History of Animal Plagues. 437 



named it a putrid-malignant fever, similar to that which attacks 

 mankind. The rumen contained much food, covered with a 

 tenacious and fetid mucus, and a blackish humour lined its in- 

 ternal tunic. The other compartments were speckled by black 

 spots, and their lining membrane, which was easily detached, had 

 a livid colour. There were some points of suppuration in the 

 liver, and the gall-bladder was greatly distended. The lungs were 

 collapsed, and covered with gangrenous-looking patches. The 

 same kind of stains were noticed here and there on the pituitary 

 membrane, the oesophagus, and in the intestinal canal ; showing a 

 gangrenous dissolution of these textures. His remedial measures 

 are very silly; but with regard to those of a preservative kind, he 

 counsels, as the most certain and the only safe proceeding, the 

 sacrificing the first diseased beasts, and to take all other precau- 

 tions to destroy or avert the contagion. 



In Austrian Flanders Dr Le Cat, physician to the Empress, 

 and residing at Ghent, was ordered to investigate the malady. 

 The chief value of his labours consisted in the convincing testi- 

 mony he produced to show that there was no other cause for the 

 extension of the plague in that country than the communication, 

 direct or indirect, of the virus from one individual to another, and 

 from one place to another. He lauded all kinds of remedies for 

 the cure of the sick, and among others sulphur acid in the water 

 given them to drink. He came to the happy conclusion, how- 

 ever, that there was no other recourse to put an end to the con- 

 tajrion than killing all the diseased cattle ; and the orders given 

 on his suggestion were rigorously carried out in some villages 

 where the disease had shown itself; four hundred animals were 

 killed, and the epizooty disappeared. 



The erysipelas of pigs {rotlilaiifes), a form of anthrax, was 

 very prevalent in Germany. Wirth testifies to the repeated ap- 

 pearance of this peculiar malady in Switzerland during the last 

 century.^ 



Orraeus says : * At a later period, we made our general resid- 

 ence at Stofl'cln, a village some distance without the city, and in 



1 Wirth. Op. cit., p. no. Scheibler. Sammlung mcrkwiirdiger Thierkrank- 

 heiten, p. 179. This writer terms the affection the lirown disease of Swine {Die 

 Brdune der Schwcine), 



