382 



~ CHAPTER VII. 



PERIOD FROM A.D. 1 746 TO 1 774. 



A.D. 1746. In Beauvais, sheep small-pox did great mischief 

 among the flocks.^ The two following years were very dry, and 

 locusts were causing consideral)le damage to the crops in Poland, 

 Silesia, and Brandenburg, extending their ravages even as far 

 north as Sweden. In 1749, these creatures were so numerous as 

 to stop the army of Charles XII. of Sweden, which was then re- 

 treating in Bessarabia after the disastrous battle at Pultowa.^ Every 

 country was desolated by them, and Europe suffered severely. 

 In England, in 1748, they were observed in considerable num- 

 bers all over the land, ' but providentially they soon perished 

 with propagating. These were evidently stragglers from the 

 vast swarms which did such infinite damage in Wallachia, Mol- 

 davia, Hungary, and Poland.^ ^ 



Rutty noticed their arrival in Ireland, where, he tells us, 

 'In May several inflammations and abscesses in ears occurred, 

 and chincoughs were very epidemic among the children. There 

 was also among the horses an epidemical cough, which proved 

 fatal to them.^ * 



A.D. 1747- Rot in sheep in England, after a wet spring suc- 



' Barbaret. Maladies Epizootiques, p. 16. For a detailed and very interesting 

 account see also Paulet. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 267. 



2 L. Figuier. Les Insectes, p. 366. ^ j^i-,-i,y and Spence. Entomology. 



* Rutty. Op. cit. 



