4-8 History of Animal Plagues. 



was necessary to leave these stables empty for a long period, in 

 order to have them well aired and disinfected, and even white- 

 washed repeatedly, when this malady had left traces of its fury 

 and subtilty in the walls. At the same time, many dogs were seen 

 to participate in the influences of the general disaster. They 

 became dull and heavy, and their ears and tails were drooping; 

 their eyes were hidden by muco-purulent patches, and they lost 

 their vivacity and playfulness; they became sick, vomited, and 

 cough and hurried respiration were the usual symptoms of their 

 malady; these becoming augmented in intensity, quickly led to 

 the common end of all terrestrial beings. The sheep in the whole 

 of Lower Dauphine, and in a part of Vivarais, were apparently 

 the choice victims, and at the same time the most numerous, of 

 the epidemic pestilence. The bad quality of the forage, and the 

 violence of the cold, which would not admit of their leavino; their 

 sheds and seeking fresh pasture and a pure air, no doubt favoured 

 the inv^asion and the subsequent progress of the disease. They 

 were emaciated, withered, and weak, so that they could scarcely 

 stand on their feet; then they have become swollen, and towards 

 the end struggled convulsively against the violent destruction 

 of their being. On opening the dead bodies, the abdomen has 

 been found full of water, the liver enlarged and of a greyish- 

 white colour, and thickly covered with ulcers and indurations; 

 some people say they have even seen worms. The lungs pre- 

 sented abscesses more or less mature, and ulcers and tubercles; 

 this alteration of course favoured very much the propagation of 

 the disease, because it infected the air and charged it with a con- 

 tagious ferment; for, being expired from an organ destroyed by 

 rot, the morbid matters became for the other animals inhaling 

 them the germ of a disease v>hich was all the more potent be- 

 cause it was received into the bodies of those unfortunately already 

 predisposed. The blood-vessels were flaccid, and half filled with a 

 watery blood which had almost lost its colour.' ^ 



In the month of March, 'aphthous fever' broke out at 

 Guastala and other places in Italy. ' There was rendered more 

 manifest every day in Guastala and other prefectures of Mantua, 



>^ ^ Richard de Hautesicrck, Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 233. ' 



n 



