History of Animal Plagues. 45 



and Italy. St Paul's, at Rome, was thrown down in the month 

 of April. 'Plagues and epizootics, following sanguinary wars, 

 as well as shocks of earthquake, occurred in the realms of Char- 

 lemagne, soon after the crowning of that monarch/ ^ 



Agobard, an archbishop of Lyons, who lived in the reign of 

 Charlemagne, recounts the history of a great epizooty amonsc 

 cattle in France. Its origin was attributed to Grimoald, Duke 

 of Benevento, who, it was said, hated the Christian king, and 

 sent emissaries with enchanted powders to sprinkle over the land ; 

 these powders were composed of a substance capable of killing 

 animals. This poisonous ingredient was sprinkled over the pas- 

 ture on mountain and plain, or on the cattle; even the springs 

 of water were rendered deadly by it. Some of the men were 

 seized, and, when tortured, confessed that they had been using 

 powders to cause the death of the oxen ; after which confession 

 they were tied to planks and thrown into a river.^ Such is the 

 archbishop's version of the story. 



The great mortality would lead one to infer that it was the 

 real ' hovum pestiletis,' conveyed from the districts in which the 

 great emperor had been conqueror, and where he had, no doubt, 

 levied taxes in kind on the conquered. But poisons of this nature 

 were often supposed to be propagated by wicked or stupid 

 people, in ages of darkness, and even in those of more enlightened 

 times. Indeed, it would seem that from the time of Thucy- 

 dides to the present day, when a strange disease suddenly 

 appeared, the masses have always entertained suspicions as to 

 its mortal effects being due to poisonous substances introduced 

 into the water, food, or air, by malicious people. 



A.D. 804. In Bohemia, 'a plague raged not only in man, 

 but in all kinds of animals, and attacked Mnata himself.'^ 



A.D. 809-10. A great epizooty among cattle on the Con- 

 tinent. It came from the cast and penetrated to the west.-* A 

 Saxon poet gives us the following description : ' On all sides the 

 peace of the present year had gladdened the empire to its bound- 



^ Meiaxa. Delle Malattie Contagiose ed Epizootiche, etc. Roma, i Si 7. Vol. 

 i. p. 133. ''■ Baluze. Annal. de Franc. Year 801. 



•* iJagc'/c and Liboczan. Annals of Hohcmia, vol. i. p. 413. 

 * Chronicon Moissiac. Pcrtz, M. i. p. 309. 



