486 History of Animal Plagues. 



disease^ which was the same as that observed among dogs, con- 

 sisted in a weakness and trembHng in their extremities; they 

 staggered in walking, and showed the greatest aversion for food; 

 they vomited glairy matters, and even bilious-looking fluids; 

 they had fever and diarrhoea, sometimes stercoraceous, at other 

 times lienteric, at others bilious, and even dysenterical ; they 

 nearly all died. This disease appears to have a great resemblance 

 to intermittent fever/ ^ The French West Indies were visited 

 with epizootic rabies from 1776 to 1778. ' It was believed for 

 a longtime that the Antilles were exempted from rabies, because 

 until now no mad animals had been seen; but from 1776 to 

 1778, it has reigned almost continuously. At Guadaloupe, the 

 dogs w^ere at first attacked with dumb madness, such as we had 

 observed many years before, but without any other consequences. 

 To this dumb madness succeeded that of a furious character : 

 many cattle have been bitten and have died of rabies ; we have 

 also seen many people perish from this malady, negroes as well 

 as white people. Numbers of dogs which have been bitten died 

 only with symptoms of dumb madness {I'age muet) ; but others 

 have become really mad, and bit whoever and whatever came in 

 their way.'' ^ 



In the autumn, an epizooty destroyed many deer in the 

 forests of St Germain, in France. It did not affect the bucks 

 or the roebucks. Its cause was supposed to be due to the 

 great drought during the months of August, September, and 

 October, and to the animals being obliged to drink corrupted 

 stagnant water.^ Anthrax was prevalent during the summer in 

 Lower Austria, and at Wilna, in Poland, and was frequently 

 communicated from animals to mankind."* In Holland,^ "in 

 many provinces of France, and in Corsica, the Cattle Plague con- 

 tinued its ravages. In Austria 'ekzema epizootica' was very 

 common. ' In the same manner as the anthrax {milzseiiche) 



^ Ratnel. De I'lnfluencedes Marais, &c., p. 221. 



^ Des Moyens de Conserver la Sante des Blancs et des Negres, &c. St Domingo, 

 1786. 



^ Histoirede la Societe Royale de Mcdecine, vol. ii. p. 150. 

 * Adami. Vieseuchen in den K. K. Erbliindem, pp. 70, 82. 

 ^ Geert Rinders. Waarneminger en Proeven, &c., 1776. 



