264 
THE CATTLE PLAGUE IN SPAIN. 
when they ravaged any of its provinces; and lastly^ the 
situation and natural saluhritv of its climate, all seemed to 
guarantee it from their effects, and assure its tranquillity. 
Suddenly, however, it was reported, that in the month of 
June, 1774, a disease similar to that which desolated Holland 
and Picardy, had unexpectedly manifested itself, without any 
apparent cause to be discovered in the air, waters, or pas¬ 
tures, at the extremity of France, a few leagues from Bayonne. 
Some said it first appeared at Villefranca, others at Saint- 
Jean-pied-de-Port, on the Nive, in Lower Navarre. However 
that might be, every one knew that a cargo of raw hides from 
Holland or Artois, and whichhad been disembarked at Bayonne, 
from whence they, were carried to one of these places to be 
tanned, was the real cause of the malady. 
The contagion once introduced was not slow in developing 
itself, and extending east, west, north, and south, causing great 
havoc. In this part of France, it was reported upon by several 
eminent authorities, and deeply engaged public attention. A 
list of the writers and the articles on this visitation I give be¬ 
low.* In the mean time we have to do with Spain. And here 
I must express my regret that the few veterinary writers of the 
last century belonging to that country, and to which I have 
been able to refer, afford us but slender information of the 
maladies then prevailing either in their own or the adjoining 
kingdoms. Villalba,t however, who had every facility for 
making investigations of this kind, in his classical work on 
the epidemics of Spain, fortunately gives us the following 
account:—On the Ilth July, 1774, the Marquis de Basse- 
court. General Commandant of Guipuscoa (a frontier pro¬ 
vince of Spain), reported to the Supreme Board of Health, 
that in the province of Labourd, in the kingdom of France, 
* Secondat. ‘ Observations sur I’etat Actuel de I’Epizootie aux Environs 
de Toulouse/ 1775. Mournal de Physique/ 1775. 
Grignon. " Hist, de la Maladie Contagieuse qui s’est declaree au Hameau 
de la Neuville en Champagne/ 1766. 
Bacherat. ‘Dissert, sur la MaladieEpizootique duBetail/1777. ‘Mem. 
de la Soc. Roy, de Medicine/ 1779. 
Doazan. ‘ Mem. sur la Maladie Epizootique regnante/ Bordeaux, 1774. 
Vic d’Azgr. ‘Observations pour Preserver les Animaux Sain de la Conta¬ 
gion/etc., Paris, 1775. ‘Instructions sur la maniere de Desinfecter les 
Villages,’ Paris, 1775. 
Bellerocq. ‘Recherches sur la Maladie Epizootique,’ etc., Bordeaux, 
1774. ‘Avisredige sur les Memoires du Directeur de I’Ecole Veterinaire,’ 
Paris, 1774. 
Faur de Beafuort. ‘Consultation sur la Maladie Epiz. qui regne en 
Guyenne,’ Bordeaux. 
Prat. ‘Gazette d’Agriculture,’ Peb. 28, 1775, ‘Consultation de I’Uni- 
versite de Med. de Montpellier,’ 1775. 
t ‘ Epidemiologia Espanola,’ vol. ii, p. 229. 
