neglected sick, who plunged into the rain-tanks in their
agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether
they drank little or much. Besides this, the miserable feeling of not
being able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them. The body
meanwhile did not waste away so long as the distemper was at its
height, but held out to a marvel against its ravages; so that when
they succumbed, as in most cases, on the seventh or eighth day to the
internal inflammation, they had still some strength in them. But if they
passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels,
inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhoea,
this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal. For the disorder
first settled in the head, ran its course from thence through the whole
of the body, and, even where it did not prove mortal, it still left its
mark on the extremities; for it settled in the privy parts, the fingers
and the toes, and many escaped with the loss of these, some too with
that of their eyes. Others again were seized with an entire loss of
memory on their first recovery, and did not know either themselves or
their friends.

But while the nature of the distemper was such as to baffle all
description, and its attacks almost too grievous for human nature to
endure, it was still in the following circumstance that its difference
from all ordinary disorders was most clearly shown. All the birds and
beasts that prey upon human bodies, either abstained from touching them
(though there were many lying unburied), or died after tasting them.
In proof of this, it was noticed that birds of this kind actually
disappeared; they were not about the bodies, or indeed to be seen at
all. But of course the effects which I have mentioned could best be
studied in a domestic animal like the dog.

Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which were
many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper. Meanwhile
the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any
case occurred, it ended in this. Some died in neglect, others in the
midst of every attention. No remedy was found that could be used as a
specific; for what did good in one case, did harm in another. Strong
and weak constitutions proved equally incapable of resistance, all alike
being swept away, although dieted with the utmost precaution. By far the
most terrible feature in the malady was t