HISTORY OF CONTAGIOUS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 
559 
From the beginning of the twelfth century till 1241 took 
place the incursions of the Mongolians, who, as is well known, 
penetrated to Silesia. To these incursions may be traced the 
origin of the disease of cattle which broke out in 1223, 1233, 
1235, an d which undoubtedly was the cattle-plague. The 
first lasted three years and spread out from Hungaria over 
Italy, Germany and England. 
“In the year 1223 there was a great mortality among cattle 
and people, which lasted three years, so that the greater part 
of the cattle perished says the Chronicler. 
In the years 1223 and 1225 a similar disease attacked 
horses and chickens. 
1252. An epidemic of anthrax raged in England. 
1301. Laurentius Rusus speaks as follows concerning an 
epizootic which arose among the horses at Rome: “The 
horse hung his head and refused to eat, its eyes were watery, 
the iliacs continually beat.” This disease was epidemic, and 
from the year 1301 there died in the city more than a thousand 
horses. In 1313 a similar epidemic broke out again in Rome. 
In the great epidemic which attacked men, called the 
“ black death,” horses, cattle, sheep and goats also fell victims. 
1375. A great plague broke out in Germany, confining it¬ 
self to wild beasts, which attacked deer, wolves, bears, wild 
boars and foxes, and almost entirely destroyed them. 
MODERN. 
Modern diseases of cattle have been just as frequent and 
devastating as those of the middle ages; attacking not only 
all the species of domestic animals, but also game and fowls. 
Especially frequent were “anthrax,” chicken-pox, influenza 
among horses; and still more frequent, the cattle-plague, 
which at times almost entirely destroyed the live stock of 
Europe. In many cases these plagues broke out together 
with or as a result of epidemic, as, for example, the small-pox, 
commonly called the “ black death.” Others were caused by 
small harvests, which caused famine. They were also greatly 
aided in their devastating career by the numerous wars of 
this period, especially the Thirty Years War, the war of the 
