History of Animal Plagues. 193 



Cologne district, where no less than in Luxemburg, in Brabant, 

 and Artois, in the armies a troop could scarcely muster a dozen 

 effective horses. Also in Picardy, and other places on the borders 

 of France and Germany, it did much damage; and it caused 

 a great mortality among the horses in Lithuania, Poland, Prussia, 

 Hungary, Moldavia, Wallachia, and far into the interior of 

 Turkey/ ^ 



Lancisi describes it as it appeared at Rome : 'A disease of 

 this kind sprung up amongst us at the commencement of the 

 month of March. There had been a most grievous mortality 

 amono; the herds of oxen at Padua, and afterwards amono; the 

 horses in the stables at Naples, especially in the months of 

 January and February; so much so, that out of every ten 

 horses seized by the plague at Rome, scarcely one survived. At 

 the end of June of the same year, 17 12, by the grace of God, 

 the epidemic among the horses at Rome ceased, the contagion 

 beino- checked within the city and its environs. Judf^ino- from 

 those which had been attacked, it was clearly evident that the 

 epidemic was of two kinds — both of which, however, arose from 

 the same ill disposition of the blood; in the one case the circula- 

 tion being too languid, and in the other too rapid. The too 

 rapid circulation differed in no way from an acute fever, which 

 at first produced cold shiverings over the whole body, accom- 

 panied by loss of appetite and constipation, and, as a consequence, 

 colic severely affected them. At length inflammation set in, 

 especially of the whole intestines — omcntiun, bowels, and 

 stomach. This was found to be the case on post-mortem examin- 

 ations of some of the bodies. This kind of disease, although 

 the least frequent, was more severe and fatal than the other, for 

 it quickly polluted the whole body as if by contagion, and in 

 two days the animals died. 



'But the second kind, which was less grievous in its results, 

 oppressed us most heavily, so that it might with justice be called 

 the epidemic. The horse at first refuses food and drink, hangs 

 its head low and averted, while the eyes are dull aiid seemingly 

 vacant. The jaws are not closed, but arc observed to be j)ro- 

 truded and more rigid than iisu.il to the very toj) of the wind- 



^ Kanold. Jahreshistorie, pp. 94, 119. 

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