248 History of Animal Plagues. 



and whitethorn hedges seemed as if they had been scorched by 

 some burning wind. The fruit trees were also destroyed by 

 them, and all the fruit devoured. To such an extent did they 

 ravage everything, that parliament issued an edict compelling 

 people to destroy them ; but this measure would have been in- 

 effectual, had not some cold rains so cleared them away that 

 scarcely one could be seen.^ 



In February and March ' strangles ' {morhus anginosus) was 

 very frequent amongst horses in England, and killed a good 

 number.^ 



One of the most remarkable epizootics of glossanthrax [chan- 

 cre volant, Jliegender Zungenkrehs) on record occurred in these 

 years. It reigned in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, 

 and was believed to be caused by the immense quantities of cater- 

 pillars which were observed everywhere. Scheuchzer^ puts this 

 opinion on record, and very ably describes the disease. ^This 

 consideration leads us to the caterpillars, which, it was observed, 

 in the past year, had in immense numbers spread themselves in 

 the woods and over the trees, to the great injury of the same : 

 their nests remained upon the trees and hedges throughout the 

 whole winter. It was here and there thought that the blight 

 which fell in 1730-31, and the subsequent continual swarms of 

 insects, had most to do with the production of this disease. In 

 the Canton of Berne, they also attributed the origin of the 

 malady to caterpillars, and a circumstance arose which seemed 

 to support this opinion. A man happened to dry his shirt, 

 which was damp with perspiration, over a fire in which wood 

 covered with caterpillars' nests was burning. Afterwards he put 

 this garment on, but soon became swollen and died. Asa further 

 experiment, a dog was wrapped in a similar cloth, and this crea- 

 ture also died. But it appears probable to us that the disease 

 had made its appearance in the autumn of the previous year, 

 and the following remarkable circumstance is worthy the notice 

 of those who take the field against the caterpillars. In 1731, in 

 the neighbourhood of Riiti, in Lower Andelfingen, in the cow 



^ Reaumur. Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 122. 



^ Huxham. Obsci"vations on the Air and Epidemical Diseases. London, 1758. 



2 Schcuchzer. Fliegender Zungenkrebs, eine Vieliseuche, &c. Ziirich, 1732. 



