42 
iSxtrart* from iftourttal*, dfamgnanti Domt$tir, 
Epidemics among tiie lower Animals. 
That the coincidence of epizootic diseases with epidemic, 
should have been especially laid hold of by the anti-contagionists, 
is by no means surprising ; for their history, when superficially 
examined, certainly seems inconsistent with the opposite opinion. 
From the earliest times it has been a matter of common observa¬ 
tion, that plagues and murrains among the lower animals, not in¬ 
frequently either preceded or accompanied the visitations to which 
mankind were subjected. Thus, at the siege of Troy, we are told 
by Homer— 
\ V 5 V f/ 
- /xst# o toy eyzs 
Ab ivr) Khxyyr> ysvsT acyvcsoto 
Uv^rjcci [jlzv TTfcjjov zircons to, xca xvvccq apycvg' 
Aurxp iiruT xvrotai /3*Xoj Efptdf, 
BxXX'' —- 
In India we are informed, that poultry and dogs frequently 
perished during the prevalence of cholera, and with similar symp¬ 
toms. At Marienburgh, in Prussia, this year, the fish in the 
large ponds in that government are all said to have perished dur¬ 
ing the prevalence of the epidemic, and forty tons of them were 
buried from the single pond of Dinperburgh. In Warsaw, some 
examples of a disease resembling cholera were also noticed among 
the lower animals. In the Irish and Scottish dysenteries the 
same circumstance has more than once been remarked. In Gib¬ 
raltar, during the yellow fever, parrots, monkeys, cats, and ca¬ 
naries, sickened and died in considerable numbers. 
Now, arranging these curious facts, we find that the only 
authentic cases we have of the epizootic preceding the epidemic, are 
recorded in connexion with irruptions of dysentery. The disease 
described by Homer is supposed, by all the old medical writers, to 
have been dysenteric; and when we consider the frequent con¬ 
nexion established between this malady and various vitiations of 
air, soil, food, See., it will not appear strange that the lower ani¬ 
mals should have shewn a greater sensitiveness to their effects 
than was manifested by armies in a high state of mental and 
bodily excitement. In cholera, the epizootic affection, in the 
few examples in which it has been noticed, occurred contempo¬ 
raneously with the human epidemic. The rarity of the cases 
might alone entitle us to look upon them as accidental coinci¬ 
dences. We know, moreover, that poultry are liable, under 
