History of Animal PlagiLes. 373 



appear to exercise much, if any, influence on it. The poison 

 weakens the movement of the blood, as in scurvy and the plague. 

 The disease itself has a great resemblance to the dysentery pre- 

 valent in camps, and which the soldiers acquire from the exhala- 

 tions of latrines. In like manner cattle contract the disease by 

 inhaling the stench from the excrements, healthy animals having 

 a great tendency to smell these. The two affections present 

 somewhat similar symptoms. 



It followed from the observations of Sauvaaes, as had been 

 already noticed by Lancisi, Ramazzini, and others, that eigh- 

 teen animals died out of every twenty attacked ; that there had 

 been found no specific remedy to cure the epizooty; and that 

 the only means of guaranteeing the safety of the unaffected was 

 not only to prevent the communication of the contagion from 

 one beast to another, but also to hinder the approach of dogs 

 which had been in infected neighbourhoods, and also the men 

 who had been in charo;e of the diseased. 



In Aunonay, as before mentioned, the disease had cleared 

 out every parish ; but in Vivarais, by the extreme precautions 

 which the people took to prevent communication, not so many 

 were destroyed, and it soon disappeared there. In Italy it was 

 observed that the fat animals suffered most ; in Vivarais this 

 distinction was not observed, but a dozen oxen became affected 

 very quickly, and the cows not for a month afterwards. In Dau- 

 phine the disease was remarked to be latent for a month, but in 

 Vivarais it showed itself on the day of communication. 



The human plague does not attack animals, Sauvagcs re- 

 marks, neither does this of cattle extend beyond the bovine 

 species; at least, he adds, I cannot altogether think that the 

 disease actually raging amongst small animals in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Lunel can be quite the same as that affecting the 

 cattle. 



A most notable circumstance observed by Sauvages at this 

 time, however, was the fact of goals ami sheep suf!'ering from a 

 disease very similar to, if not identical with, that of the cattle. 

 Paulet remarks on this in the following words: ' Whether it was 

 that the disease in cattle in France had passed by communication 

 from these animals to others of a diflfercnt species, or whether it 



