402 
ON EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 
mal. The incomprehensible story was again revived — there were 
no veterinary surgeons yet — that the beast continued to eat and 
to drink, and to appear well, until the tongue fell piecemeal from 
the mouth. 
The cause of the disease was supposed to be the same as in 
1682, and it fared even worse with the horse than it did with the 
ox. 
In 1743 and 1744 it appeared again, with increased fury in 
the north of France, and great part of Germany. 
In 1745, it laid Holland waste a second time. More than 
200,000 cattle now perished. 
In the same year, it again found its way to thecoastof Britain. 
It seems to have been clearly brought to us from Holland, al- 
though there are two versions of the story. 
Dr. Mortimer says that it<was imported by means of two white 
calves which a farmer at Poplar sent for, in order to cross his own 
breed ; and that it spread into Berkshire by means of two cows 
that were brought out of Essex. The other account is, that one 
of our tanners bought a parcel of distempered hides in Zealand, 
which were forbidden to be sold there, and should have been 
buried, and so transplanted this dreadful disease among us. 
“ Thus by one man’s unlawful gain,” says Dr. Layard, “if by 
this way it was conveyed, the ruin of many graziers and farmers 
was effected.” It is certain, however, that the pest first appeared 
in the immediate neighbourhood of London, and on the Essex 
side of the river, and that thence it gradually spread through 
Essex and Hertfordshire, and the whole of the kingdom. 
For more than twelve years it continued to lay waste the coun- 
try. The number of beasts that were actually destroyed by it 
was not, and perhaps could not be, ascertained ; but in the third 
year of the plague, when the government had so seriously taken 
up the matter as to order that every beast that exhibited the 
slightest mark of infection should be destroyed, a remuneration 
being made to the owner, no fewer that 80,000 cattle were 
slaughtered, besides those which died of the disease, and which 
formed, according to the narration of one of the commissioners, 
nearly double that number. In the fourth year of the plague 
they were destroyed at the rate of 7000 per month, until, from 
the numerous impositions that were practised, a portion of the 
preventive regulations was suspended. 
In the year 1747, more than 40,000 cattle died in Notting- 
hamshire and Leicestershire, and in Cheshire 30,000 died in 
about half a year. 
The symptoms of the disease are best described by Drs. 
Brocklesby and Hird, who, with many other medical men, exert- 
ed themselves in the most praiseworthy manner, to ascertain the 
