History of Animal Plagues. 95 



A.D. 1328. In an Arab treatise on veterinary science, written 

 bv a wealthy chief of Yemen in 909 of the Hegira, and entitled 

 * Kitab el-akoual/ there is an account of a disastrous epizootv 

 amons: the famed horses of Yemen in this vear. The transla- 

 tion of M. Perron ^ runs as follows : — 



' The epizooty that attacked the horses of Yemen in the 

 year of the Hegira 728^ was of the worst character and was 

 rapidly mortal. No one knew how to recognize or characterize 

 it, and in no book or hippiatric treatise of past ages could any 

 distinctive traces of it be found mentioned. No efficacious 

 remedy could be derived to cure it. The animal attacked was not 

 allowed time to benefit by medical or any other kind of treat- 

 ment. This malady had not, like other diseases, any premonitory 

 symptoms. It suddenly struck the animal, which perhaps would 

 be eatiiig, and all at once something escaped from the nostrils like 

 mucus; for a moment the horse's head was drooping on the 

 ground, from which he had no longer strength to raise it, and 

 then he fell dead. Sometimes he struggled for a few seconds 

 before he expired. The malady first began in the kingdom of 

 HadramaAt, then it was propagated into Yemen, and as far as 

 Mecca. An incalculable number of horses perished. 



'Mules also died in crreat numbers, but not so extensivelv as 

 the horses. The best and purest bred horses furnished the 

 largest number of victims to the scourge. At the great fair of 

 Aden they died in crowds. So quickly did the animals succumb, 

 that while two individuals were discussing the price of a horse, the 

 disease attacked it, and it died before they had time to conclude 

 the barojain. Horse-dealers from India also bought horses 

 there at very high prices, but these carried the malady with them 

 and suddenly perished. It was observed, as a consequence of these 

 frequent repetitions, that the Indian dealers carefully everted the 

 upper eyelid of any horse they were about to buy ; and any animal 

 that showed a yellow tint in this part they abstained from pur- 

 chasing. Indeed, when this tinge was present, it was not long 

 before the horse succumbed to the malady.' This may have 

 been an epizotity of the protean malady 'influenza' or typhus 



1 Le Naceri. Paris, i860. Vol. iii. p- 275. 



