Histoi-y of Animal Plagues. 147 



since it is a restringent (astringent), and that it grows and is 

 eaten every year as well as this.^ To some great sheep-masters 

 this makes one of their epochs still, and is called the '' Rotten 

 Year/' most of all their great flocks of sheep dying then. In '63 

 was a great death of cattle in England from a most severely 

 rainy wet autumn. Their carcases were sold at very small 

 prices among ordinary people.'^ 



Schnurrer writes : 'The year 1663 was a very damp one in 

 England, so that the sheep and cattle suffered severely from 

 fluke-worms {Egelioilnnern).'^ 



A.D. 1664. Small-pox in sheep in Venice.* "During the sum- 

 mer a comet was observed, and a malignant epidemy is de- 

 scribed, which soon after developed itself as the Great Plague of 

 London. The signs said to foreshadow this plague were many, 

 but the principal were the birds and wild beasts having left their 

 accustomed haunts, and the almost total absence of swallows ; 

 swarms of flies everywhere, ants in masses, and the ditches filled 

 with frogs and insects. 



A.D. 1669. 'This year was remarkable in consequence of the 

 unusual drougrht and heat of the summer. From May till Mar- 

 tinmas scarcely any rain fell. There arose a great scarcity of 

 water, especially upon the Alps. The cattle disease {viehpresten) 

 raged rather dangerously, and with mankind there appeared 

 dysentery.^ ^ 'After honey-dew [liojiigthau) in plants, a great 

 cattle disease followed.'" 'July 31st, was seen a great dark cloud 

 rise in the east near Litchfield, which coming near the city, was 

 over it about noon, and was a prodigious swarm of ant-flies, so 

 thick that they darkened the sky. They then fell down, filled 

 the houses, stung many people, put all the horses mad, and 

 market people were forced to pack up and be gone, and the 

 people at harvest-work were driven home. Thus they con- 

 tinued for three hours, covered and laid thick on the streets; 

 many of them were dead, and were sweeped together in great 



' Bonei. Sepulcr. Anatomic. ^ Hodges. T. Short. Loc. cit. 



'^Schnurrer. Chronik dcr Seuchen. * Bottani. Vol. ii. p. 134. 



'■' 'frumpy. Glarncr Chronik, p. 377- 

 " Scheiickzcr. Oryctoga Helvetic, p. 20. 



