30 History of Animal Plagues. 



probably contemporary with the invasion of the Huns at this 

 period, and may have been an observer of this epizooty. He gives 

 us the following description of what he terms the ynalis or malleus 

 (designated maul in the old English translation), and which may 

 have been the Cattle Plague. After dwelling on the care 

 to be taken of oxen while in health, and showing that no less 

 care and diligence must be employed against their maladies than 

 against those of horses, he says of this malleus : ' As this disease, 

 and removing in different species of distempers from one to many, 

 does by its infection destroy the horse kind, so it also kills oxen, 

 though by different persons it is called by a different name, and for 

 the most part by that which the common people give it. If at any 

 time this disease attacks an ox, it is recognized by the following 

 symptoms : The hair is erect, and the animal appears sad, his eyes 

 stupid and languid, the head and neck drooping, and saliva con- 

 tinually flowing from his mouth ; his walk is slower than usual ; 

 his spine appears to be stiff; he shows a very great loathing, and 

 ruminates very little. If about the beginning of the distemper 

 you attempt to give him relief, he will escape the danger; but if 

 through negligence you be too slow in applying a remedy, the 

 destructive quality of a disease that is become inveterate cannot 

 be overcome.' After describing the treatment to be pursued, 

 and the necessity for mixing salt with the fodder of oxen, he 

 remarks as to the causes of disease in these animals, but particu- 

 larly this malls, in these words : ' If oxen be roused up, so as 

 to be put upon running at their full speed, at any time of the 

 year, but especially in summer, either they contract thereby a 

 looseness which proves pernicious to them, or it gives occasion 

 to slight fevers; for this animal being naturally slow, and rather 

 adapted to labour than to swift motion, is grievously hurt if 



forced to any work to which it is not accustomed But if 



an ox has swallowed hog^s excrement, then he presently under- 

 goes the plague of that contagious disease called the maul (I 

 quote from the old English translation), which, when once 

 it has broken in upon a herd, either of great or small cattle, 

 whether of such as are trained for labour or otherwise, presently 

 all the animals which have the least suspicion of the distemper 

 must be removed from the usual pasture-ground and distributed 



