362 History of Animal Plagues. 



spots. Clerc has observed inflammation of the uterus, and re- 

 marked that even the foetus contained in it had not only the in- 

 testines diseased, but that the thorax and abdomen were filled 

 with a bloody-coloured humour of a bad smell. 



With regard to treatment, it is here, says the author, 

 that art is rigorously limited, and is obliged to confess that it 

 possesses no certain remedy for the contagious poisons. Their 

 elements are so subtle that they have escaped analysis. It is 

 this which opposes our discovering a preservative or an efficient 

 specific. But treatment might nevertheless be tried on reason- 

 able principles. Plentiful bleedings should be resorted to before 

 the third day, after which they were useless, if not mortal. 

 Purgatives were of little service, in general doing more harm 

 than good. The diet should be barley-meal boiled in skimmed 

 milk. No hay was to be given. As the animals recovered the 

 p;ruel was to be increased in allowance. The diseased were to 

 be currycombed twice a day. The stables were also to be 

 cleaned out twice a day, and perfumed every six hours with 

 vinegar thrown on hot bricks. Gunpowder was also to be burnt 

 in them. Setons he much lauded, especially when put in the 

 dewlap. The simplest means of treatment were the best, and 

 far to be preferred before the irritating, acrid, hot, and incendi- 

 ary remedies so much in use. Animals are composed of the 

 same elements as men, therefore do the same curative principles 

 apply to them. 



In the precautions taken to prevent contagion, it is expressly 

 laid down that all communication be immediately cut off be- 

 tween the infected and the healthy. Setons should be em- 

 ployed in the healthy animals, and they should be currycombed 

 every day. Horses should be kept in the cow-houses, as the 

 soil of these animals prevents the contagion reaching cattle. 

 The dew is regarded as a mass of vapour, which, raised from the 

 earth, is condensed by the cold at night and descends again. 

 The plants which then become charged with it may transmit 

 deadly principles. Animals must not, therefore, be sent to the 

 pasture when there is dew, but only after it has been dissipated. 

 Above all things, it is necessary to kill the first beasts attacked 

 with the plague; then to take them to a place altogether 



