History of Animal Plagues. 2>S7 



manifested by the actual progress the contagion i.s now making in parts 

 where there is no epidemic or local cause in the cattle of the suscepti- 

 bility of the infection. We see, by his Majesty's late proclamation, 

 that it has passed into Flanders, and is now spreading thence to jhe 

 adjacent countries of France, ' where there are no unfavourable circum- 

 stances, as in tlie United Provinces, for the beasts to be more particu- 

 larly subject to tlie disease, unless, in common with those of the neigh- 

 bourins countries, from the accidental influence of bad seasons. This 

 cause subsists alike with us, and we are equally exposed to all the mis- 

 chievous consequences of the contagion if it be introduced into our 

 island J which, without the greatest care in the exercise of due preventive 

 means, is extremely liable to happen from the proximity of the place 

 where the infection now prevails, conspiring with the susceptibility ot 

 it that attends the cattle at this period. It therefore highly behoves 

 every individual to exert his utmost endeavours, according to his situ- 

 ation, to avert this impending danger of one of the most heavy calami- 

 ties that can befall any European country, and more especially our own, 

 where the luxurious habits of the common people, the difficulty of ob- 

 taining a supply of cattle from other places, and the high prices of the 

 necessaries of life, would render the 3tfects of a scarcity of horned 

 beasts, and consequently all other provisions, peculiarly grievous and 

 intolerable.' '^ 



' This rapid progress of the contagion, and extending of its effects into places 

 where it spontaneously extinguished a considerable number of years ago, and has 

 never before revived since, is, together with the great epidemic prevalence of the 

 disease in Holland, displayed in the above-given account, a strong confirmation of 

 the truth of the principles, whence I formed a judgment a priori of the present 

 susceptibility of the infection in the cattle throughout all these parts of Europe. As 

 my prediction relating to the consequences of it, given in the foregoing part of this 

 dissertation, is verified by these facts, which have happened since the printing it, the 

 certainty of those principles ought to excite the greatest apprehension of our danger 

 from them, and the most powerful motives for our veiy earnest attention and care 

 to guard against this menacing evil. 



^ R. Dossie. ' Observations on the IMurrain or Pestilential Disease of Neat 

 Cattle.' Memoirs of Agriculture, vol. ii. 1771. Dr Darwin, writing in 1796, thus 

 speaks of the Cattle Plague : ' The pestis vaccina, or disease amongst the cows, 

 which afflicted this island about half a century ago, seems to have been a contagi- 

 ous fever with great arterial debility ; as in some of them, in the latter stage of the 

 disease, an emphysema could often be felt in some parts, which evinced a consider- 

 able progress of gangrene beneath the skin. In the sensitive inirritated fevers of 

 these animals, I suppose about sixty grains of opium, with two ounces of extract of 

 oak-bark, every six hours, would sujijjly them with an efficacious medicine; to which 

 miglit lie added thirty grains of vitriol of iron, if any teinlcncy to bloody urine 

 should appear, to which this animal is liable. Tiic method of preventing liie in- 

 fection from spreading, if it should ever again gain access to this island, would be 



