1 86 History of Animal Plagties. 



there can l)e no doubt as to the correctness of the opinion which 

 attached suspicion to the Hungarian cattle. For many centuries, 

 the herds of Venice and Lombardy have suffered from invasions 

 of the Cattle Plao-ue, through the commerce in foreign cattle 

 across the Adriatic, as this history testifies. Dalmatian cattle- 

 dealers are frequently mentioned in connection with the advent 

 of this scourge — these men being engaged in carrying oxen 

 to Italy from a country which, from the earliest times, has 

 borne the unenviable reputation of harbouring the contagion. 

 And to this source may we not ascribe the many outbreaks 

 of ovine variola which have decimated the flocks of Venice and 

 Lombardy ? 



Many excellent authorities testify to the progressive inroad 

 of this most remarkable and deadly epizooty, and there was 

 no lack of close observers; but of all these, the best were, perhaps, 

 Lancisi and Ramazzini — two physicians who gave the malady 

 their utmost attention. Ramazzini, who gives the most classical 

 description, describes it as follows: '^Tt is evident that this disease, 

 which has created such dreadful havoc among the whole bovine 

 race, from its cold shiverings, followed by excessive heat through- 

 out the whole body, is a malignant and deadly fever, as its accom- 

 panying symptoms testify. In the first place, there is intense 

 anguish, heavy breathing and continued snorting (or groaning) 

 accompanied by fever, stupor, and slothfulness or weariness; a 

 continued running of ill-odoured matter from the mouth and 

 nostrils is observed, and most foetid excrement, sometimes mixed 

 with blood, is passed ; there is loss of appetite, and chewing the 

 cud (rumination) ceases. On the fifth and sixth days, pustules 

 break out over the whole body, and tubercles of a variolous cha- 

 racter. On the fifth or seventh day, death ensues, which very few 

 escape, and those more by chance than from the effects of reme- 

 dies. We may reasonably suppose that the miserable oxen suffer 

 much internal pain, when they lie groaning, or while they stand 

 motionless with heads cast down towards the ground ; but from 

 dumb animals, who can make no signs, it is impossible to say for 

 certain what is the ailment in their case, and therefore remedies 

 are difficult to find. In the carcases of as many oxen as were 

 dissected by the eminent professors Molinetto and Viscardo, it 



