History of Animal Plagues. 197 



Kaskow, Hungary, an epizooty raged among cats durinsi; the 

 spring, and so deadly was it, that in many villages not one ot" 

 these creatures remained alive, and the peasantry complained 

 very much of the mischief done by the increasing swarms of mice, 

 in consequence of their destroyers dying.^ 



Sheep, of all other kinds of animals, perhaps perished in 

 largest numbers. In some places where this happened, the disease, 

 from some accounts, was rot, and from others it was supposed 

 to be small-pox. In the upper part of the kingdom of Naples the 

 malady was so severe, that in a short time 50,000 sheep and pigs 

 perished — showing, too, that the porcine tribe was affected. The 

 disastrous epizooty also visited the sheep and goats in Poland, 

 Prussia, Silesia (where on six farms alone there succumbed 1470 

 animals), and appeared in Saxony, Franconia, Bavaria, Suabia, 

 Austria, Hungary, France, and Holland. Kanold describes it 

 as follows : — ' The sheep began to tremble, and became so weak 

 that they immediately lay down, and seldom got up again. Yet 

 usually they continued to eat, sometimes with avidity, but still 

 they did not recover their strength. They convulsivelv jerked the 

 head and neck upwards, which was generallya very dangerous sign. 

 The ewes in lamb aborted, and those which reached the full time 

 of gestation had flaccid udders and were deficient in milk, and - 

 the lambs were very weak. The wool, which previously was of a 

 fine white, became of a blackish colour, as if it had been strewed 

 over with black dust. The symptoms generally continued until 

 the fourth day, and sometimes even to the eighth day, when they 

 died. On examining the bodies after death, much external 

 dropsy was observed, and this often occurred in the internal 

 cavities; the abdominal viscera were frequently found inflamed, 

 the gall-bladder was in some large, in others small ; the lungs 

 and liver were, generally speaking, diseased, and in the majority 

 of cases gangrenous; the heart was flaccid and wasted, I have 

 been positively assured that the disease was so contagious, that 

 the shepherds have carried the infection in their clothes from the 

 unhealthy to the healthy.' ^ 



He adds, that though contagious, it was not nearly so much 



^ Loigk. Histor. Pestis, v. 437. ^ Kauold. Op. cit., 175. 



