378 History of Animal Plagues. 



in Holland approaches nearest to that of Vivarais; and that the 

 others resemble each other in a great many respects. It would 

 be superfluous to seek the reason for this. 



'There were two opinions with re2;ard to the origin of the 

 disease. Some people pretended, and especially the Danish phy- 

 sicians,^ that after having taken its rise in Tartary, where it 

 committed twice the damage of an ordinary plague, it at first 

 penetrated Russia, from whence it extended on the one side 

 into Poland, Livonia, the Duchy of Courland, Prussia, Pomera- 

 nia, the Duchy of Mecklenburg, and Alsace, and afterwards 

 passed to Holland and England; while towards the east, having 

 penetrated Turkey, it spread into Bohemia, Hungary, Dalmatia, 

 Austria, Moravia, Styria, and at length, by the Gulf of Venice, 

 to Italv, Spain, and France, from whence it was carried to Ger- 

 many, and finally to Denmark, where it was seen in I745- ^"^ 

 the opinion most generally entertained in Europe was, that after 

 having broken out in Bohemia during the siege of Prague, it ex- 

 tended on the one side into Hungary, Bavaria, Styria, Carinthia, 

 the Tyrol, Italy, and by the Alps into Provence; and on the 

 other side it penetrated Alsace, Luxembourg, Franche-Comte, 

 Lorraine, Flanders, the Low Countries, and Picardy, from 

 whence it came to Paris, and from thence to many provinces of 

 France. Whatever may have been its primary cause, it was gen- 

 erally attributed in Europe to nothing else than the use of rotten 

 leaves of trees, which the cattle of Bohemia were compelled to 

 eat during the siege of Prague, for lack of the forage which had 

 all been taken possession of to feed the horses of the French army.' 

 M. Paulet continues his summary of this malady to the follow- 

 ing effect: — 'There are few epizootic diseases the symptoms of 

 which have been described with so much care and sagacity. 

 Writers of the highest merit, such as MM. de Sauvages, 

 Chomel, Blondel, Le Clerc, and Randot, employed their pens in 

 this work. Notwithstanding the ride that we imposed on our- 

 selves not to deal in any hypothesis, we are unable to resist the 

 temptation of citing two brilliant theories to which the disease 

 has given rise, and which are capable of throwing much light on 

 the treatment. 



^ Acta Havniens, vol. ii. 



