History of Animal Plagues. 521 



previous years, appeared this year in the Island of Grenada in a 

 most severe form. We are indebted to Mr Chishohii for a de- 

 scription of it; and, as Heusinger remarks, this description is not 

 only important with regard to the epizooty itself, but to veterinary 

 surgeons and others it is most worthy of notice, from the fact that 

 it may serve to explain the famous ' milk disease ' of modern days 

 which has appeared in the United States of America, and also 

 because it is the only epizooty of this kind in which the con- 

 comitance of malignant angina in man can be placed beyond a 

 doubt. Chisholm says: Mn the year 1783, in the Island of 

 Grenada in the West Indies, a very sinoular coincidence took 

 place. Late in that year the cynanche maligna appeared in 

 several parts of the island, for the first time observed, I believe, 

 by the oldest inhabitant in that or any other of the West Indian 

 islands. The symptoms of this disease were most violent, and 

 its rapidity to a fatal termination most alarmin<i;. But the cir- 

 cumstances which o;ave the greatest singularity to this disease 

 was its concomitancy with a contagious distemper of a very ex- 

 traordinary nature, — an epidemic among the cattle and mules in 

 the same parts of the island wherein the cynanche maligna ap- 

 peared. Both were new and unknown, and both were concomi- 

 tant, insomuch as to render it difficult to perceive whether they 

 proceeded from a cause common to both, or whether the cy- 

 nanche was an effect on the human race of an imported con- 

 tagion, which seemed peculiarly, in the first instance, to affect 

 the horned cattle and mules. These animals whilst feeding, and 

 apparently in perfect health, in the pastures, suddenly fell down 

 dead. The malignity of the disease had so rapid a progress, that 

 seldom could other symptoms, or rather any symptoms, be ob- 

 served : — sometimes a few minutes before death the animals were 

 languid, lay down, and neglected their food. Sometimes a swell- 

 ing of the glands of the throat formed a large tumour, which 

 might be perceived for some days before death ; but though this 

 swelling sometimes suppurated, and though the matter was dis- 

 charged, it never proved critical. On dissection, the whole course 

 of the trachea or oesophagus, the stomach, and greater jiart of the 

 intestines, were found in an niflamed or gangrenous state. \'arious 

 modes of cure were adopted, Init, except in a few cases, always 



