Histo7y of Animal PI ag7ics. 179 



all cattle were infected with a tumour in the extremities 

 [lumorem partium extremarum), accompanied with emaciation 

 and intense debility. The " serum " of the blood beino; very 

 impure, also caused a tumour on the tongue which was intensely 

 hot, and there was a great loss of saliva, and even a sloughino- of 

 some parts of the organ. The disease disappeared in time from 

 prescribed remedies. . . . The same disease, arising from impurity 

 of the " serum," affected many young men, by wasting away 

 their strength with malignant catarrh.'^ Epidemic influenza in 

 England. ' In April horses had dangerous coughs.^ ' July 8th, 

 a most memorable excessive hot day; many horses died on the 

 road.' ^ 



A.D. 1708. A comet appeared, and there were volcanic erup- 

 tions. During the spring-time and the summer the above 

 aphthongiilar malady (aphthous fever) raged in Silesia and in 

 Poland.^ Great mortality among the horses of the armies on the 

 Rhine. Plague in man at Dantzic, and in the city of Seville the 

 previous year. Immense crowds of insects, especially spiders, 

 were observed, previous to the occurrence of pestilence. Influenza 

 in man was general in Europe and America. In Hungary and in 

 Transylvania, a disease of a carbuncular nature amongst animals. 

 Ansfeld, a physician, asserts that a black cloud having obscured 

 the sky and filled the air with a foul odour, all animals — cattle, 1 

 horses, pigs, dogs, wolves, hares, and foxes — died soon after in 

 great numbers.* In November universal catarrh in Europe, fol- 

 lowed by an epizooty in horned cattle and horses, especially in 

 Holland.^ In Ireland, Sir Thomas Molyneux gives an account 

 of an ' universal cold that appeared in 1708, and was immediately 

 preceded by a very sudden transition of atmospheric tempera- 

 ture from heat to cold, in Dublin and its vicinity.' " Rutty says 

 that the frost lasted ' about nine weeks,' and that about that 

 period there was 'another great Rot among the sheep here 

 (Dublin).'^ Rabies was epizootic amongst dogs in Suabia.* 



A.D. 1709. In the whole of Europe a most severe winter, 



' Stcurlin. Ephcm. Nat. Curios., p. 156. - T. Short. Op. cit., 435. 



^ Kanold. Op. cit , p. 9. ^ Loi^k. History of the IVsl, i>p. 35S, 421, 437. 



' Webster. Op. cit. " Memoirs. 



' Kutty. Registry. * Wirtlt. Op. cit., p. 236. 



