lyo History of Animal Plagues. 



The malady is probably prevalent at times in all hot coun- 

 tries^ and affects different species of the feathered tribe. Guer- 

 sent speaks of its frequency in pigeons in Italy. 'Birds, particu- 

 larly ringdoves, are principally liable, in warm countries, to an 

 eruption of pustules [houtons) very like those of variola ; but this 

 disease has not yet been well described. It is so common in 

 Italy, that in a dove-cot containing a thousand pigeons, scarcely 

 a hundred will be found which have not been affected; otherwise 

 it is rarely grave, for at the most no more than a twentieth of 

 those attacked die.^ ^ 



Swediaur, in describing the plan, or 'yaws,' a disease affecting 

 the human species, and which is endemic in West Africa, 

 Guiana, the West Indies, and Brazil, informs us that in the 

 latter country young turkeys, chickens, and pigeons contract a 

 disease accompanied by the eruption of tuberculous pustules, 

 exactly like those seen in the squamous form of the vaws. ' The 

 eruption takes place around the eyes, on the neck, on the 

 wattles, and also on the crest of gallinaceous creatures. When 

 they are affected, their feathers stand erect ; they are dull and 

 prostrated; they separate themselves from the other birds, and die 

 in great numbers.^ 



The supposed variolous malady is very contagious, and various 

 authors have asserted that, in Europe, turtle-doves have caught 

 the infection of small-pox from man.^ 



As before noticed, it has been declared that the ovine small- 

 pox was derived from the turkey ; and many writers have 

 affirmed that sheep were infected by fowls and turkeys.* Brug- 

 none, Leroi, and Toggia fully recognize the analo2:y, if not 

 identity, of the variola of turkeys with the variolous diseases of 

 quadrupeds, and Toggia is strong in his belief that turkeys can 

 communicate their small-pox to sheep. During a very deadly 

 epizooty of the disease among these birds this veterinarian en- 

 ( deavoured to preserve them by vaccination, but utterly failed.^ 



^ Diet, des Sciences Medicales, vol.'xiii. p. 87. 

 - Der Wohlerfahrene Thierarzt, vol. ii. p. 37. Bechstein. P. 557. 

 2 Mem. de la Soc. Agricol. 1791, p. 145. Gilbert. Instruction sur le 

 Claveau. 



* Storia e Cura delle Malatti de Buoi, vol. iii. p. 221 ; vol. iv. p. 173. 



