504 History of Animal Plagues. 



as hellebore and others, 3. That when skilled people have been 

 called in in good time they have succeeded in curing nearly two- 

 thirds. 



^The various measures I have indicated, and which were 

 carried out by an enlightened and active magistrate (the Count 

 d'Agay, intendant of Picardy), conformably to the views of a 

 minister whose memory will always be dear to the French nation 

 (M. Necker), and by whose orders I went to this district, have 

 had the greatest success. Mercantere and the neighbouring 

 districts of Artois have been preserved, and the contagion has 

 ceased towards the middle of the month of September, 1779/ ^ 



At Steyermark, in Austria, according to Adami, 10,000 head 

 of cattle perished from the Cattle Plague alone.^ In Styria, 

 nine-tenths of those attacked died, and Belgium was nearly 

 robbed of the whole of her herds.^ 



A.D. 1780. The winter of this year was very severe in Europe 

 and America, the spring-time cold and damp, the summer dry 

 and in some places very hot, and the autumn cloudy and heavy. 

 There was an eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna, 

 and a tremendous earthquake at Tauris. Catarrhal and other 

 fevers were very common in mankind. Spain was ravaged by 

 locusts. In Saxony a disease or ' rot ' affected the eggs of bees 

 {couvain pourri) from 1780 to 1783. Catarrhal fever or *" influ- 

 enza ^ among horses occurred at Paris;* and at Lille epizootic 

 ophthalmia attacked horses and cattle.^ Anthracoid maladies 

 were very frequent over the whole of France, particularly in 

 the provinces of Paris, Provins, Bas Berry, in Sologne, Poitou, 

 Orleans, Franche-Conite, Champagne, and Dauphine ; afl:ect- 

 ing all the domestic quadrupeds, and even the geese, fowls, 

 and turkeys. Heusinger calls attention to the fact that gloss- 

 anthrax broke out this year in France, and that in the preced- 



^ Vicq-d'' Azyr. Precis Historiqiie tie la Maladie Epizootique qui a regne dans 

 la generalite de Picardie en 1779. Memories de la Societe Royale de Medecine. 

 An. 1779. 



2 Adami. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Viehseuchen, &c. Vienna, 17S1. 



3 IVirt/i. Op. cit, p. 185. See also Zaw/rr and ^mj. Ueber das Ansteken 

 der Viehseuch. 1 783. 



* Huza7-d. Journal de Med., vol. liv. p. 337. 



5 Chabert. Instructions, &c., vol. i. p. 391. See also p. 379. 



