164 History of Animal PI agttes. 



fore. This dry state of the atmosphere continued to May, with 

 the exception of a few moderate showers^ so that we suffered 

 from a great lack of herbage in this year ; beans, also, and all 

 kind of pulse became dried up^ because of the want of moisture, 

 and but a scanty hope remained that a good harvest would be 

 the result. In the same way as in the preceding year, great 

 destruction was caused to animals, and especially to sheep, so 

 that the whole of the ovine race was nearly swept away. So hot 

 a summer succeeded as had never been seen before; the Etesian 

 winds brought no alleviation of the continual heat, and on this 

 account many animals, and especially dogs, were driven to mad- 

 ness. . . . This tempest of diseases entirely disappeared, except 

 small-pox, which was increased to such a pitch by the intense 

 heat, that not only were young people attacked, but even the 

 aged, and especially those who were pregnant.^ ^ 



A.D. 169T-93. Eruption of Mount Etna. Earthquakes felt 

 in England, France, and Germany. Swarms of locusts from the 

 east invaded Germany. 'The winter of this year ('91) was 

 seasonable; the whole year, indeed, was a favourable one. The 

 following year, however, was not marked with the same moder- 

 ation. The winter was mild, and had the character of spring, 

 and to it succeeded a spring with the character of winter, as 

 if the seasons had been changed ; and from the vernal equinox 

 up to the solstice, frosts, with strong north winds, were continual, 

 and the rains were so frequent and heavy, that rivers everywhere 

 broke down their banks and inundated the country. Every one 

 was already prepared for an unpropitious and unhealthy year, 

 both on account of the destructive nature of the rains, which 

 indicate disease to seedling plants, and also because of the appar- 

 ent signs of blight on the leaves of the mulberry tree, which is a 

 forerunner of sterility, as we had experienced in previous years 

 in the great calamity which then attacked the cispadane and 

 transpadane countries. The summer that followed up to the 

 dog days seemed like spring, and what appeared very strange, 

 the nightingale was heard to sing in the vineyards before the 

 cicadoe were observed. Thus the summer arrived with the mild- 



1 Ramazzini. Op. cil., p. 157 — 1S6. 



