History of Animal Plagues. 233 



the territory of Sax. Then came the very mild winter in 1718-19, 

 and an irregular spring, in which the vegetation was now acceler- 

 ated, now retarded, as the damp increased or diminished; and 

 thereupon came to us all kinds of fevers, small-pox eruptions, 

 dysentery, rebellious coughs, and diseases of a gouty character. 

 In March, affections of the lungs; in April, fevers and small-pox; 

 in Mav, tertiary fevers; in August, eruptive fevers on the skin, 

 as if one had used cupping glasses; and dysentery. The cattle 

 disease in Piindten, Servia, Wallachia, Bulgaria. The following 

 winter was again mild. In January, lung diseases, fluxes, and 

 affections of the limbs ; in February, dangerous small-pox among 

 children; in March, violent fevers, and inflammation of the 

 throat; in April, agues, ophthalmia, and spasmodic diseases. 

 In May and June, when the epidemy in Marseilles broke out, 

 tertiary duplices reigned. In September, all along the Rhine 

 there were extraordinary, and, in some cases, very bad fevers. 

 The whole summer was more than usually wet; so that it was 

 no wonder that people became weak and relaxed. We might 

 add to these causes the influence of several meteors, and may 

 draw special attention to a large fiery ball or comet, which 

 stood about 14 German miles above the earth, and was seen on 

 the 22nd February, 1719, at seven o'clock in the evening, be- 

 tween Corfu and England, by nearly the whole of Europe. This 

 possibly diffused sulphureous and poisonous gases into our at- 

 mosphere. We could ourselves detect the presence of a noisome 

 exhalation of this kind, of various luminosities, and other phe- 

 nomena seen in our own country at that time. We must 

 assuredly not forget to mention that swarm of locusts which 

 devastated Provence and Languedoc in 1719.^ ^ 



An epidemy in Peru. It commenced in 1719, at Buenos 

 Ayres, and extended to Central Peru. It appears to have been 

 a very deadly form of typhus, and was said to be highly contagi- 

 ous ; the lower animals were affected. ' It was observed that the 

 greater number of the llamas and donkeys employed in carrymg 

 the dead bodies to their graves were affected with the emission ol 

 blood from their mouths.' This disease, whidi was designated 



' /. /. Scheuchzer. Beschrcibung dcr rrovcncalischcn von A (Astruc). 



Zurich, 1721. 



