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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.

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Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.

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Speaker 2: A few weeks ago, listener Colin rode in to ask

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Speaker 2: for an episode on the Great Epizootic of eighteen seventy two.

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Speaker 2: I imagine this might have been inspired by the current

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Speaker 2: situation with Avian flu, but I did not ask. An

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Speaker 2: episootic is an epidemic but in non human animals, and

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Speaker 2: this one was a massive outbreak of a flu like

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Speaker 2: illness that was primarily among horses. Was in North America,

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Speaker 2: Central America, and some of the islands in the Caribbean.

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Speaker 2: There were also a lot of different names for this

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Speaker 2: eighteen seventy two outbreak as it was happening.

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Speaker 1: A big one was just.

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Speaker 2: The epizootic, or the episode, which makes it sounds sillier

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Speaker 2: than it was to me. Since it was first reported

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Speaker 2: in Canada, people also called it Canadian horse disease. There

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Speaker 2: was also horse qatar, catarl fever, mucus fever, distemper blitz,

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Speaker 2: guitar la grip, and horse influenza.

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Speaker 1: Most of the.

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Speaker 2: Horses that got this disease recovered, but this did still

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Speaker 2: lead to the deaths of tens of thousands or even

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Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of horses and other equines, and it

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Speaker 2: caused massive disruptions all across the continent. Written records of

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Speaker 2: disease in horses go back more than one thousand years,

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Speaker 2: and records of flu like epidemic horse diseases date back

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Speaker 2: to at least the thirteenth century. But unless someone on

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Speaker 2: earths a viable sample and tests it, we don't really

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Speaker 2: have a way to know which specific pathogen caused any

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Speaker 2: of these past diseases, or whether it was the same

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Speaker 2: one that caused the eighteen seventy two epizootic. People documented

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Speaker 2: epidemics in horses for more than five hundred years before

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Speaker 2: the germ theory of disease started to develop in the

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Speaker 2: nineteenth century. Although the word virus was already in use,

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Speaker 2: the identification of specific viruses didn't happen until the eighteen nineties.

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Speaker 2: That was about two decades after this outbreak, so most

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Speaker 2: of this history happened before people had the ability to

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Speaker 2: pinpoint a specific pathogen, especially as specific virus, as the

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Speaker 2: cause of an outbreak. Today, the most common explanation for

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Speaker 2: the Great epizootic of eighteen seventy two is equine influenza,

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Speaker 2: which is caused by the influenza A virus. Influenza A

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Speaker 2: is one virus species, but it has a lot of

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Speaker 2: different strains, and some of those strains are very closely

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Speaker 2: related to one another. In addition to causing equine influenza,

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Speaker 2: strains of influenza A can also cause highly pathogenic avian

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Speaker 2: influenza as well as seasonal flu in humans, and it

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Speaker 2: also causes other flu like diseases, mainly among birds and mammals.

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Speaker 1: Some of the historical outbreaks of flu like diseases in

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Speaker 1: horses happened at the same time as outbreaks of similar

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Speaker 1: disease in both human and non human animals. This could

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Speaker 1: have been from the equine virus infecting other species, or

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Speaker 1: from a non equine virus infecting horses, or from multiple

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Speaker 1: strains of influenza that all happen to be circulating at

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Speaker 1: the same time. That is happening now as we are

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Speaker 1: recording this. We have a lot of influenza A, especially

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Speaker 1: but also influenza B that's causing seasonal flu in the US,

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Speaker 1: and also avian influenza happening at the same time. This

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Speaker 1: epizootic happened during the early years of veterinary education in

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Speaker 1: North America. We have an up on the history of

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Speaker 1: veterinary medicine that we replayed as a Saturday Classic in

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Speaker 1: May of twenty twenty two. But briefly, until the start

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Speaker 1: of the nineteenth century, there were no veterinary colleges in

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Speaker 1: North America. Large animals like horses were primarily being cared

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Speaker 1: for by farriers or by people who had been living

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Speaker 1: and working with animals for a long time, like farmers

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Speaker 1: and stable hands, or people who had trained in human medicine.

