History of Animal Plagues. 47 



The origin of the malady, or rather the cause of its spread, 

 might be ascribed to the wars then occurring. 



Indeed, we read for 810, that in the campaign of Charle- 

 maerne against the Northmen or Scandinavians on the Elbe and 

 Weser, 'So great was the pestilence of oxen in this expedition 

 that scarcely in the whole army did one remain, but all perish- 

 ed ; and not only there, but a plague among animals, causing 

 a dreadful mortality, broke out in all the provinces conquered 

 bv the Emperor/^ Elsewhere for this year it is noted: 'A 

 very great mortality amongst oxen laid waste nearly the whole 

 of Europe, and more especially Britain/-^ In the Chronicle of 

 St Denis it is mentioned that the oxen and the l^tes aumailles 

 in France perished in great numbers.^ Wirth* speaks of anthrax 

 being prevalent in Germany, but it may have been this ' Cattle 

 Plague.' 



A.D. 820. Excessive rains and cold damp weather, with 

 inundations and scarcity of food, in Gaul. War against the 

 Sclavonians in Pannonia. 'In this year, on account of the per- 

 petual rains and the moist state of the atmosphere, great evils 

 occurred. For a pestilence soon spread both to man and beast, 

 so that scarcely any part of the whole kingdom of the Franks 

 escaped its ravages. The corn, also, and the leguminous plants 

 were damaged by the continual rains. The grapes did not ripen; 

 they were sour and unpleasant.' ^ 



The ' Cattle Plague' appeared in Hungary, and after raging 

 there with great violence, passed away to the west of Europe.** 

 This may have been the malady mentioned above as devastating 

 the kingdom of the Franks. 



A.D. 823. A severe winter and a dry summer, with heavy 

 storms. The snow lay on the ground for twenty-nine weeks, 

 and caused great loss of human and animal life. Pestilence in 

 the summer. ' In many places the crops were destroyed by hail- 

 storms, and in certain localities stones of ininunse weight fell. . . 



' Einhardi. Annales. Pertz, M. i. p. 198. Aniial. Fuldcns. Ibid. i. 

 2 Ilii^dcni. Polychronicon. Gale. Scrip. Hist. P)iit., i. p. 252. 

 ' Cliroiiiqucs de Si Denis. Edit. Pauline, 1837. 



* Wirth. Op. cit. ]). 85. 



* Eiiiluirdi. (Jp. til. p. 207. Annal. Fuldcns, p. 357. 

 •■' Arciiives Imp. Agric Soc. of Suulliciii Kussia. 



