HISTORY OF CONTAGIOUS ANI) INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 555 
431 and 430 B. C. Livy informs us that the last one was 
communicated to man by mere touch. 
He called this disease “ Scabies.” But it is probable that 
he applied this name to all forms of sheep-pox. Other epi¬ 
demical diseases broke out 309 B. C., and also 278 B. C. The 
chief characteristic of the latter was an epidemic abortion 
which became so wide-spread that it was feared that all 
animal life would die out. (Orosu Hist. IV 2). 
After the taking of Agrigent, 212 B. C ., a plague broke 
out in Sicily, a description of which is given us by the poet 
Silisis Italiens (Liber XIX, 580-626). This attacked dogs, 
horses and cattle, and seems to have been, in general, a con¬ 
tagious disease of the lungs. Livy reports another epidemic, 
which broke out in Italy during the consulship of Petilius. 
The writers of this time (Cato, Varro, Lucrez), especially 
Luires, mention, beside the scabies in sheep, also another 
disease which was called ‘‘ Ignis Sacer ”—“ The Holy Fire.” 
This is also that disease which Thucydides mentions in 
his description of the plague in Athens, 
The nature of this disease is best understood from the 
description given bv Virgil in his Georgus. He describes 
several, according to the different forms of animal life at¬ 
tacked. The symptoms of this disease in horses were : A 
sinking of strength and spirit, and a total loss of appetite; 
their ears droop; they paw the ground, and, a short while 
before death, their skin becomes dry and hard, and cold and 
uneven sweats ensue. Plaintive cries, followed soon after by 
death, were the indications of this disease in sheep. One 
could see them dying in heaps. Virgil advised that the hide 
should also be buried, since the wool could not be cleaned, 
either by fire or water. If anyone wore the wool, sweats 
would appear on those parts of the body touched by the wool, 
which were followed by malignant pustules which ate into the 
flesh. Columella also reports (Lib. page 250) that, if this 
disease was not checked on its first appearance, it soon at¬ 
tacked the entire herd. Nothing was of any help, neither 
iron nor medicine. The expedient of Bolus Mendesius was 
alone useful in checking the progress of the disease. This 
