132 History of Animal Plagues. 



j was probably some plague and development of a peculiar poison 



j in the finny tribes; pestilence in man and animals raging nearly 



( everywhere. In various parts of the German states^ the birds of 



'the air became affected with disease. In the neighbourhood of 



Freyburg, in the Briesgau, for instance, they were found dead in 



great numbers scattered under the trees, with pustules as large as 



peas under their wings; indicating among them a disease that, in 



all likelihood, extended far beyond the southern districts of the 



Rhine. ^ Earthquakes were felt in Italy, and comets and meteors 



were frequent everywhere; blood-coloured rain fell at Cremona,^ 



and disease prev^ailed among the porpoises in the Baltic. ' During 



Lent, to the astonishment of the inhabitants of Stettin, it was 



J observed that porpoises came in great numbers up the frische Haff 



as far as the bridge, and that the Baltic cast on its shores many 



dead animals of this kind, which gave rise to the opinion that 



ythe waters of the sea were poisoned.^ ^ Frightful famine in 



Germanv and France. In Switzerland, an epizooty among the 



cattle.*! A great epizooty among the pigs at Augsburg and 



Thuringia during the prevalence of the sweating sickness in 



mankind. Out of seventy attacked at Posangia, only ten were 



left. Six hundred died at Ceyca, and were thrown out of the 



city to be devoured by the wild beasts.^ 



A.D. 1530. During the pest at Milan, according to Ripa- 

 montius, after mankind had been seized with the disease, cattle 

 were attacked. 



A.D. 1534. Severe winter. 'Disease among pios continued 

 in Ceyca, and in the country around, to the great detriment 

 of the poor people. Forty died in our own Monastery. The 

 year, however, was healthy and fruitful.^" 



A.D. 1539. In Ireland, '^ fever and bloody fluxes being rife 

 everywhere, whereof many died. An extreme hard winter 

 followed, insomuch that store of cattle perished in many places.^ ^ 



^ /. Schiller. De Peste Britanic. Commentaiy, fol. 3. ' The fowls of the air, 



with tlieir delicate and irritable organs of respiration, feel the injurious influence 



, much earlier and more sensitively than any of the unfeathered tribes, and have often 



jbeen the harbingers of great danger, ere man was aware of its approach.' — Hecker. 



2 Campo. Pp. 150, 151. ^ Klemzen. P. 254. 



* Hans Stockars. Heimfart von Jerusalem. 1839, p. 197. ^ Mencken. Op. cit. 



" Langins. Chronic. Nurembergens. ' Ware. Annals. 



