465 



CHAPTER Vllf. 



PERIOD FROM A.D. 1 774 TO 1800. 



A.D. 1774. In September, a severe earthquake was experi- 

 enced at Altdorf, in Switzerland. Epidemic convulsions were 

 prevalent in France, and an analogous disease was very general 

 in America. In Scotland, the crops were mildewed, and America 

 suffered in a similar manner. At Cape Cod, a bed of oysters 

 perished from disease; and at York Island, in the United States 

 of America, the lobsters mysteriously disappeared. 



The epizooty of anthrax which broke out at St Domingo in 

 1772, extended itself this year to Guadaloupc, and attacked not 

 only cows, but horses and other animals; people were even 

 affected with it by inoculation from the cattle.^ An epizooty 

 appeared among geese on the banks of the river Meurthe, Lor- 

 raine, where in a very short time six hundred of these crea- 

 tures died from diarrhoea and vcrtio;o.^ 



In Brittany, during the sunnncr, anthrax was common, and 

 in December it prevailed in Gevaudan. In many instances it 

 was transmitted to man.^ 



The Cattle Plague still prevailed in Holland, owing to the 

 attempts to cure it; so that that country was a standing danger 

 to all those which had any dealings witii it. 



^ Berlin. Relation c!e Quelqucs Accidens Extraordinaires observes a la 

 Guadeloupe, &c. Paris, 1775. Pauld. Op. tit. 



'■' Gazette de Sante. February, 1774. ^ Paiikt. Op. cit. 



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