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Speaker 1: Veterinary colleges started to be established in North America in

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Speaker 1: the latter half of the nineteenth century, but the first

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Speaker 1: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree to be awarded in the

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Speaker 1: US didn't happen until eighteen seventy six, so that was

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Speaker 1: four years after this outbreak started. So a lot of

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Speaker 1: the veterinarians who wrote and offered advice about this epizootic

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Speaker 1: as it was happening were people who had emigrated to

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Speaker 1: North America from Europe, where colleges of veterinary medicine back

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Speaker 1: to the mid eighteenth century. One was James Law, Chair

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Speaker 1: of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at Cornell University. He had

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Speaker 1: immigrated to the US from Scotland to accept that position

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty seven, when Cornell's veterinary program was first established,

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Speaker 1: he wrote a report on the epizootic that described its

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Speaker 1: symptoms this way. Quote. A horse in apparently robust and

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Speaker 1: vigorous health is seen with drooping head, ears and lips,

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Speaker 1: semi closed eyelids, expressionless countenance, and one or two legs

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Speaker 1: partially flexed, as if to seek relief from his weariness.

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Speaker 1: He stands in one position, or, if urged to move,

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Speaker 1: does so with reluctance, sluggishness, and often with unsteady, swaying gait.

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Speaker 1: The back is arched and rigid, the limbs carried stiffly,

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Speaker 1: and the joints off and crack. At the same time,

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Speaker 1: there may be noticed a dry, staring coat, a tenderness

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Speaker 1: of the skin when handled, a tendency to coldness of

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Speaker 1: the nose, ears, and limbs, and in exceptional cases, shivering,

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Speaker 1: tremors or even nervous jerking. A cough is always an

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Speaker 1: early symptom, and in the visitation of eighteen seventy two.

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Speaker 1: It has been usually the first observed, as it was

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Speaker 1: by far the most prominent of the early symptoms.

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Speaker 2: Law described the disease as progressing to include a fever,

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Speaker 2: rapid pulse that was usually weak and compressible, signs of dehydration,

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Speaker 2: and accelerated breathing. A second phase of the illness typically

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Speaker 2: included a worsening of all those initial symptoms, as well

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Speaker 2: as discharge from the eyes and nose. Touching affected horses

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Speaker 2: throats seemed to cause them pain, and afterward they would

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Speaker 2: often cough violently. After this phase of the illness, most

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Speaker 2: horses recovered, with the disease lasting between two and three weeks,

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Speaker 2: but there could also be various complications, including pneumonia, pleurisy,

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Speaker 2: and abdominal issues, and this was especially the case in

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Speaker 2: horses that were forced to continue working while they were sick.

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Speaker 1: Alexandre Leutar had also immigrated to the US, arriving from

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Speaker 1: Paris in the eighteen fifties to both practice veterinary medicine

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Speaker 1: and earn his MD from University Medical College, which is

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Speaker 1: now the New York University School of Medicine. In eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy two. He was Chief Veterinary Surgeon to the New

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Speaker 1: York College of Veterinary Surgeons and the consultant to the

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Speaker 1: Board of Health. He contributed to a report on the

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Speaker 1: progress of the epizootic in New York that included a

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Speaker 1: description of just how sudden and widespread it was. He

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Speaker 1: summarized the reports of the city's health inspectors as saying

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Speaker 1: quote one that all or very nearly all the horses

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Speaker 1: in the city were affected by the disease. Two that

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Speaker 1: the symptoms appeared suddenly, not only invading nearly all the

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Speaker 1: stables at once, but affecting at once nearly all the

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Speaker 1: horses in each stable. And three that the disease attacked

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Speaker 1: impartially the well housed and well fed and those exposed

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Speaker 1: to hardships. Leo Tire also wrote about how to treat

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Speaker 1: the illness quote The treatment of influenza must be in

