354 



History of Animal Plagues. 



Holland, which I shall incorporate, and these provinces taken to- 

 gether are nearly eqnal to one-half of the whole United Provinces. 

 In order to give this account in the most clear manner consistent 

 with brevity, I will enumerate all the particulars of the state of 

 the cattle for the nine months preceding the ist of July last, be- 

 cause they are completely exhibited in the registers during that term. 

 To this I will annex the total numbers of those that died and recovered 

 in one year, commencing the ist of April, 1769, and also the number 

 which died and recovered in each of the three svicceeding months, as 

 this latter detail leads to some as well curious as useful conclusions : — 



' Persons keeping cattle in South Holland and North Holland 

 during the term of nine months, commencing the ist 



of October, 1769 



Cattle in the possession of those persons during that term 



„ infected with the murrain , . 



„ died of the murrain 



„ recovered after taking the infection^ 



„ escaped the infection 



„ died of other diseases and casualties 



,, remained ill of the murrain at the end of the term 



17.379 

 224,999 



141.273 



98.995 

 39.613 



77.850 

 6,488 



Cattle infected in the term of a year commencing the ist of 



April, 1769 . . . . . . . . . . . . 210,819 



„ died of the disease during that term . . . . . . 159,128 



„ recovered in that term . . . . . . . . . . 61,691 



„ infected in the summer season of that term, com- 

 mencing the 1st of April and terminating the 30th of 



September, 1769 . . . . . . . . . . . . 86,423 



,, died in the summer season . . . . . . . . 63,281 



„ recovered in the summer season . . . . . . 32,142 



^ It may be inferred from this account, that considerably more than half of all 

 the cattle in the United Provinces took the infection of the murrain in nine months, 

 and that almost two-thirds of those which were infected died. The number, both 

 of those which caught the disease and of those which were carried off by it, is pro- 

 portionably far greater than was found here, while the disease raged most, and 

 even than has been usually known in Holland, at least one-half of the infected 

 having generally recovered. This evinces the present excess of power in the pre- 

 disponent cause, or disposition of the cattle to be affected, and verifies by glaring 

 facts what I ventured to assert relating to it, from theoretic reasons, in the fore- 

 going part of this dissertation, which was printed some months ago, before I had 

 any particular information respecting these facts, and, indeed, before the report 

 of them could be made and registered. 



