704 INFLUENCE OF CHOLERA ON THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
demies in man, there have frequently appeared cholera 
epizootics among the inferior, and especially the domesti- 
cated, animals ; that this cholera in animals resembles that 
of man in its symptomatology and pathology ; and that it 
is communicable, not only between different individuals, but 
between different species and genera, and also to and from 
man. Immediately after the first visitation of cholera to 
Europe, in 1832, several excellent reports appeared on the 
effects of the epidemic poison on the lower animals — the 
best which I have seen being that of the Faculty of Medicine 
at Vienna, relative to the epizootic in Lower Austria, Galicia, 
Moravia, and Bohemia.* The latter narrates that, while no 
animals were exempt from the influence of the “ epidemic 
constitution of the atmosphere,” the disease most closely re- 
sembled human cholera in animals having similar structure 
and habits to man, such as the dog. The chief animals in 
which cholera has been noted to have occurred in Europe, 
are horses, cattle, dogs, cats, and poultry, — or, in other 
words, the domestic animals ; while in India, and other 
foreign countries, in addition, racoons, camels, zebras, and 
monkeys have been mentioned. Records also mention a 
number of other animals, but the evidence is not so conclu- 
sive, as I shall immediately show. Few additions have been 
made to our knowledge of the subject since 1832; but the 
scattered cases which are occasionally recorded, are of suffi- 
cient interest to show how much remains to be observed. A 
recent letter from Dr. Furlong, Antigua, t states that, during 
the prevalence of cholera at Trinidad, travellers, in passing 
through the woods, found the monkeys in large numbers 
dying and dead of the disease ; and he remarks, that domes- 
ticated or pet monkeys were equally affected. It is of inter- 
est to know, that the same animals in Trinidad were similarly 
affected by variola when it was epidemic. It has frequently 
been observed in this country, that, prior to or during epi- 
demics of cholera, there have been extensive and sudden 
diseases in cultivated plants, such as the potato, and in do- 
mestic as well as wild animals, such as cattle, horses, sheep, 
rabbits and hares, poultry, game, crows, sparrows, and other 
birds, and even fish. But there is no conclusive evidence 
that the disease was, in these cases, cholera. The coinci- 
dence in date would, however, point to something more than 
an accidental relationship. In many of the recorded cases 
of cholera in the lower animals, the arguments in favour of 
* A most interesting abstract will be found in the ‘ British and Foreign 
Medical Review, ’ January, 1837. 
f ‘ Lancet,’ December 2, 1851. 
