History of Animal Plagues. 471 



beginning to show themselves, and the energy veterinarians dis- 

 played under the tuition of Bourgelat, and the wise and vigor- 

 ous measures they recommended the government to adopt, then, 

 as on a recent occasion, had the happiest results for France. 



K\\ excellent memoir on this irruption, written by De Berg, 

 is to be found in the Memoirs of the Royal Society of Paris for 

 1778. Some of the remarks to be found in it are far too valua- 

 ble, in a historical point of view, to be lost sight of when tracing 

 the several inroads of the mighty cattle-destroyer. This author 

 certainly makes a mistake in not attending to the pathological 

 anatomy of the malady, if he made any autopsies at all, for this 

 guide in establishing the nature of the pest was thereby lost. 

 But there can be no doubt as to its being the same malady de- 

 scribed by the other writers at this period, and which was then 

 prevalent over nearly the whole of France. He regarded it as the 

 plague of cattle [^gros hetail); as a strange or new disease; and as 

 having come from Great Tartary. The symptoms common to 

 the other bovine affections — such as dulness, stupor, heaviness 

 of the eyes, the cold pendant ears, the shiverings and tremblings, 

 the staring coat, the restlessness, the drooping head, the fever, 

 the loss of appetite, and the suppression of milk, did not charac- 

 terize the disease, as they were observed in other affections. 



The particular symptoms were : profuse lacrymation, which 

 almost obscured the vision ; the lining of the eyelids of a red or 

 black hue; the mouth hot and inflamed; the tongue covered 

 with saliva; on the palate were discolourations, and red or dark- 

 coloured pustules. The nostrils and the mouth discharged a 

 yellow thick matter ; a bilous diarrhoea, acconipanicd by a most 

 offensive odour, manifested itself; tumours {boutons) appeared 

 on the skin, or emphysema in the dorsal region ; there was great 

 weakness in the loins. When the animal became very uneasy, 

 continually getting up and down every few seconds, death 

 was imminent. De Berg noticed that the symptoms varied 

 much in this malady, and many mistakes were made by men 

 who pretended to cure the diseases of cattle, and who imagined 

 they were treating different maladies; whereas they diflcrcd no 

 more from each other in their nature than the rariula discreta 

 and the variola coiijliiens of man, which arc dependent on the 



