5o6 History of Animal Plagues. 



on them. Six other beasts died at Mansion ; five more were 

 shot there, and buried on the 9th ; several others died ; some 

 were shot. On the 13th, an Order of Council was issued (as 

 usual) prohibiting the removal of distempered cattle, and or- 

 dering them to be killed, and buried at least four feet deep, 

 with their hides slashed, &c. Two more were seized with it at 

 Minster on the 16th, and innnediately killed and buried. By 

 the above and other precautions, it is hoped that it will spread 

 no further. Some had been previously removed to Ash and 

 Chislet, though nothing seems easier than to confine them in 

 this island, there being only three outlets, viz. at Sandwich, Sarr, 

 and Reculver.'^ 



A communication in the same volume refers to this con- 

 tagious distemper, and makes the following remarks : ' Farmers 

 have no need to be informed how important a matter the pre- 

 servation of their cattle is. The considerable advantages they 

 reap from them when free from accidents, and the losses they 

 suffer when distempers spread among their herds, are sufficient 

 motives to make them feel the interest they have in preserving 

 their cow-houses, stables, &c., from the infection, and in using 

 all possible means to prevent its progress. But as fatal experience 

 has proved that the use of medicines, with the powers of which 

 they are not well acquainted, has been frequently more prejudicial 

 than salutary in the epizooty, and that country people, by placing 

 an unlimited confidence in pretended specifics, purchased at a very 

 high price, have very often been drawn into a double loss, by 

 the death of their cattle, as well as the expense of such drugs ; it 

 is thought the communication of an efficacious and cheap man- 

 ner of treating cattle when attacked by this distemper,^ &c., the 

 treatment being bleeding and giving drinks.- Epizootic oph- 

 thalmia appeared among cattle in Flanders; it was attributed 

 to the hot weather, and to the use of forage full of insects. 



A.D. 1782. The brown-tailed moth occasioned such alarming 

 devastations in the vicinity of London, that rewards were offered 

 for collecting the caterpillars ; and the churchwardens and over- 

 seers attended to see them burnt by bushels.^ 



1 The Annual Register, vol. xxiv. p. 168. - Ibid. p. 99. 



3 Kirby and Spoue. Entomology, vol. i. p. 209. 



