History of Animal Plagitcs. 281 



Dr Lobhj the gentleman to whom Dr Mortimer refers, and 

 who appears to have been an early observer, writes : ' The con- 

 tagious distemper, which has for some time been among the 

 larger cattle in foreign countries, and which, as 1 have been in- 

 formed, appears now among that sort of cattle in Essex, in Scot- 

 land, and in Ireland, is a subject not unworthy the consideration 

 of physicians. . . . The owner of cattle in a contagious season 

 should have a faithful servant continually in the day-time with 

 his herd (as the farmers in Wiltshire, and other countries, have 

 shepherds with their flocks of sheep) to watch, and observe when 

 any of them begm to grow sick, which the herdsman may dis- 

 cover by the beast's falling off from its usual feeding, and a dull- 

 ness of its eyes. As soon as the least symptom of illness appears 

 in any beast, separate it from the herd, and convey it into some 

 place of confinement, either into a booth of boards erected for 

 this service or into some inclosure. The observance of these 

 rules is of great importance, because little or no infection is 

 emitted from the body of the beast immediately in the beginning 

 of his sickness ; but, as the distemper proceeds, more parts of the 

 blood are transmuted into the quality of those which produced 

 it, and more infectious particles will be emitted from the body of 

 the sick beast, and the danger of other cattle near the sick will 

 daily very much increase. . . . Let the booth be erected, if it can 

 be, at least a quarter of a mile from the cattle, and from houses 

 inhabited. This I propose as a means of safety to men and to 

 beasts. . . , Let the persons employed about the sick beasts keep 

 as much as possible to the windward side of them, and carefully 

 avoid taking their breath ; and while drenching, or otherwise 

 handling the beast, keep their hands wetted with a mixture of 

 salt and vinegar, and let each of them wear a linen garment, 

 after it has been wetted with vinegar, and dried, over all their 

 clothes (like that which is used by some country carters for 

 keeping off the dashings of dirt) to be buttoned close under their 



tion. Like some pliysicians of our own day, he believed in its spontaneous origin : 

 'the distemper has sprung up spontaneously, about the same period of lime, in 

 many places which are very distant from and have no communication witli each 

 other.' One cannot be surprised at tlie disease ravaging tlic country for so many 

 years, when such opinions were allowed to prevail at its commencement. 



