History of Animal Plagues. 381 



there was no want of modes of treatment founded on the best 

 principles. But unfortunately, in order to combat with advantage 

 a disease the effects of which were so rapid and so dangerous, 

 and the care of which was chiefly confided to the country people, 

 who were but httle adapted to receive these truths, there was not 

 always the time nor the power to follow these indications. In 

 France nothing was neglected which was likely to preserve such 

 useful animals. The Faculty of Montpellier having been consulted 

 on this subject, and having before them the report of M. de Sau- 

 vages, gave it as their opinion that it was best to ward off the at- 

 tack of the malady by preservative remedies before it declared 

 itself, than by curative measures when it had already involved 

 the vital principles. To this effect, they wisely concluded it 

 was necessary to treat healthy cattle which had cohabited with 

 the diseased as if they were already infected, ''We must begin, 

 then, to separate the healthy from the unhealthy. Every day 

 they ought to be cleaned and wisped, and not allowed to stand 

 in the humidity of their excrement, as was allowed in Vivarais. 

 Every day their litter should be changed frequently, and the 

 stables ought to be perfumed by burning in them juniper-wood, 

 laurel, and odoriferous herbs, but above all, by throwing vinegar 

 on a red-hot shovel, Sec." Notwithstanding all the re- 

 medies proposed and tried, M. de Sauvages came to the conclu- 

 sion that no specific could be found, no certain remedy could be 

 discovered for this disease, and that out of every twenty infected 

 cattle nineteen would die.^ ^ 



From 1750 to 1769, the pestilence was not so deadly nor so 

 generally diffused over Europe, and the afflicted countries began 

 to recover from its terrific effects; but towards the termination 

 of this interval, it re-assumed its former virulency and mortality, 

 as it spread far and wide over the old, as well as comparatively 

 new, tracts of territory. This resuscitation, however, will be re- 

 ferred to hereafter; in the mean time we may, I think, accept as 

 worthy of credence the conclusion arrived at by a competent au- 

 thority, to the effect that, from 171 1 to 1769, this awful scourge 

 could not have destroyed less than 200,000,000 head of cattle in 

 the various countries to which it had been carried. 



> Paula. Op. cit. 



