1^1 ■ History of Animal Plagues. 



pastures where the cattle grazed, insomuch that whole herds 

 returned home sick ; being very dull, forbearing their food, and 

 most of them would die in twenty-four hours. Upon dissection 

 there were discovered large and corrupted spleens, sphacelous 

 and corrupted tongues, and some had angina maligna. Those 

 persons who carelessly managed their cattle, without a due 

 regard to their own health, were themselves infected, and died 

 like their beasts. Some imputed it to the witchcraft of three 

 Capucins in Switzerland, who were killed ; but,' says he, ' this 

 contagion may perhaps proceed from some noxious exhalations 

 emitted from the earth, by three distinct earthquakes, perceived 

 here in the space of one year.' The treatment was simple — 

 generally scraping or cleaning the tongue, washing it with a 

 lotion of salt and vinegar, and the administration of garlic, or a 

 dose of gunpowder, soot, brimstone, and salt. Dr Slare adds in 

 a postscript : ' I lately received an account from two ingenious 

 travellers, who assured me the contagion had reached their 

 quarters on the borders of Poland, having passed quite through 

 Germany, and that the method used in our relation preserved 

 and cured their cattle. They told me the contagion was observed 

 to make its progress daily, spreading near two German miles in 

 twenty-four hours. This, they say, was certainly observed by many 

 curious persons, that it continually, without intermission, made 

 its progress, and suffered no neighbouring parish to escape ; but 

 it did not at the same time infect places at great distances. They 

 added that cattle at rack and manger were equally infected with 

 those in the field.' ^ Dr Slare fancied the infection was con- 

 veyed by some volatile insect. On the 20th of June, at Nord- 

 lingen, it was noted^ ' we yesterday saw the first symptoms of 



accompanied. Dr Williams, in his ' Principles of Medicine,' remarks : 'The pre- 

 valence of the south-east wind was observed to be particularly favourable to 

 the increase of both cholera and influenza ; and I cannot but think that this had 

 some connection with the general tendency exhibited by the former to spi'ead from 

 east to west. Has the morbific property of this wind aught to do with the haziness 

 of the air when it prevails — a haziness seen in the country remote from smoke, and 

 quite distinct from fog ? What is this haze ? In the west of England a hazy day 

 in spring is called a blight.' In more recent times, so late as 1 866, a blue mist was 

 noticed in England during the mild visitation of cholera. 



^ An Account of a Murren in Switzerland, and the Method of its Cure. Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, vol. xiii. 



