Hist 07'}' of A ni7nal Plagues. 509 



oats, and with plenty of fresh warm or cold water frequently in 

 a day. When symptoms of debility appear, which may be 

 known by the coldness of the ears or other extremities, or when 

 sloughs can be seen on the membrane which lines the nostrils, a 

 drink consisting of a pint of ale with half an ounce of tincture 

 of opium in it, given every six hours, is likely to be of great 

 utility. 



^ In dogs I believe the catarrh is generally joined with symp- 

 toms of debility early in the disease. These animals should be 

 permitted to go about in the open air, and should have constant 

 access to fresh water. The use of being as much as may be in 

 the air is evident, because all the air which they breathe passes 

 twice over the putrid sloughs of the mortified parts of the mem- 

 brane which lines the nostrils and the maxillary and frontal 

 cavities — that is, both during inspiration and expiration — and 

 must therefore be loaded with contagious particles. Fresh new 

 milk and fresh broth should be given them very frequently, and 

 they should be suffered to go amongst the grass, which they 

 sometimes eat for the purpose of an emetic; and if possible 

 should have access to a running stream of water, as the con- 

 tagious mucus of the nostrils, both of these animals and of 

 horses, generally drops into the water they attempt to drink,^ ^ 



A.D. 1783. The winter was mild; the spring and summer 

 damp ; but the latter season was particularly hot and stifling. 

 Early in the year, singular atmospherical phenomena were ob- 

 served in the kingdom of Naples, and on the 5th of February a 

 series of earthquakes began at Calabria, which lasted until the 

 28th of March. Eruptions of Vesuvius were continuous. On 

 the 5th of February a dense black cloud hung over Calabria, 

 which necessitated the lighting of candles at mid-day, so much 

 did it obscure the davliifht ; and at the same time the odour of 

 sulphur and asphalt was insupportable. This vapour or smoke 

 spread over the whole of Italy, and even to 'i^^lis, in Africa, and 

 had not disappeared in September. 'On the 9th of Fei)ruary, a 

 fog having the odour of burnt leaves spread over New England, 

 the groimd there being under snow. A famine in the Carnatic 



' G. Darwin, M.D. Zoonomia, or tlic Laws of Organic Life. London, 1 796. 

 Vol. ii. p. 230. 



