392- History of Animal Plagues. 



myself opened one of these dead roes, and found nothing very 

 particular besides a swelling in the left hind foot or leg. These 

 animals had been known to bellow loudly and go away from the 

 forests, seeking ditches and morasses, where they lav down and 

 remained from sheer exhaustion. With the wild boars this was 

 a common occurrence, and fourteen have been found dead in one 

 place. The hares were stricken by the pest in the midst of their 

 course, and fell and died. Horses had the same symptoms as 

 the horned stock, the swellings appearing upon the thighs 

 and flanks, the breast and the head. The disease has gradually 

 disappeared, and for five days (on the 21st July) we have not 

 heard of any loss among the cattle.^ ^ This author speaks of a 

 carbuncle in a peasant. Another writer mentions what he con- 

 siders to be the causes of this epizooty. ' To my knowledge, the 

 causes of the disease may be ascribed to the perturbations in the 

 physical world. Immediately after the first thunderstorm and 

 the succeeding rain, of which there had been a dearth for some 

 weeks, this plague very generally declined, and at last disap- 

 peared The said disease spread itself from Culmbach to 



Coburg, but' did not visit all the villages. From Coburg I am 

 credibly informed that a person there was attacked on the fore- 

 head by a large tumour or carbuncle, and his life was barely 

 saved by the immediate opening of the swelling.' Many people 

 were affected, and some authorities thought the malady was 

 orimnated by the bites of insects.^ 



At Suhl, in the forest of Thuringia, it also caused much de- 

 struction among wild and domesticated animals.^ 



The Cattle Plague appears to have been introduced into 

 Eichsfeld this year, if we may judge by the following account. 

 ^ The second misfortune for the burghers was in 1756, when a 

 destructive cattle plague {e'lne starke Fiehseuche) broke out, by 

 which most of them lost their cows. There were some who 

 lost from ten to a dozen head. The homebred cattle were in- 

 fected by beasts from Friesland which the people are accustomed 

 to purchase in the autumn. It raged until Christmas; and to 



^ Wagner. Op. cit., p. III. 



2 Schmiedel. Act. Phys. Med. CoUeg. Onold. Onolzbach, 1754. 



^ Glaser. Die Knotenkrankheiten, p. 10. 



