242 
ON EPIZOOTIC DISEASES. 
swept away. It seemed to be principally an affection of the 
head — a wandering and wildness which soon terminated in ef- 
fusion on the brain. It followed a season of more than usual 
drought. This was said to be connected with the agency of pes- 
tilential vapours, produced by the frequency of earthquakes in 
various parts of the globe, and from the depths of which some 
vapours had escaped, not cognizable to the senses, but destructive 
of life. 
Professor Sewell, of the Royal Veterinary College, has ex- 
pressed the same opinion, and has attributed the late epidemics 
to some strange convulsion of nature, some extraordinary extrica- 
tion of mephitic vapours from the bowels of the earth. There 
appears to be no reason for this. In no one case in ancient or 
modern times has it been proved that these epidemics have been 
preceded or accompanied by any of these terrestrial commotions, 
although there can be no doubt that some destructive atmo- 
spheric influence is the grand, or the sole cause, of these diseases. 
Atmospheric influence these destructive maladies are, evidently, 
connected with. It is the main agent in the rise and progress of 
epidemic disease, and honoured will he be who can trace and 
destroy this connexion. It would be a triumph worthy of a life 
of industry to accomplish. 
Little now occurs worthy of notice until the year 801, and at 
the commencement of the reign of Charlemagne, when an epi- 
demic disease devastated a great part of his dominions. This 
was attributed to the villainy of the Duke of Benevento, who was 
said to have employed a great many persons in scattering an en- 
chanted powder over the fields, which destroyed both the cattle 
and the food of the cattle. M. Paulel. seems inclined to give 
full credence to this, and says that history offers many proofs of 
this destructive and diabolical practice. He affirms that many 
persons were punished in Germany, France, and particularly at 
Toulouse, for the commission of this crime. Several of the sus- 
pected agents of these atrocities were put to the torture, and made 
full confession of their crime. 
Of the occurrence of this disease, from the year 810 to 1316 — 
an interval of mental darkness, and of horrors and calamities of 
every kind — history records twenty cases, more or less destructive, 
and extending, with greater or less devastation, over Fiance and 
Germany, Italy and England. Of these twenty, four date their 
origin from an excessive degree of moisture in the air, accompanied 
by almost continual rains, and flooding of the country to a con- 
siderable extent. One was supposed to be the consequence of 
long-continued drought and excessive heat ; one was traced to 
the influence of an eclipse of the sun ; another to a comet; and a 
