History of Animal Plagues. 405 



had been previously affected. Again in the cold and dry spring, 

 1742, was an epidemic catarrh among the horses at Plymouth 

 and here. In Ma}?, 1746 (the preceding part of the spring cold), 

 was an epidemic cough among horses, and chlncoughs and 

 tumours of the parotids among men. In December, 175°? ^^'^^ 

 an universal catarrhal fever among horses, rather more severe 

 than this of the present year, 1760, which also travelled from 

 England; and the like in December and January, 175^? '^^^^^ 

 among mankind, coughs and inflammations of the face, eyes, 

 and gums, at the same time. And (subsequently) many of the 

 labourins: horses who had this disorder suffered so much in their 

 eyes as to have become blind,' ^ 



A.D. 1761. In the month of April, volcanic eruptions and a 

 great shock of earthquake in the Azores, Plenclz observes : 

 ' The winter was mild and damp ; with the departing wintry cold, 

 frequent and abundant rains fell, such as to overwhelm not only 

 Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Styria, Carlnthia, and Bavaria, but 

 other countries, with inundations and overflowings of rivers, lakes, 

 and streams. Great heat and drought followed this rainy 

 weather, which lasted for the whole summer. At length a very 

 moist autumn succeeded, accompanied by dense and perpetual 

 clouds, till about the beginning of December, when a very hard 

 and severe frost set in in the region of the Danube.' " In the 

 Northern States of America, a severe epidemy of catarrh or in- 

 fluenza raged in the spring, and this malady, towards the sum- 

 mer and autumn, changed its character to, or was succeeded by, 

 maliirnant yellow fever, which extended itself to the West Indies.^ 



In Boulonnals, France, rot in sheep manifested itself as 

 a consequence, apparently, of the inundations in the winter 

 and spring-time. The physician Desmars writes : ^Animals and 

 vegetables were not exempt from the influences of the air; it 

 was remarked that calves and. lambs were fewer, feebler, and 

 smaller than in ordinary years; oviparous creatures also experi- 

 enced the vicious effects of the atmospherical constitution, for the 

 broods of partridges were a failure, and game was not plentiful. 

 The crops were very indifferent, the cars of corn being blighted, 



1 Rutly. Op. cit. 

 ''■ rUnciz. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 206. •' Bascomc. Op. cit., p. 130. 



