OK ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



241 



have presented the characters of this. Its course was extraordinarily rapid ; it began 

 with a slight headache, a forerunner 1 of death (ita nt modico quisquia (varolii* capitis 

 dolore, pulsatus, animam funderet). These morbid characters can no mere bo consid- 

 ered ergotism than the very vague statement that near Limoges several were con- 

 sumed by the feu celeste with which some were burned in Tourraine (nonnulli ab hoc 

 igne sunt adusti) At the same time a very fatal epizootic occurred which did not spare 

 the deer. A groat drought had destroyed the herbage ; it followed rains and inunda- 

 tions, conditions favorable to the evolution of charbonnous diseases. A fact support- 

 ing this view, as well as the opinion of Fuohs, is that rye, which is an Asiatic plant, 

 was only introduced into cultivation during the Middle Ages (Link). Admitting, 

 what is supposed, that Europe is indebted foritto the invasion of the Huns, it is still 

 very necessary to take into account the condition of this part of the world before 

 concluding that at the end of the sixth century the new cereal had become generalized 

 and had entered into the regular agricultural rotation of Gaul. 



All the epidemics of feu sacre correspond to years which were characterized by a 

 rigorous wint er followed by a very rainy summer, causing a deficiency in the harvests, 

 and bringing scarcity and famine. The epidemics began about the month of Septem- 

 ber or October and terminated in the spring, unless the atmospheric condition of the 

 following year continued to be fatal to the products of the earth. No mention is made 

 of great epidemics of feu saare during years which were characterized by productive- 

 ness, but local epidemics are met with which were circumscribed within the limits 

 where the center of ergotism still exists in our days, and which comprises la Sologne, 

 le Dauphinc, le Lyonnaise, la Lorraine, and VArtois. 



If we take into account the conditions which concur in the evolution of feu sacre, it 

 may be established, it pHori, that the sanitary state of the domestic animals was not 

 more favorable t han that of the human species, and that epizootics should have been 

 more frequent than they are mentioned by the chroniclers. Are indications found in 

 their annals which authorize us to attribute these epizootics to the same source, that 

 is, to the feu sacre? This question cannot be solved; more than that, the accounts 

 themselves forbid an hypothesis relative to the form and nature of simultaneous dis- 

 eases. It is sufficient to cite this passage from the chronicle of St. Bavon, referring 

 to the year 1127 : Flaga divina Franciam ejjliqit, ignis scilicet corpora crucians. Pestilen- 

 tia maxima facta est animalium. What was this plague of animals ? Formulated in 

 this manner it is impossible to conjecture. If in the presence of such profound ob- 

 scurities we are permitted to hazard an opinion, we would say that in all probability 

 the food of the animals did not consist of rye in these calamitous years when scarcity 

 and famine were general, and when the cause of feu sacre was unknown. Removed 

 from the toxic factor, they did not escape its powerful accessories, and the diseases 

 which decimated the herds must have been other than ergotism.* Perhaps the first 

 epidemic of feu sacre which ravaged Portugal in 1189 was an exception, and it may be 

 necessary to attribute the concomitant epizootic to ergotism. It is thus described : 

 Hujus etiam tempore morbi nunquam, ante, vislingruebant, fei-ventissimis intra viscera ar- 

 dorib us, quib us homines quasi quadamrabie exagitabantur. Exorta etiam fames, frugihus 

 1am vi tempestatis, quam ver minibus comtplis, ct lues non minus nocens pecori quamhomini- 

 bus el multor\um rclicta; vacua; posscssionibus (C. P. Heusinger, Fuchs). 



The uncertainty relative to the form and nature of the epizootics is one of the most 

 common facts in the records of the Middle Age. Thus the beginning of the famous 

 black plague in 1347 was preceded in several countries by epizootics no less fatal. 

 In primis hiec acerba pestis in brutis animaUbus incokavit ; scabies et lepra; totaliter ap- 

 primebant equos, bores, peendes, et tapras ; ita utpili de dorsi ipsorum depilabantur et cade- 

 bant et efficiebantur macri ct debilcs, et post paucos dies moriebantur. Deindv incipit ha;c 

 rabiosa pestis per universum mundum discurrendo in miserabiles homines lethaliter scevire 

 (Cutteis). This passage evidently refers to a gangrenous affection, which has noth- 

 ing in common with feu sacre, for with the exception of the epidemic of Brittany, 

 which occurred at the beginning of the black plague, no traces of ergotism are found 

 until 1373, when it appeared anew in France (Tessier). 



During the whole period of the Middle Age but rare epidemics of feu sacre are men- 

 tioned in the north of Europe. Heusinger believes that those of the fifteenth and six- 

 teenth centuries, designated by the name of scorbutus, belonged to ergotism. This 

 opinion appears to us to have foundation; in fact the celebrated botanist, Dodonams, 

 described the epidemic of scorbutus, which occurred in Belgium in 1556, and was 

 characterized by gangrene of various parts of the body. He attributed it to the 

 spoiled grain which was imported from Prussia, and says iu another work {Historia 

 frumentonim, Anio., 1569), that bread made from spoiled rye (seigle altcre') causes the 

 disease called by the Germans scorbutus. The gangrenous form of this affection, 

 which did not conform exactly to that observed in France and Spain, was replaced 

 in the course of the sixteenth century by the convulsive form. When the epidemics 



* The author appears to have overlooked the fact that such a disease might have 

 been produced by ergotized grasses. — D. E. S. 



16 A — '81 



