History of Am'vzal Plagues. 89 



A.D. 1279. '^^^ ^^^^^ year, in every young horse that was 

 foaled, there appeared four permanent teeth/ ^ 



A.D. 1283. Mr Rogers uiforms us that in the accounts for 

 farm stock for Ditchinghani, under this date, there is the entry, 

 ^Morbus generahs/ - When King Philip of France was invading 

 Spain with 200,000 infantry and 86,000 cavalry, and while at 

 Gerona, the whole force suflered severely from disease, losing 4000 

 men, and nearly as many horses. Tremendous swarms of flies 

 {moscas) as large as acorns, and of a different shape from the or- 

 dinary' flies, appeared, and attacked both men and horses. No 

 sooner were these stung by them than they died. So great was 

 the sickness that this monarch was unable to show himself before 

 Cataluha. This dreadful plague, says the chronicler, was attri- 

 buted to a miracle wrought by St Narcissus.^ 



A.D. 1286. A stranoe kind of worm infested Prussia. It 

 had a tail like a crab, and whatever animal was stung by it was 

 dead within three davs.^ ' Throu2;hout Austria and some other 

 countries the following unheard-of occurrence took place : the 

 fowls and small birds that were previously perfectly healthy 

 suddenly dropped down dead, and the heavens were so robbed 

 of their small birds that scarcely a magpie, or a crow, or any 

 other bird, was to be seen.'^ 



A.D. 1291. An epizooty in Iceland among horses. 'The 

 great icebergs melted, and winter went away; then came a 

 disease among cattle [felU vetr)."^ 



A.D. 1299. An epizooty among horses at Seville. Accord- 

 ins to the veterinarians Martin Arrendondoand Fernando Calvo, 

 who derived their information from Laurentius Rusius, it 

 manifested itself with o-reat severity, and killed move than one 

 thousand horses. Rusius says of it: 'There was a certain 

 fever broke out amono- horses which seemed to be incurable. 



o 



» Chronic. Clauslro-Neoburgens. ^ Rogers. Op. cit., vol. ii. 



3 Villalba. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 63. These flies may have been the Sitmdunl 

 reptans, a native of eastern countries and of llunjiary ; or even the African fly, 

 Clirysops cocciitiens, which is said to attack horses and to blind them. They might 

 have been carried over by high winds to Spain. 



* Chronic. Magdeburg. '■> Chronic. Claustro-Neoburgens. 



* Annals Isl. Langebek, vol. iii. p. 1 19. 



