398 History of Animal Plagues. 



in dry hot summers, exaggerate the general unhealthiness. This 

 accounts for the plague not being in all places a contagious dis- 

 ease; for it was proved that cattle were not attacked where they 

 had shelter, good pasture, and good water, of which this year 

 in many places there was a great scarcity.'^ It was most severe 

 in July, the hottest month of the year. 



The malady passed from Finland to Russia. Its contagious 

 properties, in passing from one animal to another of the same 

 species, were very marked; but still more so was the facility with 

 which it could be transmitted to beings of quite a different 

 species. Hartmann enters fully into details concerning cases 

 in which men who had imprudently come in contact with the 

 diseased beasts, or wore articles which contained the virus from 

 them, were seriously affected. 



A.D. 1758. In England the winter was very severe, and 

 a comet was visible. A shock of earthquake was experienced 

 in the Azores. On the Continent the winter was mild, and the 

 summer damp in Germany and the South ; in northern countries 

 the same season was very hot. Mankind suffered from catarrhal 

 and petechial fevers, and in France and Ireland from gangrenous 

 sore-throat. According to Albrecht, in Cobur'g and Franconia 

 an epizooty of gastro-enteritis appeared in the bovine species, 

 caused, it was surmised, by the bad quality of the forage.^ The 

 previous year a cattle epizooty had appeared in Austria, and on the 

 26th of April this year glossanthrax was announced in Verona, 

 from whence it soon spread. The Sanitary Council of Venice 

 notices it as follows : 'This disease, which is always preceded by 

 the formation of one or more vesicles at the internal orifice of 

 the anus, demands the inculcation of the strictest attention on 

 the part of the villagers, in order to avert fatal consequences, 

 such as have followed its appearance in the Valley del Sole, 

 Pieve di Ossana.' On the 22nd of June it had reached Ge- 

 novesato. For the i6th of December it is noticed : 'The diffu- 

 sion of the cor/'o/?^ volante, or "black disease" [mal nero), called 



1 Hartmann. Abhandlung die Kon Schwed. Akad., vol. xx. p. 47. A brief 

 noticeof this epizooty and Hartmann's observations will be found in the Annual 

 Register {qx 1761, p. 122. 



2 Albrecht. Nov. Act. Nat. Cur., vol. ii. p. 2S9. 



