5o History of Animal Plagues. 



also a plague amongst oxen and sheep extended beyond measure 

 in France, so that scarcely any of these animals were left/ ^ 



A.D. 888. The campaign of the Emperor Arnulph, or Arnold, 

 of Germany, in Upper Italy, towards Friuli. ' In this march, 

 great consternation was caused bv the horses dying so rapidly, 

 that the loss was unparalleled in history/ ^ 



A.D. 894. Anthrax prevailed among animals in Italy.^ 



A.D. 895-7. The first recorded invasion of locusts in Britain 

 and Ireland, preceded by bloody rain, and followed by a general 

 scarcity, when great mortality of cattle and other animals occur- 

 red : the effects lasted thirteen years. All the authorities who 

 mention it are Welsh. ' Provisions failed in Ireland ; for vermin 

 of a mole-like nature, each having two teeth, fell from heaven, 

 which devoured all the food ; and through fasting and prayer 

 they were driven away.^* 'After this, anno 897, poore Ireland 

 had another scourge ; for, saith Caradoc Lhancarvan in his 

 British Chronicle, and likewise Polichronicon, this country was 

 destroyed bv strange worms, having two teeth, so that there was 

 neither corn nor grasse, nor food for man or beast, for all was 

 consumed that was greene in the land for the season of the 

 yeare.' ^ 



A.D. 896. A dreadful famine and pestilence, caused by un- 

 seasonable weather, in Gaul, Germany, and Italv. Arnulph, on 

 his return from Italy across the Alps, seems again to have had 

 an epizooty among his horses. 'The great plague amongst the 

 horses increased, being aggravated by the extraordinary diffi- 

 culties of the march ; so that, contrary to custom, oxen were 

 employed to draw the litters instead of horses.'^ Wirth speaks 

 of anthrax having prevailed on a most extensive scale amongst 

 the domestic animals in Europe, and of its being without doubt 

 transmitted to mankind, as an epidemy of this nature was 

 prevalent. '^ 



A.D. 897. Great famine in France and Germany, but especi- 

 ally in Bavaria. In England, disease in cattle and in men. 'In the 

 summer of this year went the army, some into East Anglia, and 



1 Annal. Fuldens. ^ Yq^I. » Wirth. Op. cit. p. 85. 



* Chronicles of Wales. ^ Haiimer. Chronicle. 



* Annal. Fuldens, v. ' Op. cit. p. 85. 



