Hist 07'}' of Animal Plagues. 259 



respiratory organs {angina ulciisculosa) nearly exterminated all 

 youno- children. The weather was cold and wet. An epizooty 

 was prevalent at the same time.^ 



A most unhealthy year in England. In July, ' this season 

 more like winter than summer; all garden fruits sour and un- 

 ripe. Scarce a grasshopper to be heard or butterfly to be seen ; 

 many little singing birds die in casting their feathers.' August, 

 ' Never was a wetter season at the time of year: many sino-ino- 

 birds die ; very little honey. Leaves fall off the trees as if autumn 

 was past. Many mad dogs run up and down.^ October, 

 ' Many were bit by mad dogs.' November, ' Several mad dogs 

 run about.' ^ 



The weather for a long time, indeed, appears to have been 

 most severe and trying for ruminants at pasture. For instance. 

 Short writes in 1734: 'June 12. Began the long wet season, and 

 continued mostly so to Feb. 2, 1736, viz. a year and eight 

 months, after two years and nine months' drought.'^ 



An agricultural work, referring to ' the great losses that 

 several farmers sustained by the most noted sheep rot of 1735' 

 in England, remarks: 'This rot of sheep and lambs was the 

 most general one, I believe, that has happened in the memory of 

 man, because it rotted those deer, sheep, lambs, hares and conies, 

 that fed on lands where rain-waters were retained on or near 

 the surface of the earth for some time ; and as I have elsewhere 

 observed, the dead bodies of rotten sheep were so numerous in 

 roads, lanes, and fields, that their carrion stench and smell proved 

 extremely offensive to the neighbouring parts, and to passant 

 travellers.'* 



The affection appears to have been particularly severe in the 

 Vale of Aylesbury, where one farmer lost 300 sheep within the 

 year, and another sold 100 sheep in Leighton Buzzard market 

 for sixpence each, rather than take them home again. 



Rutty, who mentions hares beino; affected with ' rot' in 

 1734, in Ireland, observes of this year: 'It may, j^crhaps, be 

 worth observing, that notwithstanding the excessive moisture 



' Hecker. Op. cit., p. 24S. ^ Huxham. Op. cit. 



^ Short. Op. cit., vol. ii. \^. 225. 



* The Shepherd's Sure Guide. London, 1749. 



