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ABSTRACTS
For twenty centuries a plague of extreme gravity, recurring at intervals, appeared
in the Eastern Mediterranean and spread westwards. It is heard of in mythology
and legend, but first definitely described in the Bible ( Exodus. Chap. IX ) along with
many other scourges meted out by Jehovah to the Egyptians to punish them for en-
slaving the Israelites. It is here described as being characterized by the appearance
of ulcers and was responsible for the deaths of enormous numbers of men and animals.
Similar plagues are described :—by Ovid in his Metamorphosis, as wiping out the po-
pulation of the Argean Islands in 1295 B. C. and also attacking dogs, birds, cows and
wild beasts ; by Homer in the Iliad as starting with dogs and proceeding through horses
to men: and by other Greek and Latin writers as having occurred in 735 B.C., 488
B.C., 461 B.C., 451 B.C., 430 B.C., 424 B.C., 397 B.C. and 212 B.C., all as originating
in dogs and finally affecting men. In 130 A.D. it is again described more fully as a
septicaemia followed quickly by rigors, intense fever, sanious expectorations, coughing,
unconsciousness and death. This plague does not correspond to any known form and
may now happily be extinct.
Epizootics peculiar to animals have also been described by these ancient writers,
among them some recognisable as pleuro-pneumonia in bulls, influenza of horses, sheep
pox and rabies of the dog ; others are less easy to identify and it may be that they have
since disappeared or been profoundly changed in the course of centuries. Rinderpest
is heard of for the first time in 376 A.D. (identified by Serverus Sanetus) and reported
to have come from the East and devastated Belgium, Flanders and finally Rome.
Rabies, described by its transmission through dog bite to man, is frequently mentioned.
Aristotle recognised it also in horses, bulls and foxes. Apulius mentions that the suffer-
ers will not touch water. Philomenos (3rd century) advocated cauterization of the
bites as the most effective treatment. Glanders and pleuro-pneumonia were definitely
differentiated by the Greeks but forgotten again by the Romans. Columella describes
all herd diseases by the generic name of ' plague ' while Vegetius uses the term ' maleus '
for all contagious diseases ending in death. He recognised eight forms of maleus,
which appear to have included all known contagions but which, except for rabies, are
unidentifiable. The veterinarian ' Chiron' recognised under the term ' meleus' di-
seases which correspond to human plague, bull' verago ', sheep pox, rabies and ' acceus '
in pigs.
Diseases of horses.—Classical knowledge of horse diseases is to be learnt mainly
from the Hippiatrica, a Byzantine compilation of earlier writers, many of whose works
are now lost. It is remarkable to discover that nearly all affections of the bodily
organs classified to-day were then known and possessed a very similar nomenclature.
Digestive maladies are dealt with at length and include dental troubles such as
abscesses and decay, tumours of the palate and lampas. The most common treatment
was by bleeding and it is evident that they possessed an adequate knowledge of how to
avoid the arteries. Apsyrtus describes lancing of abscesses as dangerous. Colics
are differentiated from abdominal troubles by their causes and afterwards by their
lesions. They are held to follow over-eating, alterations in fodder, drinking of bad
water or the presence of worms in the intestines. Their descriptions of the lesions are
confused but one can recognise intestinal congestion by the symptoms indicated, that