404 Histoiy of Animal Plagues. 



At the same time an epizocity manifested itself amongst horses, 

 which affected, it is supposed, every animal in the locality, and 

 with symptoms very similar to those observed in mankind. The 

 malady only remained in the neighbourhood for from eight to 

 ten days. It was remarkable for its brief duration, and for its 

 not having extended beyond the district, according to Heusinger 

 and Verheyen. 



Its localization is, however, a mistake, for it appears it was 

 wide-spread. For instance, it was prevalent and very fatal among 

 horses in London in January, as the Chronicle of the Annual 

 Register for that month says, * A distemper which rages amongst 

 the horses makes great havoc in and about town. Near 100 died 

 in one week.^ A good description of the Cleveland epizooty is 

 given by Bisset.^ 



Rutty, in Dublin, records that ' It was one of the wettest 

 autumns in the memory of man, and yet remarkably healthy. 

 Ophthalmia prevailed during the N.E. winds in April, and an 

 epizooty among horses at the same time, of the nature of an epi- 

 demic catarrhal fever, which took its rise in the winter,and was also 

 common to other parts of Europe.' ' It raged in London and other 

 parts of England in January, February, and March, and seized our 

 horses in Dublin at the end of March, moving westward, as 

 other epidemics frequently do, and on the 4th of April it was 

 become general in this city, and continued till the end of that 

 month, when most of our horses were recovering, although some 

 remains of the disease appeared in June, aiid even July the 17th, 

 in the coughs and broken wind attending some of them in con- 

 sequence of the disorder. The distemper is said to have been 

 more severe in the north than in the south. The mules also 

 received the infection.' Rutty, tracing this epizooty to an epi- 

 demic constitution of the atmosphere, and apprehending a connec- 

 tion between it and influenza and other human epidemies, writes, 

 ' In 1727 there was an epidemic catarrh among our horses here, 

 which also travelled hither from England, and, moreover, preceded 

 a like disorder, viz. a cough and sore-throats among men, even 

 as at Edinburgh before the catarrhal fever in 1732 5 their horses 



^ Bisset. Med. Constitution of Great Britain, p. 237. 



