ON DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 53 



hibition was issued against holding it, in order to pre- 

 vent the dispersion of the cattle. However, the dri- 

 vers rather than be disappointed of a market, con- 

 ducted them privately to Rome, and sold at a low 

 price. Immediately afterwards, a contagious dis- 

 temper spread through the whole Roman territory, 

 and destroyed 300,000 animals. Notwithstanding 

 precautions were used, such as burying the diseased 

 cattle, interdicting the sale of their flesh, untoward ac- 

 cidents happened ; and contagion was disseminated 

 by the skin. But at different places in France, 

 guards were placed, to prevent any cattle from ap- 

 proaching them, whereby the stock was preserved in 

 health, though the malady was making rapid advances 

 in the surrounding country. 



The Marquis de Courtioron instituted numerous 

 experiments, regarding this distemper, from which he 

 concluded that it exhibited itself on the fourth day 

 from infection, that the ninth was the crisis, and that 

 the contagion could spread only from direct commu- 

 nication between two animals. In the course of the 

 year 1746, a new remedy, inoculation, had been at- 

 tempted at Brunswick, and in an epizooty which 

 appeared in Holland, the same remedy was repeated 

 in 1755, though with little success, and recommend- 

 ed by Dr. Lagard in 1757. The distemper in the 

 latter country was considered absolutely similar to 

 small pox; and the infection was said to have been 

 brought from Holland by two white calves of a fa- 

 vorite breed, or by two skins of diseased animals. 

 Whatever was the cause many animals perished of 

 it. Different epizooties appeared about the same 



