History of Animal Plagiies. 145 



invaded the city of Rieti and other cities of the Ecclesiastical 

 States, it is certain that these places received the contaoion 

 more than once, from those who were employed in the hospitals 

 conveying it when they passed into the houses of the healthy. 

 But the animals seem to propagate their pestilence among each 

 other without beino; brouoht into actual contact/ ^ 



' At the same time (as the plague in man), a cruel epizootic 

 disease aggravated the pestilence by attacking and destrovino- 

 the greater part of the oxen and sheep/ ^ A strange epizootv 

 w^as observed to affect tlic pelicans in the West Indies. So j 

 mortal was the disease, that their dead bodies covered many 

 islands. ' \\\ the year 1656, and in the month of September, 

 there was a great mortality among these birds, particularly the 

 young ones ; for all the shores of the islands of St Alousie, St 1 

 Vincent, Becoiiya, and all the Grenadins, were covered with, 

 the bodies of these dead birds.' ^ 



A.D. 1659. Either the same or another epizootic disease 

 appears to have prevailed in Italy in this year, for we liud that 

 the Senate of Venice was obliged to issue an order relative to 

 the use of the flesh of diseased cattle. 'Joint notice was oivdi 

 to the villages of Tessera, Campalto, and San Martino — com- 

 munes under the magistracy of Mestre, that all diseased cattle 

 were to be killed; and in order, for the protection of human life, 

 that their flesh might not be sold as food, they were to be 

 buried or publiclv destroyed. This law was published in these 

 villages.^ * 



A.D. 1661. In England, Pepys w-rites on the 21st of January: 

 '■ It is strange what weather we have had all this winter. No 

 cold at all ; but the ways are dusty, the flyes fly up and down, 

 and the rose-bushes are full of leaves, such a time of the year 

 as was never known in this world before here.' ^ 'This dry, hot 

 summer drove many animals to firiizy and to madness, by 

 which farmers experienced much loss. It was remarked that 

 horses, oxen, and sheep were lirst attacked with symptoms of 



' Colantonj Ragguaglio. Delle Peste Scoperta in Rieti. Rome, 1658. 



- Frari. Vol. ii. p. 484. 



^ Duter/re. Hist. Gencrale des Antilles. Paris, 1567, vol. ii. p. 273. 



* Botlani. Vol. ii. p. 49. 



* Samuel Pepys. Diary and Correspondence. 



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