History of Animal Plagties. 307 



lential sort ; no othcrways similar to the Plague, but, like unto 

 the small-pox, it is communicated by contact, by the air convey- 

 ing the effluvia, which also lodge in many substances, and are 

 thereby carried to very distant places. Unlike other pestilential, 

 putrid, or malignant fevers, it bears all the characteristic symp- 

 toms, progress, crisis, and event of the small-pox; and, whether 

 received by contagion or inoculation, has the same appearances, 

 stages, and determination, except more favourably by inoculation, 

 and with this distinctive and decisive property, that a beast 

 having had the sickness, naturally or artificially, never had it a 

 second time. Thus, sir, I have endeavoured to lay before you 

 and the Royal Society the result of my inquiries, experiments, 

 observations, and correspondence concerning this calamitous 

 sickness, which from my situation in Huntingdonshire in 1756, it 

 fell to my lot to investio;ate.^ ^ 



Mr Robert Dossie,^ an eminent agriculturist and writer, in 

 his Memoirs of Agriculture gives an excellent summary of the 

 opinions held regarding the Cattle Plague at that time, and as 

 it is in many respects a valuable document, it is here repro- 

 duced almost in its entirety. 



'The first clear traces we have of the later introduction of the 

 murrain into Europe commence in the year 1710 or 1711, at which 

 time there are authentic accounts that it was observed in Hungary. 

 Whether it was brought thither from other countries, most probably 

 further to the south-east, or if not, how it was originally generated 

 there, we have no lights that lead to any certain knowledge. But 

 it was conveyed thence into Dalmatia, and propagated through that 

 country to the neighbourhood of Padua, whence it spread over the 

 whole of the Venetian state. It was soon afterwards disseminated 

 through the whole of Italy, and passed, in 17 13, through the Tyrolese 

 into Germany ; whence it communicated itself to almost every other 

 part of Europe, as far north as Denmark and Sweden, introducing itself 

 also about that time into Great Britain. After this, in consequence of 

 more favourable seasons, the contagion abated by degrees in all the 

 places where it had prevailed, and in about nine years the infection 

 seemed to be exterminated in most of them. There is reason to 

 believe, notwithstanding, that some lurking remains kept their ground 



1 Philosophical Transactions, 1780. y. Gamgee. Op. cit 

 ^ Memoirs of Agriculture. London, 1771. Vol. ii. 



