56 ON DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 



imparted by inoculation, was exactly similar to that 

 communicated by natural infection ; that it was of a 

 much milder nature ; as also that animals infected in 

 this way, resisted both natural contagion and the 

 consequences of inoculation. The malady proved 

 extremely destructive in Holland; of 286,647 affect- 

 ed, 208,354 died. In 1771 the disease broke out in 

 Picardy, by the introduction of a diseased cow, and 

 after being subdued, appeared again in 1773 with re- 

 doubled violence. Numerous remedies were tried, 

 but their inefficiency being proved, the extirpation 

 of the malady was sought in the destruction of the 

 animals, by strangulation, without the effusion of 

 blood, and their carcases buried with their hides en^- 

 tire. Similar ordinances were promulgated in 

 France, with their hides cut to pieces, to prevent 

 the traffic in them, and that all the fodder, litter, and 

 whatever else which might communicate the conta- 

 gion should be buried with them. By these and oth- 

 er prudent regulations, this, which was one of the 

 epizooties best characterized in history, was re- 

 pressed. 



During the period that contagious distempers swept 

 away the cattle of Europe, a malady, even more rap- 

 id in its progress, appeared in the West Indies. Its 

 effects seem to have been more minutely traced in 

 Guadaloupe, where it first attacked black cattle, 

 then horses, and afterwards spread to men. Animals 

 apparently well, in good condition, and feeding as 

 usual, were suddenly seized with shivering fits, at- 

 tended by convulsions in the spine and abdomen, 

 which sometimes carried them off in an hour. Almost 



