History of Animal Plagues. 517 



distemper much sooner than was expected, when the disease 

 attacked them internally. Thus it was often found that the 

 heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys of these miserable animals were 

 covered on all sides with boils and ulcers. They were in some 

 cases much swollen, in others quite destroyed and hollowed out; 

 one of the kidneys was frequently greatly enlarged, while the 

 other was proportionately shrivelled. The jaw-bones were per- 

 forated, as if they had been bored with an instrument, and the 

 ribs were knit together in a most extraordinary manner. The 

 bones were reduced to a substance resembling gristle, and even 

 the hardest became so tender at the joints, that they might easily 

 be separated from each other. When the entrails that had been 

 diseased were boiled, they shrivelled very remarkably, and, if 

 merely rubbed between the fingers, turned at once to powder. 

 Of these particulars I was an eye-witness; for, when we arrived 

 in Iceland, in the middle of the month of April, 1784, this 

 plague was in its full vigour, and I can with truth assert, that 

 the greater number of the cattle then alive on the island fell vie- 

 tims to the distemper during my stay there. Having said thus 

 much concerning the sickness of the quadrupeds, I will only 

 add, that it has been generally more destructive among the 

 sheep than the horned cattle, and that there are some parishes, 

 amongst which are Muhle and Rangervalle, and others in the 

 west country, where the latter have been comparatively but little 

 affected. 



'According to information that we have received, the disorder 

 has in some degree made its appearance in the districts of Guld- 

 bringue and Kiose, and likewise in various places in the west 

 country ; but still its greatest ravages have been in Skaptcfield, 

 Aarnes, Borgefiorde, Myhrc, and Hnappedal, and, indeed, through 

 the whole of the north of the island. From the east no intelli- 

 gence has yet been received of its having broken out there. In 

 some horses, which I had the opportunity of seeing during my 

 journey to the place of the eruption, the distemper exhibited the 

 same external appearances as in the other cattle ; but the teeth in 

 those I examined were not yet become loose. It was a melancholy 

 sight to see the miserai)le and deplorable state to which tliese 

 poor creatures were reduced. In one instance in particular, it 



