History of Animal Plagues. 529 



There was a great epizooty among fowls in Upper Italv, 

 which has been described bv Dr Baronio. It was contagious 

 and very deadly. Baronio says : ' The disease manifested itself 

 by an universal dulness, which was accompanied by a grave 

 diminution of strength ; the combs were perceptibly flabby and 

 pendulous ; the interior of the mouth was covered with a viscid 

 matter; the anus was very red, and the feathers looked soiled 

 and shrivelled. To these phenomena there succeeded fever, 

 which was revealed by the sudden and great heat that could be 

 felt under the win^s and in the limbs. The fowls looked ex- 

 cessively dull ; they drooped their wings, and their crests became 

 livid ; the feathers became curled up under the head ; they refused 

 all food and water, and death soon ensued,^ Examinations of 

 the dead bodies of these fowls were made by Monteggia and I'er- 

 lasca; the lungs were perceived to be more or less inflamed, and 

 often covered with a great exudation of plastic lymph ; the liver 

 was healthy ; in the crop and the stom.ach grains of oats were 

 found blackened, but not otherwise changed ; the intestines were 

 filled by a large quantity of greenish mucus, but sometimes this 

 was of a reddish tinge like the mucus of dysentery; in all those 

 opened after death round worms {ascarides), in great numbers, 

 were found in the intestines. The dead bodies soon passed into 

 a state of putrefaction. The mortality began to show itself in 

 the beginning of September, 1789, around Pavia, and from thence 

 northwards in Lumellina, Casale, Vercelli, and other places to- 

 wards the mountainous districts ; while southerly, it advanced 

 to Milan and the lower Milanese territories. In August, 1790, 

 it was still reigning, and a tremendous loss of fowls had been 

 the consequence of its visitation ; in a single village, for example, 

 in a few days three hundred fowls had l)cen destroyed by it. 

 Its propagation by contagion was proved by many and frequent 

 observations, and it was undoubtedly demonstrated that those 

 fowls which were kejjt entirely apart from diseased ones 

 escaped.^ 



^ G. Baronio. Sulla Corrcnte Epidcmiadelle Pollastre. Milan. 17S9. 



* Sec also Toi^i:;ia. Sloria dclla Costituzionc Vermin, cd Epizootica dci Polli, 

 in the 'Giomale Scientifica et Letterar. di Torino.' 1798. Bnii^iiotic. Dcscrizione 

 dcir Epizoozia dell Galline serpeggiante in (jucsla ciltJl. Milan, 1790. 



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