2 22 History of Animal Plagues. 



neglected may affect human bodies_, it is ordered by his Majesty 

 in Council, that the matter thereof be, and it is hereby, referred 

 to a committee of the whole Council to consider the same, and to 

 report to his Majesty what their lordships conceive fit to be done 

 therein/ 



And at the same Court, on the 6th December, 17 14, there is 

 an ordinance enjoining ' Justices of the Peace to keep account 

 of the cattle that shall die of the infection/ 



I cannot discover whither the patriot and man of sound sense, 

 Dr Bates, who certainly deserved well of his country in this great 

 emergency, had received any intimation of Lancisi^s valuable 

 recommendations when the Roman States were suffering from 

 this fearful visitation, as he nowhere mentions the Italian's name. 

 If he had not acted on the Roman physician's prescription, he 

 certainly deserves all the more credit for profound acumen in 

 discovering at once the wonderfully contagious nature of the 

 malady — the undoubted agency in its diffusion, and the hopeless- 

 ness of all remedies save the one, as well as a promptness of de- 

 cision which saved Britain from a great peril. And no less credit 

 is due to the 'four gentlemen ' who, instead of denouncing him 

 as ' ignorant and barbarous,' successfully opposing his measures, 

 patronizing every cow-leech, urging ' several physicians' to at- 

 tempt ' the cure ' or wasting precious time with ' one or other 

 who gave them hopes of a cure,' personally carried out his sug- 

 gestions, nor allowed the visionary success of the Hollanders to 

 interfere with the only feasible way of promptly quelling a dire 

 contagion. The conduct of Britain was held up to universal 

 admiration, as the first nation which had shown sufficient energy 

 and resolution to cope with the pestilence then ruining the States 

 of Europe. Professor Fantonius, writing to Lancisi in 17 16 re- 

 garding the Cattle Plague, says: ' In former years, in a province 

 of the British Isles, we heard that a deadly plague had sprung up 

 suddenly among cattle, which destroyed them very quickly, and 

 truly by no other cause than a recent contagion conveyed by 

 suspected oxen. They expelled the disease by no other artifice 

 than the slaughter of infected and suspicious cattle.' The ap- 

 probation of the Professor at the manner in which the disease 

 was got rid of, is conveyed in very strong terms, and he expresses 



