2,62 History of Animal Plagites. 



al fever was still prevalent in mankind. ^ Many horses had it 

 at the same time, and died.'^ In February, ' An anginous cough 

 still among; horses/^ 



Wirth mentions epizootic pleuro-pneumonia in oxen here 

 and there in Switzerland, until 1739. The Cattle Plague devas- 

 tated Piacenza and Lodi.^ Convulsive ergotism appeared in 

 mankind in Silesia and Bohemia (1736), and Antoine Soring, 

 the historian of the epidemy, notices that it had been remarked, 

 and the subject had been demonstrated by experiment, that 

 spurred rye produces disease in fowls and mammiferous animals, 

 and that when we know positively that animals are affected in 

 this way during epidemics of ergotism, we may conclude that the 

 rye is very rich in ergot, and its action very violent. 



A.D. 1738. In this year the Cattle Plague had been carried 

 into Upper Italy.* In England, in January, great floods drowned 

 thousands of cattle. In July a fearful storm, of thunder, light- 

 ning, and hailstones, some of which were solid as ice, and from 

 five to nine inches in circumference. Cattle suffered very much.^ 



When Steller, a pupil of the great Linnaeus, was at Tobolsk, 

 Siberia, in this year, there was an epidemy of pestilential car- 

 buncles among the people; the disease was said to be so con- 

 tagious, that healthy persons who approached the sick were 

 seized with the malady. The plague had first shown itself in 

 horses and oxen, and subseqently attacked the human species. 

 It was reported that the cattle were affected in various ways, — 

 some had suddenly set off running with all possible speed, and 

 continued to do so, till they were quite exhausted and dropped 

 down dead. On other cattle carbuncles appeared, which were 

 dressed with a thin poultice, made of an herb mixed with yeast, 

 whilst a large quantity of this herb was mixed with their food; 

 by these means great numbers were cured. The herb is stated 

 to have been the Centaurea, and is described bv this botanist as 

 follows: squamis ovatis, foliis pinnatis, foliolis decurrentibus 

 linearibus, serratis et integris.** The wounds were sprinkled with 



1 T. Short. Op. cit., p, 112. 2 y^^^_ Lq^. cit. 



2 Muraiori. Annali, vol. xii. p. 238. 



* Boitaiii. Op. cit., p. 180. Bianchi. Relazione dell'Epidemia de' Buoi. 

 Arimino, 1738. * T. Short. Op. cit., pp. 242, 243. 



^ Flor. Siberic, vol. ii. p. 89, Fab. 41. This is the same plant as that figured 



