244 
ON EPIZOOTIC DISEASES. 
The eleventh also devastated our country in 1103, and the 
ravages were dreadful. 
The 12th was chiefly fatal in Germany, and particularly in 
Gueldres. It was most prev-alent in 1149. 
These twenty pestilences occurred in the space of 506 years. 
Five or six of them were most prevalent among cattle ; two were 
almost confined to horses ; twelve included, to a greater or less 
degree, almost every species of quadruped ; and four extended to 
the human being. Among these the ravages of eight were most 
destructive in France, as many in Germany, and four in Italy 
and England*. 
From this hasty sketch of the epidemics of early times, we may 
be disposed to conclude — and we should not be very wrong in our 
conjecture if we had time and space to pursue our inquiries — 
that Germany and France are more subject to epizootic diseases 
than the other countries of Europe ; and it will appear hereafter, 
when we are able to have recourse to the proper historical records, 
that this pestilence has been more prevalent in Germany than in 
France. 
So far as we have hitherto proceeded, it will also appear that 
cattle are more subject to these diseases than any other species of 
domesticated animals, and that the pestilence is always most fearful 
among them. It is also evident that the maladies which proceed 
from cold or humidity are more frequent in the temperate and 
southern parts of Europe than those which depend upon drought, 
or almost any other cause. 
It might likewise be observed — if we had time and space — that 
almost all the epizootics of cattle and sheep proceed from the 
eastern regions of Europe, and that they are, comparatively, of 
short duration there, because the pestilence sweeps every thing 
before it Pliny, in his ‘‘Natural History ,” gives some very 
striking illustrations of this. 
The malady lingers in different countries in proportion to its 
want of power to accomplish at once all its devastations. 
After this time there are few satisfactory accounts of these dis- 
eases for more than five centuries. We only know, that, occa- 
sionally suspending their ravages, or, rather, visiting new districts 
when they had ceased to desolate others, they continued to be 
objects of terror, and instruments of devastation, even unto the 
present day ; and it is only within a few years that they have 
been really understood, and have become, to a certain degree, 
manageable. 
* We again refer our readers to that most valuable work by M. Paulet, 
“ Recherches Historiques et Physiques sur les Maladies Epizootiques.” 
