480 History of Animal Plagues. 



For the history of this remarkable invasion of Spain, we will 

 refer to the account given by Villalba.^ 



'On the nth of July, 1774, the Marquis cle Bassecourt, 

 General-commandant of Guipuzcoa (a province of Spain), re- 

 ported to the supreme Board of Health, that in the province of 

 Labourd, in the Kingdom of France, a region adjoining that 

 which was under his command, there was spreading a grievous 

 sickness of a contagious character, and which was every day 

 sweeping off large numbers of cattle ; so that there was every 

 reason why the introduction of these French beasts should be 

 absolutely prohibited, and that even the importation of sheep 

 should be forbidden by new and stringent measures. In conse- 

 quence of this notice, the supreme court, looking wisely at the 

 aspect of affairs, and being desirous of defining precisely what- 

 ever was necessary for the preservation and welfare of the people, 

 urged upon the mayors the adoption of the most important 

 measures; and there were despatched, by virtue of their orders, 

 Ignacio de Michelena, Juan de Ordoi, and Martin de Lorz, 

 chief veterinary surgeons, to the vicinity of San Sebastian, to 

 investigate and report upon the malady. These men having 

 done so, certified before a commission that the disease consisted 

 in a dissolution or ramollisment of the brain, and they founded 

 this opinion on the happy results which had attended the inunc- 

 tion of strong ointments on the top of the neck, and also because 

 able anatomists had observed that after death there was ob- 

 served in the brain a greenish or bloody fluid, as if there had been 

 suppuration or gangrene; and also that the medullary substance 

 of the horns, which was much wasted, contained a yellowish 

 matter. The use of aquafortis, and other remedies which they 

 prescribed, produced tolerable results sometimes ; but in other 

 instances thev were entirely useless ; so that to prevent the dis- 

 ease spreading, or its introduction into other places, these au- 

 thorities most energetically endeavoured to persuade the au- 

 thorities that the only certain, just, and equitable remedy for 

 extirpating the contagion was to kill the animals, and to 

 inter them deeply in pits In such a way, that if in 



} Villalba. Epidem. Espaiiola, vol. ii. p. 229. 



