History of Animal Plagues. 367 



ExAXTHEMATOUS {pourpreuse) fever, in fact, a true pest, mani- 

 fested by gangrene, lividity of the viscera, and a dreadful 

 stupor. He believed it to have taken its rise in Bohemia, while 

 that country was the seat of war. From thence it passed to 

 Hungary, Bavaria, the Tyrol, Alsace, and Upper Burgundy. 

 Flanders did not escape, and it is truly fearful, he says, to 

 think of the immense numbers of cattle these different countries 

 have lost. 



The symptoms were heaving at the flanks and hurried breath- 

 insj. On makino; pressure over the loins, a crackling was heard, 

 as if of dry parchment. They died at various periods — three, four, 

 five, or eight days. Some were seen to die in four hours which 

 had no external symptom of the disease, and yet when opened 

 they exhibited all the pathological evidences of its presence — 

 such as gangrene of the true stomach and the viscera covered 

 with purple spots. The signs which preceded death, and which 

 this writer had ample opportunity for observing, were as follows: 

 the fever had been latent for a number of days before it 

 showed itself, this period varying according to the disposition 

 of the animal ; indeed, it was observed that in some cows which 

 the country people thought quite healthy, and which gave their 

 usual quantity of milk, an attentive examination could discover 

 considerable fever, with the heart's action doubled in movement 

 and intensity, and often a slight cough. The symptoms de- 

 veloped all at once were : tremblings recurring two or three 

 times during the day, the eyes red and tearful, the horns and the 

 ears cold, the head hanging low, a thick and glutinous mucus 

 flowing from the mouth and nostrils; rigors over the whole 

 body, or confined to the thighs; the secretion of milk diminish- 

 ing; frequent cough, heaving deep sighs, and a melancholy and 

 languid appearance, accompanied by great insensibility. In the 

 excrements, which were fluid, were seen, even during the first 

 days of illness, streaks of blood. There was considerable diar- 

 rhoea, and sometimes the ejection of these matters was accom- 

 panied by colic. Sometimes there was remarked a convulsive 

 twitchino; extendinjr from the head to the termination of the 

 spine. The paroxysms of fever resembled those of intermittent 

 fever in man. While the exterior of the body was cold, the breath 



