200 Scientific Intelligence. — Ethnography. 



has an unpleasant flavour. The qualities of this milk and its 

 action upon the animal economy will be examined, and it will be 

 also considered if chemistry cannot suggest some means by which 

 its disagreeable taste may be removed. — Formerly the island was 

 rich in flocks of sheep, but these were greatly reduced by a fear- 

 ful epidemic of ten years' 1 duration from 1750 to 1 760. Inquiry 

 will be made as to the nature and origin of this disease. A 

 Swedish nobleman discovered a powder, which was very success- 

 ful as a cure, and which is still employed in Denmark and Nor- 

 way. The composition of this remedy will, if possible, be dis- 

 covered. — When the flocks are shut up during the winter in the 

 caverns, they sometimes suffer so prodigiously from hunger, that 

 they eat the wool from their backs. In consequence of this, a 

 sensation of weight is produced in the stomach, which much mi- 

 tigates the uneasiness of hunger, and this expedient seems to be 

 frequently had recourse to by all animals under similar circum- 

 stances. Hence those extraordinary balls known under the 

 name of cegagropiles. The islanders are acquainted with a me- 

 thod by which they rid the sheep of these balls, and it will be 

 important to learn what these means are. It will also be ascer- 

 tained whether the sheep have four or five horns ; if these drop 

 off in their growth ; and also if it be true that the Iceland dogs 

 never bark, but only growl, as in Greenland. — A number of in- 

 quiries suggest themselves, which have especially to do with the 

 medical art. The first complaint concerning which inquiry 

 should be made, is that which was known under the name of 

 Digerd6id, and which, according to M. Ibre, constituted the 

 great plague of the fourteenth century. Inquiry will be made 

 concerning the direction from which it penetrated into Iceland, 

 where it again manifested itself in 1402 and 1404, and where it 

 has never since been seen. — The leprosy of the island, if we be- 

 lieve the characteristics given of it by authors, resembles neither 

 the leprosy of Greenland, nor that described by Moses, which in 

 fact is scarcely ever met with in the East, nor that of the Greeks, 

 nor that of the Crimea, so accurately described by Pallas, and 

 which has propagated itself to Astracan. It would be desirable 

 to know if it were analogous with the malady of the province of 

 Austurias in Spain, or, as M. Bceck thinks, with that of Mar- 

 tigues, and especially with that of Syria and Egypt. But it is 



