24 History of Aiiimal Plagues. 



great^ speaks of many of the diseases of the lower animals ; and 

 after mentioning the symptoms of this attack^ says that the 

 death of the cattle might be averted if a seton was put in the 

 ear^ by means of a fibre from the hellebore root, and giving 

 them for many days a pint of leek juice, mixed with a like 

 quantity of olive oil and a pint of wine. The pest was deadly 

 — a kind of phthisis : Est etiam ilia gravis pernicies cum pulmo 

 exulceratur, inde tussis et macies et ad ultimum phthisis invadit. 

 The same writer also mentions a kind of pest which affected 

 mares, but the symptoms described do not permit us to recog- 

 nize it. The animals became suddenly emaciated, and died in a 

 short time. In the commencement of the maladv, it was useful 

 to inject fish-brine every day into the nostrils, in order, as he 

 says, to purge the pituitary membrane, and cure the patients. 

 He likewise describes an epizootic affection that showed itself 

 in lambs and young goats, and which Paulet says bears some 

 resemblance to a peculiar ovine disease now known, which local- 

 izes itself in the skin of the face, and is analogous to ring-worm. 

 The shepherds of those days called it me/it'tgo or ostigo, and it 

 ''consisted in ulcers of a bad character about the lips and inside 

 / the mouth. Its ordinary cause was eating herbage yet covered 

 ' with dew. It was fatal to the unweaned animals : — lahes morti- 

 fera lactantihus. The remedy was to rub the affected parts with 

 a decoction of equal parts of hyssop and salt ; to wash them 

 with vinegar, and then to dress them with an ointment com- 

 posed of liquid pitch and lard. In all likelihood it was an 

 aphthous afl'ection. 



The flocks of sheep and goats were very subject to general 

 diseases. Such was the goat plague — caprarum pestiientia, a 

 most formidable and deadly malady, which swept off whole 

 flocks in a very brief space. 'These animals, usually so lively and 

 hardv, do not lose condition or show languor, like other animals 

 when attacked, but they drop all at once, as if struck by light- 

 ning, and quickly perish. From the moment one is seen to be 

 affected, the whole flock should be bled, the sickly ones should be 

 killed, and those yet in health have the juice of reed-roots and 

 hawthorn to drink in rain-water.' 



The pneumonia of sheep is indicated ; the treatment was to 



