History of Animal Plagues. 177 



which month a kind of griping diarrhoea affected adults, and 

 at last cholera appeared, with vomiting and cramps in the 

 leers. '^ 



A.D. 1702. A disease among horses on the banks of the 

 Rhine, following cold and damp weather, and in Lombardy 

 through a failure in the forage.^ The weather in Yorkshire was 

 so fearfully hot that within six miles' compass, in the month of 

 April, thirty-six or thirty-seven draught of oxen were killed in 

 ploughing. The same in other places.^ 



A.D, 1703. Very wet and damp. Inundations. In Eno-- 

 land a fearful thunder-storm. A great storm and flood at 

 Bristol, in which 2000 sheep were drowned. At Berkeley 15,000 

 sheep were drowned, and multitudes of cattle on both banks of 

 the Severn. An earthquake in Italy, during which springs of 

 water became opaque and milky in colour, exhaled an odour of 

 sulphur, and sometimes emitted foul-smelling gases. "* Ergotism 

 prevailed throughout the whole country of Frieburg. The dis- 

 eases of horses and cattle were more frequent than in the pre- 

 ceding year. They appeared in Mantua, on the banks of the 

 Rhine, in Prussia, and especially on the banks of the Oder. 

 Kanold writes that 'the principal cause of these maladies con- 

 sisted in the presence of immense moving swarms of vermin \\\ 

 Prussia, and especially in Elbingen, in the month of May. They 

 fell upon the earth in such numbers, that they might have been 

 gathered by shovelsful. They were considered by some people 

 to be ants; nevertheless they were provided with four wings.'* 



A.D. 1704. An eruption of Vesuvius. Epizootics among 

 horses in Germany, Alsace, in the Low Countries, and in Po- 

 land, where they died in great numbers. The diseases were 

 believed to be contagious, and the importation of horses from 

 tbese places into England was prohibited." 



A.D. 1705. A malignant epidemic fever broke out at Ceuta, 

 causing great mortality. The post-mortem appearances of those 



' Camerarius. Ephem. Nat. Cur. pp. 66, 67. 



"-Kanold. Jahreshistorie von den Seuchen des Viches, von 1701 bis 171 7. 

 Ludissin, 1721, p. 4. 



•■* T. Short. Op. cit., p. 425. * Schnurrcr. Vol. ii. p. 235. 



' Kanold. Op. cit., p. 5. '' Ibid. P. 7. 



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