Histo7y of Animal Plagues. 131 



from the facility with which the affection could he propagated 

 by the touch, or contact. In this sense the term has been some- 

 what misapplied by the French, who have used it to signify the 

 scabies, and also the pourritnre, or ' rot/ of cattle and sheep. 



Scheuchzeri mentions that the peasants of Lugano give this 

 name to the disease known as glossanthrax. 



A.D. 1517. 'Was a very droughty and frosty winter, a very 

 hot summer, a very early and plentiful harvest. Wheat fell 

 from ten shillings a bushel to ten pence. There was a great \ 

 murrain of kinc, so mortally infectious, that dogs and ravens 

 feeding on their flesh were poisoned and swelled to death. ; 

 None durst eat beef. In the beginning of this year (says 

 Tyenius) ra^ed a pain and inflammation of the throat, so pest- 

 iferous, malignant, and contagious, that whoever, within six or 

 eight hours^ seizure, had not proper remedies applied, died in 

 sixteen or twenty hours.' ^ The epidemic sweating sickness 

 began at midsummer this year. 



A.D. 1518. In the city of Cascante, kingdom of Navarre, 

 Spain, an epizootic disease appeared among the horses, which 

 consisted in a mass of abscesses about the head and throat, 

 accompanied by insatiable thirst, hectic fever, and emaciation. 

 Pedro Lopez of Zamora, chief veterinary surgeon of the king- 

 dom, gave directions for its treatment, which were promptly 

 successful.^ 



A.D. 1524. In Ireland, ' great inclemency of weather, and a 

 mortality of cattle at the beginning of this year.' * 



A.D. 1529. During the reign of the sweating sickness in 

 mankind, the weather was most inclement all over Europe, and 

 caused much alarm. Heavy rains had prevailed for a long time, 

 the earth was soaked, and the air was laden with moisture. 

 Deluges were frequent everywhere in Europe. In Brandenburg, 

 in the preceding year, swarms of locusts appeared ; ^ and in that 

 country, as well as in the north of Germany generally, it was 

 dangerous to eat fish, as it was reported that malignant and con- 

 tagious diseases in mankind had been traced to this cause." There 



» Zungenkrebs, p. 4. "- T. Short. Op. cit.,vol. i. p. 88. 



3 Villalba. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 135. ■• Annals of Kilroonaii. 



* Annales Berlino-Marchici. " Leuthhisn: Scrii)toruin, p. <)o. 



