History of Animal Plagues. 77 



recurring remedies prescribed in the Saxon leechdonis/ would in- 

 dicate such to be the case. And when we consider the backward 

 state of agriculture, and the unsanitary conditions in which ani- 

 mals weren)aintained at this period, we can scarcely wonder that 

 wide-spread outbreaks of this fatal and virulent disorder were 

 by no means rare, or that they should be accompanied or fol- 

 lowed bv malignant pustule or anthrax fever in man. 



The laws enacted during the reign of Henry III., at the 

 commencement of this century, appear to have been judiciously 

 framed, at least in so far as the public health in regard to food 

 was concerned ; and thev also give us some idea of the principal 

 maladies affecting animals then sold for their flesh. From them 

 we are led to infer that anthrax was not at all rare, and that 

 pork was, as it now is, looked upon with suspicion. Butchers were 

 forbidden to sell contagious flesh, or that had died of the murrain 

 {carnes-suacientas vel morte morina) ; to buy flesh of Jews, and 

 then sell it to Christians; or to sell flesh 'measled' or flesh dead 

 of the ' murrain ' {porcinas sup^ennuates, ut carnes de jnorina).^ 



Mr Roo-ers' researches into the state of ao;riculture at this 

 period lead him to the following conclusions with regard to 

 pigs : ' Pigs are occasionally said to be leprous, and were especi- 

 ally liable to measles, that is, to entozoa, and the accounts fre- 

 quently allude to forced sales of animals, in which the latter 

 disease was present or suspected, though it does not appear that 

 such a circumstance seriously depreciated the market value of the 

 animal.^ ^ 



A.D. 1253. ' This year throughout was abundant in corn and 

 fruit; so much so, that the price of a measure of corn fell to 

 thirty pence. But . . . the sea overflowing its bounds, by its 

 sudden inundations, overwhelmed men and cattle, and when it 

 happened by night it drowned many the more.^ * 



A.D. 1254. A very severe winter in England. ^ Also there 



1 For the remedies and incantations in use to cure this disease in people durinij 

 the Middle Ages in England, see Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early 

 England. London, 1864-5-6. 



■^ Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. ^ Hist. Agric, vol. i. p. 337- 



* Matthcvj pf Paris. Op. cit. 



