11 Histo7y of Animal Plagues. 



sig-aifying, probablv, that the medicines employed tended only 

 to aggravate the disease. The shepherd could do nothing but, 



* Sitting still, pray heav'n for better luck,' 



or take advice, and 



' With speedy knife the fault coerce, ere yet 

 The dire disease creeps through the careless flock.' 



Human skill was foiled. 



' The masters yield, 

 Philyrian Chiron, and Melampus sage.' 



The mortality among the domesticated animals increases 

 fearfully, 



' Till men dig deep. and bury them in earth. 

 The skins are useless, nor the tainted flesh 

 Can water cleanse, nor raging fire subdue ; 

 Nor is it possible to sheer the fleece. 

 So damaged with disease and filthiness ; 

 Nor can the weaver touch the putrid web. 

 But should a man attempt the odious garb, 

 With burning pimples and disgusting sweat 

 His limbs are seized, and in no lengthen'd time, 

 The fire accursed consumes his poison'd frame.' ' 



A.D. lo — 14. After the destruction of the Milesian nobility 

 ■by the Attacotti, the first great famine which we read of in 

 Christian times occurred in Ireland in the reia^n of Cairbre the 

 ' Cat-headed,^ the last king of the Aitheach-Tuatha. ' The 

 earth did not yield its fruits to the Attacotti after the great mas- 

 sacre which they had made of the nobility of Ireland, so that the 

 corn, fruits, and produce of Ireland were barren ; for there used 

 to be but one grain upon the stalk, one acorn upon the oak, and 

 one nut upon the hazel. Fruitless were her arbours, milkless her 



^ Virgil. Georgics, lib. iii. v. 495, et seq. Some commentators are of opinion 

 that Virgil's description of tliis dreadful epizootic anthrax fever (which much i-e- 

 sembles the South American derrengadera, as described by Don Ramoro Paez for 

 the year 1838) has been written in imitation of Thucydides and Lucretius. Others, 

 again, think that the principal facts have been derived from personal observation 

 in the year 43 B.C., a dreadful period in history, and described in his first Georgic. 

 — &^ Heynes' 'Notes.' 



