38 History of Animal Plagues. 



fell that it was scarcely dissolved iu six months after; hence 

 a great destruction of people and cattle,^ 



A.D. 444. A comet; repeated earthquakes in Turkey followed, 

 and then fever, and, lastly, the plague most extensively. A great 

 mortality among fish. The pabulum of plants seemed at length 

 to be vitiated, and in England there was a great scarcity.^ 



A.D. 446. In September a severe earthquake, accompanied 

 by disease and famine, at Constantinople. 'At this time a 

 famine invaded Constantinople. ... A great portion of the 

 city walls with fifty-seven towers fell to the ground. Many 

 cities were destroyed. Famine and the stench of the atmosphere 

 killed a great number of men and a thousand oxen.' ^ 



A.D. 466. A grievous famine prevailed in Britain, and a 

 pestiferous smell in the air killed both man and beast." 



A.D. 484. There was such a drought in Africa that all the 

 springs and rivers were dried up, and men and animals struggled 

 for the withered grass roots in the open fields. So great was the 

 famine, that all living creatures died in heaps, and their bodies 

 lay in every road, without any one to bury them. There was 

 neither dew nor rain, the earth was parched, no corn, vines, 

 olives, or other fruits, nor leaves on any tree. Hence a grievous 

 plague.^ 



A.D. 502. Scotland suffered very much from an epidemy and 

 epizooty, which killed great nvnnbers of men and animals. 



A.D. 547. St Filo fled from Wales, first to Cornwall and 

 then to Armorica, ' on account of the pestilence which nearly 

 destroyed the whole nation.' This disorder ' raffed not only 

 against men, but also against beasts and reptiles.' " ' There was 

 a mortality in Britain and Ireland.' '' During the yellow pesti- 

 lence in Britain and Ireland, cattle were affected.* 



A.D. 561. In Ireland 'a poisoned pool made its appearance in 

 that region (Meath), through a chasm of the earth, and a vapour 

 proceeded from it which produced a fatal disease in men and 



^ Christ. Matth. - Niccphonis, xv. 10. 



^ Bede. Eccles. Hist. ii. p. 66. * Baronius. ^ Ibid. 



^ Book of Landaff. ' Cambrian Annals. 



* Liber Landavensis. ' Mortalitas magna quae dicebatur "crom conaille" vel 

 flava scabies. '^7}^^;'«, year 550. 



