History of Animal Plagues. 267 



floating in great shoals, and were taken up in great quantities as 

 they were carried to the sea/ ^ 



The Cattle Plague was imported into Lorraine and the 

 Vosores." 



A.D. 1743. A cold and wet year. Meteors, earthquakes, and 

 a comet. For three months before epidemic influenza began in 

 man, the atmosphere was dense and humid, and on the 23rd of 

 January there was a stinking fog. In this month Huxham 

 noticed that S^ery many stags died on all sides;' in February 

 there was ' loathsome mange in horses, which has already lasted 

 a long time;' in March, 'mange greatly disfigures horses, and 

 some which are affected perish from emaciation, others perish from 

 suffocation arising from cough and sore-throat.' ^ 



The whole of the sheep in the territory of Aries, France, died 

 from rot [pourriturc)} 



The Cattle Pla^^ue accompanied the army from Bavaria into 

 Alsace, on the one side; on the other, it penetrated to France 

 through Switzerland, entering Franche-Comte and Dauphine. 



Bovine contagious pleuro-pneumonia was prevalent in Suabia 

 and Switzerland, according to Wirth.^ 



Dr Grant asserts that the French term la grippe, as applied 

 to the influenza then reigning as an epidemy, was derived from 

 an insect of that name, which was remarkably common in France 

 during the previous spring, and which the people imagined con- 

 taminated the air.® 



A.D. 1744. For Ireland, it is noted: 'The autumn of this year 

 was uncommonly wet and cold, and much grain was spoiled in 

 the fields all over the North of Ireland from which this year was 

 called " The Rot Ycar.'^ Provisions were scarce and bad the fol- 

 lowing spring, and a considerable mortality arose among the 

 cattle from the bad quality of their food.' ^ 



The Cattle Plague once more entered Italy, and again from 

 two difl^crent directions. War introduced it into Piedmont, 



* Dublin Gazette. 



^ Bayard. Diction. Veteriiiairc de Buchoz, article Epizootic. 



^ Huxham. Op. cit. 



* Iltirtrel d'' Arhoval. Diction, dc Med. Vetciinaire, vol. i. p. 249. 



* IVirth. Seuchcnlchre. Zurich, 1846. 



« An Essay on Influenza. London, 1782. '' M'Ukimmius. Carrickfcrgus. 



