History of Animal Plagues. 249 



pastures, everything groaned under the visitation of these insects, 

 which fell from the trees and covered the country around; but 

 not a single one of these cattle were attacked by the plague . . . 

 ' Further, there is a circumstance which not unusually accom- 

 panies this disease, and which makes it more difficult to under- 

 stand. All the intelligence we can gather, tells us that the con- 

 tagion travels from place to place. From day to day it traverses 

 a distance of from three, four, or more hours (the German hour 

 or stiind is reckoned about two miles), and reveals its presence by 

 a peculiar murmuring sound, or a thick stinking mist. This 

 curious circumstance is verified by tidings from several places, 

 which would lead to the belief that the attack was made after a 

 warning or signal of such a nature. I was assured by people, 

 who were certainly terror-stricken and may have exaggerated, 

 that a strong north-west wind blew over the whole country 

 on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, loth, nth, 13th, and 14th of March, and 

 that on the latter day the disease attacked the cattle at Meris- 

 hausen and Neuhausen, in the Canton of Scaffhauscn; also that 

 the disturbance in the air was perceived at Niederweningen, in the 

 village of Wiirenlungen, in Baden.' A long account is given of 

 the various places where the peculiar noises in the atmosphere 

 were heard, sometimes as a loud noise, at others as if caused by 

 a flight of birds or bees; as soon as this sound was remarked the 

 disease broke out. A dark cloud was noticed in some places, 

 but a great amount of fable and superstition is mixed up with 

 the whole description. The symptoms were well marked. 

 Scheuchzer has the following : ' Where only a few small red, 

 white, yellowish, or black-coloured vesicles are observed on the 

 tongue, the animal should not lie immediately slaughtered, but 

 should have the organ washed with detergent lotions. At a later 

 stage of the malady, white, yellow-white, reddish-yellow, and 

 yellowish-black vesicles of the size of peas or beans, and which 

 have the appearance of pustules growing deep in the tongue and 

 projecting from it, are apparent; these contain, beneath a dense 

 skin or envelope, a thick, viscous poisonous matter, which dis- 

 tends them. Occasionally, there were large yellow bladders filled 

 with fluid material, and which, when allowed to remain, ate deeper 

 into the tongue; but when these cysts were opened, the yellow 



