Hhtory of Animal Plagues. 483 



have been observed during the month of November at Sumatra ; 

 the sea was covered with their dead bodies.^ In France, an 

 epizootic ophthahiiia amongst fowls was observed and com- 

 mented upon by Huzard. ' I have observed, at the termina- 

 tion of the springtime of 1775, that the fowls, and more 

 particularlv those which had been hatched the preceding year, 

 have had inflammations {jiux'wns) of the eyes, which have de- 

 stroyed all attacked. The humour of this inflammation, which 

 was (jf an albuminous nature, was exuded in successive layers 

 over the cornea, forming a kind of secondary globe of a white 

 or yellowish colour, and projecting very mucli outwards, so that 

 the real eve was entirely hidden and buried in the bottom of the 

 orbital cavity, where it diminished in volume in proportion as 

 the external growth increased in size. This disease never affected 

 more than one eve; when it reached its last stage, and death 

 was approaching, on pressing the outer circumference of the 

 orbit, this mass of foreic^n matter became detached. It was 

 of a very firm consistence, resisting even the cut of a scalpel, 

 and there flowed from the eye a fetid sanious matter. The cavity 

 of the orbit was black and gangrenous-looking, and the crest of 

 the bird was shrunken and dry. The fowls leaned their heads to 

 the side which was not diseased, and gave vent to a dull cry, 

 like a rattling or gurgling sound, which only ceased with life, on 

 the fifteenth or sixteenth day.'^ 



Small-pox in man, according to Professor Darluc, was very 

 prevalent at Aix and its vicinity ; and at the same time, and 

 in the same places, small-pox was making great ravages amongst 

 sheep.^ In Istria and Dalmatia, epizootics of malignant peripneu- 

 monia were frequent from 1774 to 1776.* In France, the Cattle 

 Plao-ue vet continued its devastations, and is described by Gri<r- 

 non.^ At Minden, in Westphalia, it also raged ; and its eruption 

 here was supposed to have arisen from the pastures being tainted, 

 in consequence of animals which had died from this malady some 



' I'hilosophical Transactions, vol. Ixxi. 



2 Iluzard. Instructions et Observations, vol. iv. p. 315. 



' Hist, de la Societe Roy. de Medecine, vol. i. p. 250. 



* Bottaiii. Op. cit., vol. xi. p. 229, 273, 379. 



* Grignon. Observations sur Ics Epizootics Contagicuses. London ct Paris, 

 1776. 



