i8 History of Animal Plagues. 



B.C. 134. The army of Scipio ^milianus, the Nuinantlne^ 

 was operating in Palestine and the adjacent countries. Water 

 proved to be so scarce that wells had to be made, but the liquid 

 obtained from them gave rise to a malignant epizooty among 

 the horses and beasts of burden. Great loss was sustained ; 

 and the disease continuing to spread, the army had to be 

 moved to the healthier plains of Numantia, in order to get rid of 

 the pestilence. 



B.C. 126, An eruption of Mount Etna. The following year 

 (127) pestilence in Africa, which was attributed to shoals of 

 dead locusts. These creatures having been brought over by a 

 strong east wind, and having devoured all vegetation, even to 

 the bark of the trees, were driven by a southerly gale into the 

 Mediterranean and drowned, after which they were again washed 

 on shore during hot weather, and putrefied there. The pestilence 

 occasioned by the decomposition of their bodies destroyed more 

 than a million of people, and the domestic animals also suffered. 

 The odour was intolerable. 



Thomson has well said that plagues are ^ the offspring of in- 

 clement skies, and of legions of putrefying locusts.' The visits 

 of these creatures to eastern countries have frequently induced 

 famine, pestilence, and death, and history records these effects 

 of their incursions, alas! too often. 



B.C. 43. Eruptions of Etna; an excessively hot summer; 

 dark, gloomy weather; heavy rains; extensive inundations of 

 the Po, the Ciuca, Segre, and the Isonzo, were the cause of 

 many diseases, but especially those of a carbuncular nature 

 affecting oxen, horses, dogs, and even many other crea- 

 tures. The deer tribe in the forests were not exempt from the 

 attacks. 



This period is remarkable for the poetical description of 

 some of these epizootic diseases written by the illustrious Ro- 

 man poet Virgil, he who sang of 'shepherds, fields, and heroes' 

 deeds.' 



If he had made veterinary science a special study, he could 

 not have sung more truthfully or learnedly for the age in which 

 he lived. The frequent visitations of^ and sad havoc wrought by, 

 epizootic diseases seems to have struck him as an alarming fact. 



