History of Animal Plagues. 407 



horned beasts, and in some places even attacked horses and 

 sheep. Plenciz thought it was Cattle Plague, but Heusinger at- 

 tempts to show that this was a mistake; and that, according to 

 Plenciz^s own description, it was more than one disease, and con- 

 sisted in an epizooty of anthrax, and another of 'ekzema epizoo- 

 tica,' or of glossanthrax.^ The usual symptoms were loss of 

 appetite, and sometimes an unappeasable thirst; the eyes were 

 dull and heavy; the tongue and all the interior of the mouth ap- 

 parently ulcerated; bad smelling discharges from the nostrils; no 

 rumination, and absence of milk in cows. The majority were 

 attacked by diarrhoea, and the dejecture were not unfrequently 

 mixed with blood. Others had constipation, followed by a tym- 

 panitic state of the abdomen. The tongue became black and 

 dr)' ; the respiration difficult ; gangrene attacked the back parts 

 of the throat, and an apoplectic seizure usually preceded death. 

 The autopsies were badly made ; the author speaks of having con- 

 stantly found vomicae and abscesses in some of the viscera of the 

 cJiest or abdomen, or in the brain — a result of metastasis. The 

 disease, or rather diseases were supposed to be due to the ingestion 

 of animalculae, or their germs, which had been swallowed on the 

 herbs the animals had eaten and in the water they drank. These 

 germs became developed in their bodies and produced the disorder. 

 To support this view, the hypotheses of Italian and Danish 

 physicians are referred to, and numerous examples are given ; 

 by means of the microscope, Dcsmars thought he had discovered 

 these germs and animalcules in an abscess newly opened. He 

 strongly insists on the contagious character of the malady and the 

 dangers of infection. ' Sana animaUa caveant a pascuis, aqua, 

 faiio, stramine, item ah omni supellectili, ([iio lue affecta animalia 

 utehantiir.' Dogs and men were liable to carry the v-irus from 

 the diseased creatures, and this was a most important matter. 

 ' Quotid'iand constat experieiitid tain ah hominihus quam a canihus 

 cum hohus lue affectis commorantihus, facile ad hoves et asinos 

 idem contagium transportarl et iisdem communicari posse, Indefit 

 ut ah illis qui sanitati puhlicce invigilare detent, hoc in casu certce 

 capiantur cautelce.' ^ 



' Heusinger. Op. cit., p. 237. 



2 Plenciz. Medici Tractus de Contaglo, scu Jc Luc Bovina ad finem Vergente, 

 1761, Epidcraice grassanle. 1762. 



