144 History of Animal Plagues. 



of the poison and to fortify nature ; ' for it was a poison,' 

 says this writer, 'which gave rise to the disorder and was the 

 cause of the fever. Remedies, at the commencement of the 

 epizooty, were of no avail. Precautions were taken to have all 

 the healthy horses removed from the infected stables, and they 

 were not to return to them until they had been fumigated, 

 whitewashed, and otherwise cleansed.^ ^ Solleysel designated it 

 a'fievre pestilentielle,^ very deadly at its commencement, but 

 afterwards amenable to medical treatment. It was evidently 

 ' influenza.' A catarrhal fever had been epidemic the previous 

 year. 



A.D. 11549. Small-pox in sheep in Padua. ^ Epidemic small- 

 pox raging in mankind in Boston, U.S. Plague in Spain and 

 France. 



A.D. 1650. A volcanic eruption in the Gulf of Santorin. 

 The accompanying evolution of sulphur and hydrogen issuing 

 from the sea killed more than fifty persons, and more than one 

 thousand domestic animals.^ Ergotism in man, especially in 

 Sologne. Pestilence in Russia and Poland. Myriads of locusts 

 were seen to enter Russia in three different directions, and soon 

 after they spread over Poland and Lithuania in such swarms 

 that air and earth was obscured by them. So numerous w^ere they, 

 that in many places they lay heaped to a depth of four feet, and 

 the very trees bent with their weight. They caused a fearful 

 amount of damage. Epidemic influenza all over Europe. 



A.D. 1655. A disease among fish in the lakes and ponds, 

 according to the Chronicle of Godfrey. People who had gathered 

 the dead and dying creatures and had eaten them, were attacked 

 by a pestilential disease which killed a very great number; even 

 the dogs which ate the unburied dead were attacked by mad- 

 ness.* 



A.D. 1656. Pestilence in man in the Neapolitan territories 

 and the Ecclesiastical States, which caused an immense loss of 

 life. An epizootic disease appears to have reigned at the same 

 time. It is noted: 'With regard to the human pestilence which 



'^Solleysel. Parfait Marechal. Paris, 16S4, p. 404. "^ Bottani. P. 46. 

 ^ Lyell. Principles of Geology, p. 443. 

 * Gothofred. Chronic. 



