History of Animal Plagues. 237 



night, are seized with the disease, and whole warrens were thus 

 destroyed. These diseased rabbits, he says, were often the cause 

 of the infection being carried to other flocks, by their frequent- 

 ing the pastures of the healthy sheep after they had been on 

 those of the tainted. The shepherds of Languedoc, but espe- 

 cially those of Cevennes, were so well aware of this, that they 

 took every precaution against the entrance of these creatures to 

 their grazing grounds. Ferrets and firearms were employed to 

 destroy them, and the herbage on which these creatures or dis- 

 eased sheep had been grazing, was burnt; the pens were purified, 

 and the healthy flocks were sent to pasture elsewhere. M. Astruc 

 adds to the symptoms already known, those of debility, drowsi- 

 ness, and sometimes vertigo, diarrhoea, and dysentery ; smallness 

 of the pulse, and subsequent eruption of pustules of different 

 forms. These observations were made in Languedoc, where the 

 disease is not unfrequent, notwithstanding the natural salubrity 

 of this province of France, and the favourable qualities of the 

 w^ater and herbage. It was a constant and familiar observation, 

 though no cause could be assigned for the outbreak of the dis- 

 ease, and which was patent to all who had charge of sheep, that 

 when an infected flock had been in a pasture, those flocks which 

 succeeded them became affected. This was more particularly 

 noticed at Cevennes. In the mountainous part of this Canton 

 there were some excellent pastures, where all the flocks of the 

 neighbourhood met. In travelling to this locality, the shepherds 

 were particularly attentive to everything that transpired, and if 

 they became aware that an infected flock had passed before them^ 

 they immediately stopped and remained where they were until 

 the next day. Their object in doing this was founded on the 

 belief, that it was necessary to allow one night to elapse, in order 

 that the cold, combined with the dew that fell, might destroy the 

 pestilential particles which were capable of comnuniicating the 

 malady. Such was the general opinion in this part of the coun- 

 try at this time.^ 



Sheep died in immense numbers from 1723 to 1724, from the 

 disease termed ' rot,' in Silesia, Poland, and Prussia. The Cattle 



' Af. Aslrtic. Dissertation sur la Contagion de la rcstc, chap. vi. Tou- 

 louse, 1724. 



