^^S History of Aniinal Plagues. 



We have already traced the disease on the Continent of 

 Europe. In 1740^ Hungary and Bohemia were suffering from 

 it, and the whole of Germany participated in the invasion; 

 through the south it passed into Switzerland, Piedmont, Tranche 

 Comte, and Dauphine ; northwards, it spread from Poland to 

 Courland, Livonia, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and England. 

 In 1742 it was imported into Lorraine and the Vosges, and, ac- 

 cording to Courtivron, it followed the army in 1743 from Bavaria 

 into Alsatia. The same year it again entered the Dauphine and 

 Franche-Comte from Switzerland, and continued to commit 

 great havoc among the herds in France during the years I745> 

 1746, and 1747. The Plague entered Italy both through Pied- 

 mont and through Venice. It passed into Piedmont during the 

 war of 1744, and led to terrible losses in Upper Italy. Speaking 

 of the misfortunes of war in 1745, Muratori says: ^ And they 

 were not all the misadventures of Piedmont. In the preceding 

 year the Cattle Plague had penetrated in these parts, and it was 

 calculated that about 40,000 oxen and cows had died. A potent 

 means of spreading any pestilence is war, which breaks through 

 every precaution or measure suggested by human prudence. It 

 was owing to this that the malady extended its deadly influence 

 in the preceding year, through Monferrato and other parts of the 

 Sardinian kingdom, and thence passed to the districts of Milan 

 and Lodi, reaching Piacentino, beyond the river Po, winding its 

 course along the rivers in the Bresciano, and spreading alarm 

 through Lombardy. The destruction was beyond description ; 

 and what may be the consequences of so serious a catastrophe, I 

 need not teach those countries which have been desolated, and 

 which have been at the same time oppressed by the weight of 

 war. It has been estimated that 18,000 head of cattle perished 

 in the States of Milan.-" ^ 



immediately to obtain an order from Government to prevent any cattle from being 

 removed, which were found within five miles of the place supposed to be infected, 

 for a few days, till the certainty of the existence of the pestilence could be ascer- 

 tained by a committee of medical people. As soon as this was ascertained, all the 

 cattle within five miles of the place should be immediately slaughtered, and con- 

 sumed within the circumscribed district, and their hides put into lime-water before 

 proper inspectors.'— -Z^'cwcw/V?, vol. ii. p. 249. 

 1 Muratori. Op. cit., vol. xii. p. 345. 



