37^ History of Animal Plagues. 



rumen was filled with a great quantity of stinking, yellowish, 

 and very dry food ; and the second, but above all the third, com- 

 partment contained the driest matter, which was of a dark 

 colour and like a cake. The lining membrane was livid, but this 

 lividity was not accompanied by any softening which could be 

 construed as marking gangrene. The fourth compartment, with 

 its velvety lining membrane, was of a rose colour and slightly in- 

 flamed; and from thence to the rectum the contents were liquid 

 and tinted from green to black. Livid stains were observed in 

 the rectum. The gall-bladder was two or three times larger 

 than in health. Nothing was observed in the spinal cord. The 

 lungs were the organs most affected ; for besides some redness of 

 the lobes, their texture was sometimes so distended that they oc- 

 cupied after death the whole capacity of the chest. Air had 

 filled up the interlobular space to such an extent that the veins 

 were as large as the little finger. Microscopic examination of 

 the blood did not show any insects. Nothing unhealthy was 

 noticed in the brain. 



This mortality amongst cattle, he says, had ravaged Europe 

 for thirty-four years before it had got so far as Vivarais. Sau- 

 vages was one of those deputed to examine into the nature of 

 the disease, and to propose means for its cure or prevention. It 

 had depopulated in Aunonay more than forty-three parishes. 

 One in particular had lost a hundred and thirty-four cattle in 

 fifteen days. It was communicated from one cow to another, 

 A butcher of Villeneuve de Berg had brought to Beage in Upper 

 Vivarais some infected cattle, and these left the infection in the 

 stables in which thev had halted when on the road. Some of 

 them died, but he slaughtered the remainder, and sold them as 

 food to the inhabitants of Villeneuve. The dogs and pigs 

 which had eaten portions of the carcases and the excrements 

 were not affected, neither were the people who had eaten the 

 flesh. 



Sauvages solemnly assures us that it is useless to seek in 

 vitiated pastures, in the air, or in stagnant water, for the 

 causes of this epizooty, when we see it spread step by step, but 

 only amongst those animals which had communication with the 

 diseased. Different seasons, or a diversity of climates, do not 



