550 
J. FAUST. 
was a frequent examination of the back of the sheep. As soon 
as the least redness appeared there the animal was immedi¬ 
ately killed and buried, skin and all. 
This disease, which seems to have occurred very fre¬ 
quently in antiquity, probably corresponds to that in modern 
times called “ Inflammation of the spleen.” 
Plinius and Celous, later on, made the name “ Ignis Sacer ” 
cover all sorts of inflammation of the skin having the nature 
of erysipelas. 
The “ dry scab ” was another disease which frequently 
arose in Italy and caused great mortality among sheep. 
Virgil considers that a cold rain, producing a salty sweat 
and allowed to remain on the skin of sheep after shearing, 
caused this disease. 
The Malleus of Vegetius was a widely spread disease ol 
solipeds which also attacked cattle. 
Both glanders and hydrophobia must have been diseases 
long known, as ancient writers of different periods have 
described them. Aristotle himself describes glanders as a 
sickness of asses under the name “ natis ” its chief symptom 
being a tenacious ropy discharge from the nose. 
Apsyrtus also mentions this disease ; dividing it into two 
forms, the moist and the dry. 
A similar fatal epidemic of animals occurred during the 
so called “ Plague of Antonin,” 190 B. C. 
The nature of this epidemic, however, is not known. 
Cardinal Baronius also mentions an epizootic sickness 
which arose after the predatory incursions of the Huns, and 
extended from Psenonia to the southern part of France. 
The symptoms were, according to the poet Sulpitius 
Severus, a total loss of appetite, sudden loss of strength, 
dizziness, spasmodic convulsions of the limbs, swelling of the 
abdomen, followed very quickly by death. 
Suckling calves rapidly died away, drawing the sickness 
from the diseased udders. 
MIDDLE AGES. 
It is a well known fact that long wars are generally fob 
