138 History of A nimal Plag2ies. 



A.D. 1590. Rabies in wolves was epizootic at Montbel- 

 liard.^ 



A.D. 159 1. In Sicily^ an epidemy and epizooty during a 

 hot and damp year. ' In this year there was a good deal of 

 blight, which the people called resin {itredo, rubigove, quam 

 valgus resinani appellat), on the trees, plants, corn, and every- 

 thing green ; and, miserable to relate, it destroyed all these in 

 a very short space of time. Cows, sheep, and all herds, on 

 account of the blighted and bad quality of the forage, became 

 emaciated, as if the blight had been of a deadly nature to 

 them, as well as to the vegetation. All milk was foul and of 

 a pale colour, and all the corn, pulse, and barley was light, 

 mildewed [cerug'mata) , and had a bad and corrupt smell, from 

 the constant rains, when collected by the farmers.^ ^ 



A.D. 1592. Mortality among the fish at Leipsic.^ In 

 England was an excessive drought, and great death of cattle 

 from want of water. Springs and brooks were dried up; horse- 

 men could ride across the Thames at London.* The following 

 winter was so severe at Vienna, that the wolves entered the 

 town and attacked men and cattle. 



A.D. 1598. After inundations and heavy fogs, there was a 

 general epizooty among cattle in Germany.^ In the same year 

 there appeared ergotism in the human species. 



disease was known from the very earliest times, for Homer appears to allude 

 to it in the Iliad. 



' Not half so dreadful rises to the sight, 

 Tlii'o' the thick gloom of some tempestuous night, 

 Orion's dog (the year when Autumn weighs), 

 And o'er the feebler stars exerts his rays ; 

 Terrific glory ! for his burning breath 

 Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.' 



Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Dioscorides describe it, and it was well known to 

 the Greek and Latin writers of a later age. And yet until the present century I have 

 been unable to trace its existence in an epizootic form. We have noted its occur- 

 rence in other animals, but not in the dog ; though in the early ages of our era 

 it must have been very prevalent, for we find that in Belgium, at a remote date, 

 pilgrimages used to be made to the shrine of St Hubert, as they now are, for the 

 cure of hydrophobia. Dudley Costcllo. The Valley of the Meuse, p. 297. 



1 y. Ban/tin. Memorab. Historia Luporum, &c. Montbelliai-d, 1591. 



^ Marcelbis Capra. De Morbo Pandemonio, fol. 2. 



■^ Vogch. Annal., p. 268. * T. Short. Op. cit., p. 274. 



* Ampsingii. De Medic, et Astron. Conjugio. Rostok, 1629, p. 206. 



