History of A iiimal Plagues. 1 9 



' Not whirlwinds from the sea so frequent rush, 

 Big with the storm, as pests 'mid cattle rage. 

 Nor individuals sole disorders seize. 

 But, suddenl)^ whole flocks, with every hope, 

 At once, and, from the youngest, all the race.' 



And when the pestilence had broken out, and 



' Tisiphone, all pale, before her drives 

 Disease and fear, and each succeeding day 

 Tow'rs more and more with her detested brow — ' 



who so careful to watch her progress and note her mani- 

 festations as the Mantuan bard? In the third book of his 

 Georgics he gives an account of a dire disease which destroyed 

 nearly all the living creatures on land or in the water in the vicin- 

 ity of the Julian Alps, Some authorities imagine that he has at- 

 tempted to describe the different diseases of each species : tlie ma- 

 lignant exanthematous affections or the ardent pestilential lever 

 accompanied by vertigo of the horse, the pleuro-pneumonia of the 

 cow, the inflammatory fever of the sheep, the malignant sore- 

 throat of the pig, and the rabies of the dog ; but in all probability 

 it is an account of one of those dreadful calamities that smote 

 all, from man downwards, perhaps a little exaggerated for poetical 

 eflect, though of this we must not judge too harshly. In his other 

 descriptions of kindred subjects in the same poem we find great 

 accuracy, and a fidelity which will hold good even now, and for 

 all time; therefore we must conclude that an adherence to truth 

 was his great object, and that the real value of his precepts was 

 never sacrificed to his poetical genius, but only polished and 

 embellished by the mind of a fjreat master. 



The apparent causes of the disease were severe autunuial 

 iieat, impure water, and rank pasturage. 



' From tainted air arose 

 A dreadful storm, inflamed by autumn's heat, 

 And gave to death all cattle, tame or wild. 

 Corrupting lakes, poisoning the grassy food.' 



Death was fearfully sudden, for he says, 



' Oft at the altar as the victim stood, 

 Amidst the sacred honours of the gods, 



