History of Animal Plagues. 191 



stings of hornets, which were observed in incredible numbers 

 and of unwonted size. It is not very wonderful, then, that, 

 as the dead bodies of the oxen that had died the previous year 

 were nowhere buried sufficiently deep, and had become putrid and 

 fit food for these insects, they should in this way have gener- 

 ated and increased the virulencv of the poisoned humours. Thus 

 these poisonous atoms in the humours of animals stung by them, 

 multiplied themselves, and were then able to infect other animals. 

 As an example of this, there was a horse belonging to a baron 

 kept in a stable in the vicinity of some animals that had died of 

 this malady, and were not buried sufficiently deep, so that one 

 foot protruded through the ground. This was cut off with an 

 axe by a servant, and while he was doing so some matter flew up 

 into his eve. This soon caused swelling and inflammation, 

 which quicklv spread to the other eye and over the whole head, 

 and as the poor man was without medical aid, he shortly died.^ ^ 

 With regard to the French epizooty, M. Herment states : 

 ' In many provinces, it is observed that the horses and cattle are 

 attacked bv a kind of farcied tumour, about the size of a nut, 

 which appears about the flanks and gradually increases, com- 

 municating with the scrotum, which becomes prodigiously swoll- 

 en. The vessels in the neighbourhood are so engorged, that they 

 become like cords. The tumour is hard, black, and does not 

 contain pus, resembling in this respect the anthracoid swellings 

 which often manifest themselves in man during the progress of 



' Schroeckii. Constit. Epid. Eph. Nat. Curios., App. 27. Trofessor Gamgee, 

 in his Treatise on the Diseases of the Domestic Animals, gives us a perhaps more 

 striking illustration than this of Schroeckius, of the potency of the carbuncular poison. 

 He says : ' I have seen various forms of anthrax in the marshy plains of tlie Papal 

 States during the summer months, especially in July, August, and September. The 

 activity of the developed poison was very great, and one instance more particularly 

 struck me. One of the fine white bullocks of the Roman States was conveyed in 

 a cart to tlie slaughter-house at Ferrara, in the month of August, 1854. I'rofessor 

 Maffei condemned the animal as being affected with carbuncular fever. The anmial 

 was buried ; but a jobber determined to sell the flesh, and during the night disin- 

 terred the carcase. He removed the meat in bags to a hiding-place, and in doing 

 so carried the bags over his shoulders. He had thro\yn off his jacket and set to 

 work in his shirt. Next morning, a diffuse erysipelatous innammatiun set up over 

 tlie back, notwithstanding that no abrasion of the skin could be detected, and the 

 juice of the flesh had had to permeate through the bags and shirt. In three days 

 the man was a corpse.' P. 283. 



