2 8 History of Animal Plagues. 



their infliction doubly severe, there is no mention of their having 

 done so. In these obscure ages, and in nearly every subsequent 

 one, as we will often have occasion to observe, when plagues 

 have slain myriads of human beings, the greater evil has swallowed 

 up the lesser, or rather veiled it, and no record is made of epizo- 

 otic diseases, though we may strongly suspect that they have 

 often accompanied, if they have not preceded and perhaps caused, 

 directly or indirectly, those widespread maladies in mankind. 



In this year, after the sanguinary irruption of the Huns 

 under Attila, the expulsion of the Goths from Hungary, and the 

 fierce internecine wars of the whole Germanic population, there 

 was an extraordinary famine and a deadly epidemic. The pre- 

 ceding winter had been very cold, the summer very dry, and 

 shocks of earthquake had been frequent. 



A most severe and memorable epizooty began in the east of 

 Europe and spread westward. It was exceedingly fatal, and 

 caused great loss, the cattle being no sooner attacked than they 

 died. Curative measures proved useless, and no healthy animal 

 was safe unless it was branded on the forehead with a red-hot 

 I iron in the form of a cross. So says, at any rate, the credulous 

 and marvel-loving Cardinal Baronius,^ who of course adds that 

 this miracle converted crowds of people to Christianity. 



Paulet and Dupuy think there may have really been some 

 virtue in this application of the actual cautery, but only that of a 

 physical kind. As might be expected, any benefit supposed to 

 be conferred on the animals by means of this crucial firing, when 

 suggested by the miracle-working priests, would be readily placed 

 to the credit of the Church. The shape of the iron was all- 

 important, and Camper fancied that the custom of painting 

 white crosses on the stable-doors in Holland was the remains of 

 this superstition. 



As is well known, Europe was in a sadly disturbed state at 

 this time from the invasions of the so-called barbarians, while the 

 consternation and fear their advance and depredations occasioned 

 was rendered more embarrassing by this Cattle Plague. St Am- 

 brose, who lived at this period, plaintively writes: ' Hunni in 



^ Baronius. Annales Ecclesiasticse, vol. iv. 



I 



