34 History of Animal Plagiies. 



the anxiety he displays to add to the slender stock of knowledge 

 in this department of science. He enumerates a great number 

 of pests^ all of which he specifies as contagious, but of the cor- 

 rectness of this we may justly have our suspicions. 



The humid pest, or malls of the Greeks, — the prqfluvimn 

 attiaim of the Romans, — was marked by a mucus, or purulent 

 discharge from the nostrils and mouth, and loathing of food. It 

 appears to have been the glanders of the horse, and in all proba- 

 bility a cattle plague; Nam equinum genus morbus qui appella- 

 tur MALLEUS, diverso genere passiomim emigrans per plures con- 

 tagione consumit. Boves quoque idem morbus interjicit sed a 

 diversis diverso nomine vocatur. The articular pest was character- 

 ized by lameness of the anterior or posterior limbs, the feet 

 being also affected. The skin or subcutaneous pest was con- 

 ta2;ious, and due to the presence of an acrid humour, which 

 attacked different parts of the body, and did much harm. The 

 animals were continually rubbing themselves. The plague of 

 elephantiasis, or leprosy, was another affection of the skin. The 

 mad plague, in which the oxen neither heard nor saw, and from 

 which they died quickly, although they were lively and in good 

 condition but a short time before. There were also the farcinous, 

 the dry, the renal, and other plagues. According to this writer, 

 whenever an animal was affected by any of these pests, it imme- 

 diately infected all the others ; hence the urgent reason for 

 separating all the diseased at once from those yet in health, and 

 in such a manner that no contact, mediate or immediate, could 

 take place. Cohabitation was always a source of great danger. 

 A change of air and situation was particularly lauded : ?ie cof(- 

 tagione sua omnibus periculum generet et negUgentia Domini sicut 

 solet a stultis fieri, divincE imputentur ojfensce. When all this 

 had been done, and not till then, every effort was to be made to 

 cure the tainted. Incense and other medicaments, powdered 

 and dissolved in wine, were prescribed and administered by the 

 nostrils. Perfuming and deodorizing with sulphur, bitumen, and 

 marjorum were enjoined, because not only did they favour the 

 operation of the remedies, but they assisted in destroying the 

 pestilential virus, and preserving other animals from the plague.'^ 

 ^ Vegethis Renatiis. Re Veterinaria. 



