2,38 History of Anbnal Plagtces. 



Plague, which had never been quite extinguished on the Polish 

 frontiers, made great havoc, in 1734, in Thuringia, Saxony, and 

 Magdeburg. At Karaschtz, in Silesia, there was an extraor- 

 dinary disease amongst mice. 'In the month of" April appeared 

 an epizooty among mice, which caused them to issue from their 

 holes and recesses in great numbers, and to seek the society of 

 mankind. They came forth staggering, and soon swelled up and 

 died ; so that they were found lying in heaps on the granary floors 

 and in chambers, and as neither cats nor pigs would eat them, they 

 were obliged to be buried.-' ^ 



A.D. 1725. Exceedingly wet and damp, and the following 

 winter cold and long. 'Was a year of blight, the like of which 

 has never before been heard of in Eng-land.^ ^ Malignant fevers 

 prevailed in mankind all over Europe and America. Inocula- 

 tion was practised on criminals as an experiment. Moles were 

 observed to be curiously frequent in man.^ The rabies of dogs 

 still continued in Silesia, and it was also discovered to affect 

 wolves. An observer of this fact says, ' The principal reason for 

 this appears to be in the atmosphere and the weather, as well 

 as in the constitution of the animal. Such madness seems to 

 be quite common in some other places.' * 



An exceedingly violent form of ' grease ' in horses [impetigo 

 erysipelatodes) broke out at Ratisbon, and involved the structures 

 of the feet, as well as the skin, in putridity. ' This disease, w^ithin 

 two months, attacked more than four hundred horses. The first 

 symptoms were tubercles in the pasterns, which in a few days 

 suppurated, and after a time large pieces sloughed out; so that 

 the poor horses were much harassed, and many could not lie 

 down for fourteen days. It was pitiable to see them try to walk 

 from one side of the stable to the other : they stood full of fever 

 and pain, ate little, fell off in flesh; the hind feet were generally 

 swollen, seemed corroded, and stank abominably. From the 

 fore feet whole pieces usually fell out, and the wounds remaining 

 healed but slowly/ ^ 



A.D. 1726. An exceedingly dry and hot year. Honey-dew and 



1 Breslauer Samml., vol. xxviii. p. 398. ^ FulTs Husbandry. 



^ Breslauer Samml., vol. xxxiii. p. 90. * Ibid. vol. xxxiv. p. 635. 



^ Ibid. vol. xxxi. p. 261. 



