History of Animal Plagues. ^'^'^^ 



not unfrequently happens that the autumn is very rainy and 

 accompanied by thick fogs and cold winds when they are de- 

 pastured there. From a similar cause, this accident was very 

 prevalent towards the end of November, 1792, and, indeed, 

 became epizootic among the cows belonging to the farmers of 

 Lanzo. So serious did it become in the pastures around Turin, 

 that the number amounted to about seventy.' ^ 



Epizootic dysentery caused great destruction among the 

 horses and cattle lodged in the casemates, during the siege of 

 Mayence. It was supposed to have been induced by insuffi- 

 cient or improper food, and a neglect of cleanliness and ventil- 

 ation.^ 



A.D. 1793. The winter was cold, the spring dry, and the 

 summer one of the hottest on record for a hundred years. A 

 curious incursion of lemmings [Myodes Norvegicus) took place in 

 a district of Lapland. ' In August, 1793, an incredible number 

 of mountain-mice, called lemmar, descended upon Enontekis, and 

 in the followino; summer some were still seen scattered here and 

 there; whereas, during forty years nothing of the kind had ever ap- 

 peared before, nor have any of them been seen since.' ^ Dysentery 

 and yellow fever w-ere severely felt as epidemics in America, and 

 the last-named disease was very deadly in the West India is- 

 lands. In Europe, dysentery was very prevalent, and at the same 

 time anthracoid diseases destructive in the lower animals; more 

 especially was the latter class of diseases common in France, 

 accordincr to the statement of Gilbert. 'The extraordinary and 

 sudden heat in the summer of 1793, developed the germs of this 

 destructive pest. In addition to this, the damp mouldy fodder of 

 the previous year had predisposed those which fed on it. At the 

 commencement of the hot weather, carbuncular diseases appeared 

 in the departments of the Nievre, of the Upper and Lower 

 Rhine, Vicnne, and of the Indre, as well as other of the south- 

 ern departments. Citizen Godin treated this disease in the 

 districts of Belac and St Innien with much success, and ])ub- 

 lished an excellent treatise on his experience of it. He remarked 



' Toggia. Malattic dci Buoi, vol. ii. p. 313. 

 "^ Nouveau Diet. &c., Vcterinaires, art. * Dysenteric' 



' Clark. Travels in various Countries of Scandinavia, &c. T.nndon, 1838, vol. 

 i. p. 410. 



