History of Aiiimal Plagues. 393 



prevent its spread, all infected cattle or those which were sus- 

 pected, were killed immediately and deeply buried/ ^ 



Sheep small-pox was prevalent in Saxony. It was noted as 

 a curious circumstance, that a flock affected with the disease was 

 turned into a garden and kept there to prevent the contagion 

 from reaching other flocks; in this garden grew a quantity of 

 pepper plants {capsicum ludicnm), and the diseased sheep feed- 

 ing on these, all recovered.'^ 



In the island of Minorca, in the Mediterranean, an epizooty 

 appeared among the cattle, which caused much loss. Large 

 numbers of cows and oxen had been carried thither from Au- 

 vergne, in France, and landed in the burning months of July and 

 August. Obliged to drink tepid brackish water, these animals fell 

 into a languid and feeble state, and became rapidly emaciated ; 

 their breath felt hot, and they had sanguinary emissions with 

 their urine. When their bodies were opened, nearly all the 

 viscera of the abdomen were found in a state of inflammation or 

 gangrene. The majority of the shepherds who had charge ot 

 these herds were sick; but those who had the imprudence to 

 eat the flesh of the diseased animals were attacked by a malig- 

 nant fever, accompanied by gangrene, which manifested itself on 

 the second day at the elbows and heels.^ 



A.D, 1757. A long and cold winter, succeeded by a wet 

 spring, abruptly ushered in an unusually hot summer. An 

 earthquake was felt in the island of Malta. Dysentery and 

 putrid fevers were very common in mankind in many countries. 

 In this year a small beetle, named the 'Bostrichos typographicus,' 

 made its appearance in the Hartz forests, and it is calculated 

 that, up to 1783, it destroyed a million and a half of trees — a 

 destruction of timber which nearly ruined all the inhabitants. 

 Cold damp seasons setting in, however, these insects were soon all 

 swept away.* 



In Saxony, in this and the two following years, ovine 

 small-pox was yet very common and fatal ; loss of the eyes 



1 y. Wolf. Geschichte u. Beschreib. dcr Stadt Duderstadt, p. 207. 



2 Pnulet. Op. cit., p. 289. 



' Barberet. Memoire sur les Malad. Epizootiques, p. 27. 

 * Latreille. Nat. Hist., ch. xi. 



