2,0 8 History of Anwial Plagues. 



nance was issued to kill all the pigeons and other birds which 

 might diffuse the contagion. The same disease was common in 

 Italy. ^ The Faculty of Genev^a, to whose invaluable Reflections we 

 owe so much, come to our aid in describing this disease as it 

 showed itself at Vernier, a short distance from Paris. ' In this 

 malady there appeared a great number of pustules over the whole 

 of the body, which, after being formed a certain number of days, 

 dried up, and left, when the scabs had fallen off, spots and cicatrices 

 on the skin, very similar to those produced on man after the small- 

 pox. One of the members of our Society had the good fortune 

 to have two of these sheep sent to him, and, on examining them, 

 he reported that the pustules on one of the animals had entirely dis- 

 appeared, and that there only remained those marks and cicatrices. 

 This sheep appeared lively and thriving. The other had yet the 

 scabs and scurf of the pustules adherent to the skin, but well 

 separated from each other, as in the distinct {discreta) small-pox 

 of man, and unequal in size. They appeared very marked about 

 the muzzle and under the belly, and they could be perceived bv 

 the touch on the rest of the body through the fleece. The 

 shepherd who brought them said, that, at the commencement of 

 the disease, the sheep were sick and very much prostrated; that 

 their eyes were bleared and tearful ; and that after some days 

 the pustules began to appear, and kept increasing for eight 

 or nine days, about which time they began to dry up. He 

 added, that they had only lost four or five out of a flock of one 

 hundred and twenty sheep. We have also been informed that 

 this malady is very common, and is well-known to the French 

 peasants under the name of claviliere. It has not been serious 

 this year, but there are times when it is very malignant.^ ^ 

 I Heusinger imagines that in this description we have the first 

 ■ most complete account of the malady; but my readers will find 

 I that Dr Fuller had distinctly made out the analogy between the 

 1 variola of man and the sheep in 1710 — 11, though his work was 

 not published until 1730. 



In March of this year, canine ' distemper^ raged in all the 

 southern provinces of France as an epizooty, complicated with 



1 Kanold. Op. cit., p. 177. - "^ Reflexions, &c., p. 130. 



