This same, disease seems to have made its way into Picardy, by the introduction of a diseased cow, as was supposed, from the Low Countries, in the year 1771; and after being subdued, broke out with redoubled vio lence in 1773. Its first and principal ravages were in the province of Hainault and Picardy, whence it became widely extended. Numerous remedies were tried, but their inefficacy being proved, the extirpation of the ma lady was sought in the destruction of the infected ani mals. This disease, after minute observations by many intelligent persons, was identified with that which had been so fatal in the years 1711 and 1745, and though dif ferent symptoms were exhibited in the animals attacked, it was as before judged to be the same in all. But Vicq d'Azyr now made experiments, tending to estab lish, that inoculation was not an effectual antidote; and the result is said to have coincided with the experiments of the Marquis de Courtivron some time before. The British government had adopted the precaution, of or dering all infected cattle to be killed by strangulation, and without effusion of blood ; that their carcases should be buried deep in the earth, with the hide entire ; and that all fodder, litter, and every thing else which might communicate the contagion, should be buried along with them. Similar ordinances were promulgated by the go vernment of France, and renewed for several years, strictly enjoining the destruction of diseased animals, and that their carcases should be buried, and their skins cut in pieces, in order to prevent any dealings for them. Indemnification was promised to those who thus lost their property, and a premium offered to whoever should substitute horses or mules for cattle in agricultural ope rations. By these and other prudent regulations, this, which is one of the epizooties best characterized in his tory, was repressed.
During the period that contagious distempers swept away the cattle of Europe, a malady even more rapid in its progress appeared among those of the West In dies. Its effects seem to have been more minutely traced in Guadalonpe, where it first attacked black cattle, then spread to horses, and is said even to have affected man. Animals apparently well, in good condition, and feeding as usual, were suddenly seized with shivering fits, at tended by convulsions in the spine and abdomen, which sometimes carried them off in an hour. Almost all the negroes who opened the dead cattle, had boils rising on their arms, attended by much fever; and those feeding on their flesh, experienced the like symptoms. But ex amples were given of several, who actually died from infection of the distemper. Something similar was wit nessed in France, where persons skinning the animals, themselves died of the contagion, the effects of which were immediate.
Between the years 1780 and 1790, a pestilential dis ease prevailed among the cattle in the northern counties of Scotland, vulgarly denominated hasty, from the rapi dity of its progress. The animal swelled, its respiration was affected, there was a copious flow from the eyes, it lay down, and sometimes expired in a few hours. This distemper was ascribed, as has been the case in many foreign countries, to the damp and shaded pasturage of copses, and with the decay of the wood the epizooty has declined. The peasantry attempted to cure the infected
animals, and prevent contagion of the healthy, by fumi gation with the smoke of need dire, which was fire ob tained by the friction of a certain wooden apparatus erected on an islet.
The eastern parts of Asia were visited by a destrue lye epizooty among the horses, especially in 1804; and after the severity abated in 1805 and 1806, it was re newed with uncommon virulence in the year 1807. In so far as we can learn, this distemper consisted of a sud den swelling, attended by shivering fits, an abscess formed most commonly in the head, and the animal died in twelve hours at farthest. But, in many instances, its commencement and termination were infinitely more rapid, and death was known to ensue in half an hour.
The malady was observed early at Ochotsk. Cattle, reindeer, and horses, all suffered ; and of the last, a ca ravan consisting of eighty, preserved only ten. The Russian government of those distant regions, in order to repress the disease, ordered all the animals perishing of it to be burnt; but before its nature was well under stood, the Jakutchians, to whom horse flesh is grateful, unwilling to lose such a source of subsistence, fcd upon it. Most of those who had done so, died within a day or two ; and a few lingered a fortnight. Those who es caped were attacked 1)1 severe swellings in. the upper lip and cheeks, which b oke out and left great scars.
Besides these epizoot.es, of which a general historical view has been given, oth rs extremely rapid in their pro gress, and destructive in their effects, could be detailed; and their sources might admit of various conjectures. Most of those which attack the larger and more impor tant animals, bear a strong resemblance to the plague among mankind; they have been traced, in some in stances at least, to putrid miasmata, which, if not the origin of such a terrible malady, unquestionably foster its germs, and they are more destructive in all regions during the same period that the plague is most fatal. Probably some animals are exclusively the victims of certain epizooties, while other s, that is those of different genera, may escape unhurt ; but it is to be doubted, whether any races are totally exempt from them. Thus we are told, that the fish of the Lake of Constance pe rished from a general mortality in 1722. We have seen that many of the feathered tril es occasionally suffer in different countries ; infectious disorders, ending in death, frequently prevail among dogs ; and a malignant dis temper attacked the cats of Westphalia in 1682 ; while the same creatures were almost totally extirpated from the Feroe islands by an epizooty in 1798. It is not an imp! obable theory, that entire genera of animals, once inhabiting the surface of the earth or the waters, are now extinct from contagious maladies.
See Philosophical Transactions, vol. xiii. xxix. xxx. xliii. I. Menzoires de l',icadenzie Royale 1748. Lancisi de peste Bovilla Opera, torn ii. Dufot sur la Maladie Eflizootique. Vicq Dazyr sur les Epizooties. Camper Oeuvres, torn iii. Paulet Recherches sur les Maladies Epizootiques. Traite de l'Education des ?lninzaux, p. 131. Landes History of the Feroe Islands, p. 210. Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt. (c)