History of Animal Plagues. 71 



tinual rains and very great floods. On June the 25th and Julv 

 the loth were great tempests of thunder, lightnhig, hail as bio- 

 as eggs, and prodigious rains, destroying corn, cattle, people, 

 meadows, &c. The rains continued from Pentecost to Nativity 

 of the blessed Virgin, which not only hindered corn and fruits 

 from ripening, but rendered them mostly useless and unprofit- 

 able. A great dearth of animals followed, but chiefly of sheep. ^ ^ 

 Possibly from dropsy or ' rot.' For the previous five years, the 

 ignis sacer had been widely prevalent on the continent and in 

 England, in mankind, coincidently with rust of plants and 

 famine. 



A.D. 1202. 'This winter (after the great summer rains of 

 1201) was severe beyond any in the memory of man for extreme 

 cold and long continuance. After the frosts followed the like 

 tempests of thunder, lightning, rain, and hail as big as hens' 

 eggs, destroying corn, fruit, young cattle and horses, &e.' ^ 



A.D. 1207. In Ireland 'a great destruction (d'tt/i) of men 

 and cattle this year.' ^ 



A.D. 1 2 13. Gangrenous erysipelas {J'e/i sacr^) in mankind in 

 France and Spain. 'Neither was the scarcity limited to the fruits 

 of the earth, nor disease to the human species; for birds, cattle, 

 and sheep became sterile and brought forth no young, and 

 many riding and other horses perished for lack of straw and 

 barley.' * 



A.D. 121 7. The drought was so great as to ruin the harvests 

 in Spain, and to burn up all the pasture. There was conse- 

 quently a famine, with pestilential disease in men and cattle.^ 

 In Italy there raged a fearful plague in the human species, which 

 left scarcely a tenth part of the inhabitants alive. 



A.D. 1221. This year were continual great rains all the sum- 

 mer in Poland ; hence such great floods, that many villages were 

 swept down, the winter corn was lost, and there was no sowing 

 in the spring; a sharp horrid cold winter followed, then came 

 three years' famijie and plague, whereof died myriads of people 

 and cattle.'^ 



' T. Short. Op. cit., p. 133. '^ WnA. ' Annals of Ulster. 



* VUlalba. Epidemiologia Espaiiola, vol. i. p. 54- 



* Zurila. Vol. i. p. lo8. Villalba. Vol. i. ]). 57. 

 " Chronic. Magdeburg. 



