History of Animal Plagues. 97 



look at. The frequent rains in the marsliv places caused im- 

 mense mortality to man and beast, throuoh the dvkes havinii- 

 been broken down.' ^ 



In Ireland^ ' intense frost, with very deep snow, from the 

 2nd of December to the loth of February.'- 'This year was 

 very tempestuous, and noxious to man and beast .... and in 

 this year oxen and cowes died, and sheep, particularly, were 

 almost destroyed, so that, according to the common complaint, 

 scarcely the seventh part escaped from the pestilence ; but the 

 loss of lambs was greater.' ^ This is the first recorded ovine 

 epizootv in Ireland. 



A.D. 1339. ' A great plague [plaigh) from frost and from 

 snow upon the cattle and the grass and corn-fields of Ireland, 

 from a fortnight of winter to a part of the spring.'^ In this and 

 the following year locusts were in Europe. 



A.D. 1345. In the bailiff's accounts for Walford, there is the 

 following entry : ' Tantum (of tar and grease) ; propter caristiam 

 et nimiam scabiem.' ^ Plague in mankind in Illvria and Italy 

 during this and successive years." 



A.D. 1347-9. Before this period, there had been terrible cos- 

 mical perturbations, which caused great physical changes in 

 China and other countries, and destroyed immense multitudes of 

 human beings. ' From China to tiie Atlantic, the foundations 

 of the earth were shaken. Throughout Asia and Europe the 

 atmosphere was in commotion, and endangered, by its baneful 

 influence, both vegetable and animal life. The series of these 

 great events began in the year 1333, fifteen years before the 

 plague (the "Black Death," Sorte Died, or Schwarze Tod) broke 

 out in Europe; they first appeared in China. Here a parching 

 drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of 

 country watered by the rivers Kiang and Iloangho. This was fol- 

 lowed by such violent torrents of rain, in and about Kiangsi, at 

 that time the capital of the Empire, that, according to tradition, 

 more than 400,000 people perished in the floods. Finally the 



' Hanisfortii. Chronologia. Langcbek. Vol. i. p. 303. 

 2 Grace. Annals. ^ Clyn. Ann.ils. 



< Annals of Connaught. '•' Hist. Agricuil., vol. ii. 



" Fniri. Op. cit. p. 295. 



7 



