History. 



