History of Animal Plagues. 141 



A.D. 1614. A very deadly epidemy, and an epizootic dis- 

 ease among the fowls in Bohemia.^ The fowls collected in 

 groups of six or seven^ accordine^ to Schottkv, and holdinn- their 

 heads close together, would fall to the ground and die. A great 

 snow-storm in the west of England. The snow lay very deep, 

 and for a long time, and destroyed much cattle and sheep. 



A.D. 1615. Epizooty among the horses in the canton of 

 Appenzell.' 



A.D. 1616. Malignant angina appeared in the human 

 species at Naples. Plague appeared in Egypt, Norway, Denmark, 

 Bergen, the Levant, and other places. 'In consequence of an epi- 

 zooty, the character and results of which, as well as the source, 

 were unknown, and which manifested itself with great severity in 

 the provinces of Padua, Treviso, Vicenza, and Udine, the sale of 

 the flesh of bullocks and calves was strictly prohibited until the 

 month of Auoust. The slaughter of calves was interdicted until 

 the end of September. These orders were in force throughout 

 the V^enetian dominions, as far as the Mincio.' ^ 



A.D. 16 1 7. Mercurialis plainly indicates that the epizooty 

 reiirning at Venice, where it was named niandussa, was angina 

 maligna, a form of anthrax which was even transmissible to man. 

 ' On account of the daily rains the herbage on the plains became 

 covered with mud, and the cattle eating this, were seized with 

 putridity of the throat, became suflbcated, and died. Some, when 

 half dead, were killed to be eaten, and the herdsmen and farmers, 

 fearing no such evil, quickly succumbed to the noxious food. 

 The calamity aflected all proprietors to a like extent.' * 



The same disease appeared in the kingdom of Naples ; and, 

 indeed, from what one can gather, there is every probability 

 that since 1609 this malady has held sway in the greater part of 

 Europe among cattle. ' In this year a great slaughter of cattle 

 happened everywhere from the ignea pestis (anthrax), so that 

 they could not masticate their food, far less swallow it; where- 

 fore very many perished by a most miserable death, as I see re- 

 marked in some manuscript chronicles.'^ Hn 1618, a disease 



1 Walser. Op. cit. * Ibid. ^ Bottani. Op. cil., vol. ii. p. 34. 



* Ath. Kircheri. Scrutinium Physico-Med. Pestis. Rome, 1658, p. 60. 



* G. Oiithovii. Judicia Jehovse, Groningcn, 1721, p. 740. 



