History of Animal Plagues. 485 



infected one another.^ In Sweden this disease was known as 

 the ' skott-sjukan/ and was beheved to be caused by a small 

 worm. It will be alluded to at another time. 



In this year, from some unknown cause, a large bed of 

 oysters in the harbour of Wellfleet, Cape Cod, which had pre- 

 viously furnished large supplies, sickened and perished; they have 

 never grown since. At the same time, the oysters on the shores 

 of Connecticut w^erc in an unhealthy state, and sometimes ex- 

 cited vomiting in those who ate them. In 1776 the lobsters 

 in the vicinity of York Island all disappeared." Other author- 

 ities give the previous year for these events. 



According to Lafosse,^ glanders in horses assumed an 

 epizootic character, and became widely spread over the southern 

 parts of France. This author, in observing that it succeeded 

 the Cattle Plague, asserts that it doubtless originated, to some 

 extent, through the excessive labour imposed upon the horse 

 species, consequent on the working oxen having been destroyed 

 by the plague; and also probably to some diseased horses having 

 been introduced among the large numbers purchased in other 

 countries, to repopulate those provinces from which the bovine 

 race had nearly disappeared. 



A.D. 1776, An earthquake at Audries, in Italv, in July. 

 The Hessian fly {t'lpida trii'ici) appeared for the first time in 

 North America. The canine species are mentioned as sufl'ering 

 much. An observer in Africa, in the neighbourhood of Bonny, 

 describes a malady among foxes and wolves. 'We have observed 

 during two years (1776 and 17H0), that even the animals 

 which live in the forests were attacked with a particular epidemic 

 malady. The roads were, if we may so speak, strewed with 

 wolves and foxes, dead and dying. Their disease appeared to 

 draw them to the high-roads, and the stricken creatures seemed 

 no longer to dread the presence of man. We even heard it 

 said that these creatures threw themselves in the way, as if ask- 

 ing for assistance and remedies against their maladies. This 



1 Odhdius. Von dcr Viehseuche, &c. Schwed. Abhandlung, vol. xxxvii. 



2 Wdbstcr. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 429. 



3 Traite de Pathologic Vcterinaire, vol. iii. p. 968. 



