History of Animal Plagues. 425 



tent of Adjutant Gee^ and drank water out of his hand; several 

 antelopes were easily taken by dogs/ ^ 



Wirth remarks that erysipelas [rothlaufes) was present in an 

 epizootic form in Switzerland and Suabia, and was very fatal. ^ 



A.D. 1766. Eruptions of Vesuvius and Hecla^ and two comets 

 visible this year. Earthquakes were prevalent. The winter was 

 very cold, the spring rainy with inundations, and the summer 

 hot and dry all over Europe and America ; so that vegetation 

 was hindered, and in many countries it was blighted with honev- 

 dew and rust, more especially the barley and oat crops. Malig- 

 nant catarrh in man swept over Europe. Horses and horned 

 cattle died in great numbers in America, especially in New Eng- 

 land and New Jersey.^ The Cattle Plague was raging in Austria, 

 in Prussia, the March of Brandenburg, and in Holland, where it 

 continued in 1767-8, and in 1769 it was carried into Belgium.* 

 It only ceased in 1770, after destroying in Holland alone more 

 than 395,000 head of horned cattle. 



In England, rot in sheep appears to have been prevalent. 

 ' Too rainy a season is very prejudicial to sheep, as was remark- 

 ably experienced all over England in the summer of 1766, when 

 whole flocks perished with the rot.' ^ 



The eruption of Mount Hecla, in Iceland, caused much loss 

 among cattle. ° Some lingered for a year, and when opened 

 their stomachs were found full of ashes. 



A.D. 1767. A cold winter and a wet summer in England. 

 An eruption of Vesuvius. In December, a catarrhal fever or 

 ' influenza ' broke out in mankind at Madrid, and spread over the 

 greater part of Europe. Scarlatina was very prevalent in France, 

 and puerperal fever in Normandy. In due course the influenza 

 reached England, but before it attacked the human species, dogs 

 and horses were affected, and the vegetable kingdom appears to 

 have been diseased as well. ' The 30th June : a blight of fruit, 

 feverish complaints, and pains in face and teeth very epidemic. 

 All Saints' day : two disorders have been very universal among 



' Annesley. The Diseases of India. - Wirth. Op. cit., p. IIO. 



3 Bascome. Op. cit., p. 133. ■« Lorinscy. Die Rinderpest, p. 25. 



^ Mills. Treatise on Cattle, 1766. 

 * Sir Joseph Banks. MS. Journal. Hooker. Tour in Iceland, vol. ii. p. 117. 



