518 
PROFESSOR SIMONDS’ LECTURE. 
second division of his subject; namely, the consideration of that 
very destructive disease which had lately affected cattle, and which 
had produced sad ravages in this country, and, as such, was one 
which he had no doubt would excite the interest of all present. 
The name given to this disease was Pleuro-pneumonia; and 
although there might not be much in a name, nevertheless he 
thoght it right to state, that one more inappropriate could scarcely 
have been chosen. Pleuro-pneumonia would at once lead medical 
men to believe that the disease was inflammation of the pleura, 
extending to the lungs. When, however, he told them that this 
disease was not, in any one of its stages, inflammatory, he thought 
they would say with him, that it was one which should not be 
called Pleuro-pneumonia: the term was calculated to lead to false 
treatment. He would take a glance at the epizootics which had 
visited the countries of Europe from the earliest history of man down 
to the present time. Mention was made of the plagues of Egypt; 
and we also read of the murrain in the pages of holy writ. Homer, 
900 years before Christ, frequently alluded to their ravages in 
Greece. Virgil, Ovid, and others described their outbreaks in 
Italy. They were viewed as contagious; but this murrain was not 
the pleuro-pneumonia of the present day, which by some was con¬ 
sidered as a disease of recent date. But whether that be disputed 
or not, it was a question worthy of their notice; therefore it was on 
those grounds that he should speak of these epizootics, some of which 
had visited this country. In 810 they had it recorded that all the 
cattle in the Emperor Charlemagne’s dominions—that was in 
Germany—were swept off. During the time of the dark ages, the 
accounts appeared to be very imperfect; but in 1509 there was a 
recurrence of these outbreaks. In 1514, and again in 1599, beef 
and veal were forbidden to be eaten by the Council of Venice, on 
account of its diseased condition. In 1691 sheep were destroyed 
by thousands, by pustular eruptions in various parts of their body 
—or small pox. In 1693, pulmonary phthisis destroyed the 
cattle in Hesse, and vegetables were said to have been affected with 
the red rust, which was supposed to be its cause. In 1713, Rome 
and its neighbourhood suffered to an extraordinary extent, and 
30,000 head of cattle were said to have died in nine months of 
malignant dysentery, and with tumours and ulcers on the body. 
In 1730, Bohemia, Saxony, &c., and in the following year France, 
suffered much from the prevalence of a similar disease among the 
cattle. 
In 1745, Holland, France, Germany, and England were visited 
—and in his opinion—by the disease called pleuro-pneumonia. 
In a little pamphlet written in 1735, by Dr. Barker, the malady 
was described as an affection of the lungs preceded by a husky 
cough. Dr. Barker also said that the acute symptoms were 
