ON DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 51 



an epizooty that prevailed in 1663, and were thought 

 to be the cause of the distemper. Analogous symp- 

 toms, though not equally fatal, attacked almost the 

 whole cattle in the Danish territory, in 1674. 



*' France was visited by an epizooty, among the 

 black cattle, in 1682. The animal functions were 

 uninterrupted until the attack, when sudden death 

 ensued. This was accompanied by a gangrene of 

 the tongue, which came away in pieces. Those who 

 attended the cattle, are said to have been infected 

 by the disease and to have died. Its progress was 

 regular, and marched with astonishing rapidity, at the 

 rate of 12 miles a day. Thus it spread from the 

 frontiers of Italy to Poland. Between the years 

 1705 and 1711, a distemper called the flying chancre 

 or bubo, which the latest authors denominate a real 

 plague or murrain, was found to be making terrible 

 ravages in Europe. It had been imported by a sin- 

 gle ox, brought into the Venitian states from Hunga- 

 ry and Dalmatia ; and it was thence disseminated 

 throughout the Roman territory and the kingdom of 

 Naples, sweeping away almost the whole cattle in its 

 progress. It did not reach France till 1714 ; and in 

 the same year, having been some time prevalent in 

 Britain, the most vigorous means to repress it were 

 adopted by government. All the animals were order- 

 ed to be destroyed that were attacked with it, and 

 buried deep in the earth, and a compensation allow- 

 ed to those who thus lost their property. The vio- 

 lence of the disease did not last above three months, 

 during which time the counties of Essex, Middlesex, 

 and Surrey, lost 5857 cattle. At this time it was ob- 



