58 ON DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 



escaped were attacked by severe swellings, in the up- 

 per lip and cheeks, which broke out and left great 

 scars. 



Besides these epizooties of which a general histor- 

 ical view has been given, others, extremely rapid in 

 their progress and destructive in their effects, could 

 be detailed, and their sources might admit of various 

 conjectures. Most of those which attack the larger 

 and more important animals, bear a strong resem- 

 blance to the plague among mankind. They have 

 been traced, in some instances at least, to miasmata, 

 which if not the origin of such a terrible malady, un- 

 questionably foster its germs, and they are more de- 

 structive in all regions during the same period that 

 the plague is most fatal. Probably some animals are 

 exclusively the victims of certain epizooties, while 

 others of different genera may escape unhurt ; but it 

 is to be doubted whether any races are totally ex- 

 empt from them. Thus we are told that the fish of 

 the Lake of Constance perished from a general mor- 

 tality in 1722. We have seen that many of the feath- 

 ered tribes occasionally suffer, in different countries ; 

 infectious disorders frequently prevail among dogs ;; 

 and a contagious distemper attacked the cats of 

 Westphalia in 1682; while the same species were 

 almost extirpated from the Feroe islands by an epi- 

 zooty, in 1798. It is not an improbable theory that 

 entire genera of animals, once inhabiting the surface 

 of the earth, or the waters, are now extinct from 

 contagious maladies. 



In the first or second volume of the New England 

 Farmer, mention is made of a contagious disease 