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Speaker 1: accordance with the symptoms. During the simple catarrhal form of

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Speaker 1: the disease, the diet should consist of dry or boiled oats, mashes,

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Speaker 1: oat rye or corn meal, gruels, roots, and fruits. These

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Speaker 1: articles should be varied and given in small quantities. The

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Speaker 1: temperature should be regulated by blanketing, bandaging of the extremities

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Speaker 1: in general or local friction. Good ventilation should be secured,

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Speaker 1: and disinfectants used in moderation. He went on to say, quote,

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Speaker 1: in the majority of cases, the hygienic measures above mentioned

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Speaker 1: together with rest will prove entirely sufficient to affect a cure.

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Speaker 1: Rest is of the utmost important. Without it, the animal

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Speaker 1: will scarcely escape some of the sequel of the disease.

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Speaker 1: Experience has taught me that rest is of paramount importance

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Speaker 1: for all those animals whose labors were suspended. As soon

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Speaker 1: as they were taken sick, escaped complications and resumed work

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Speaker 1: in a few days. On the other hand, a large

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Speaker 1: mortality occurred among railroad and stage horses. Many of these animals,

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Speaker 1: being kept constantly at work, were attacked by serious complications,

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Speaker 1: purpura haemorrhagica being the most frequent and perhaps the most fatal.

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Speaker 2: While rest was the primary treatment, Lutar also recommended various

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Speaker 2: steps to try to reduce some of the horse's symptoms,

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Speaker 2: like using lineaments to relieve a sore throat, steaming with

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Speaker 2: boiling water with various ingredients added to soothe coughs, and

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Speaker 2: using preparations of antimony as an expectorant. James Law's treatment

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Speaker 2: recommendations were very similar, really stressing the need for rest

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Speaker 2: and offering way to relieve some of the symptoms. Both

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Speaker 2: men stressed that sick horses should not be bled or

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Speaker 2: given any kind of purgatives. They needed to be supported

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Speaker 2: and allowed to rest as soon as they became ill. Basically,

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Speaker 2: this was a lot like the advice that's given to

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Speaker 2: people who get the flu today. Although there are some

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Speaker 2: anti viral medications that are indicated for some people, and

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Speaker 2: there are people who need to go to the hospital

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Speaker 2: for further treatment if they become dehydrated or experienced some

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Speaker 2: other complications.

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Speaker 1: But there were also a lot of quack cures advertised

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Speaker 1: in newspapers and journals during this outbreak. The same kinds

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Speaker 1: of patent medicines that were advertised to people for all

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Speaker 1: kinds of ailments. These, of course, did not work, and

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Speaker 1: some of them could be dangerous to the animals they

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Speaker 1: were administered to.

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Speaker 2: We will look at the way this outbreak progressed after

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Speaker 2: a sponsor break. Most accounts from the eighteen seventies say

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Speaker 2: the epizootics started in Ontario, Canada in areas north of

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Speaker 2: Toronto in September of eighteen seventy two. Much later, it

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Speaker 2: was noted that there had also been some isolated outbreaks

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Speaker 2: of horse illnesses in August as well. Those were in

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Speaker 2: Mercer County, Pennsylvania, Hillsboro and Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Forsyth County,

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Speaker 2: North Carolina. All of these states are on the east

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Speaker 2: coast of the US, but otherwise they are not very

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Speaker 2: close together at all, and it's not really clear if

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Speaker 2: these outbreaks were related to the epizootic or caused by

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Speaker 2: the same pathogen. Regardless of whether those August cases were

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Speaker 2: related or not, once the disease got to Toronto, it

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Speaker 2: started spreading more widely. Fourteen cases were reported in Toronto

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Speaker 2: on September thirtieth, and by October eleventh, there were reports

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Speaker 2: of sick horses Niagara Falls, and on the next day,

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Speaker 2: the disease had reached Ottawa.

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Speaker 1: By this point, even though people hadn't figured out how

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Speaker 1: to isolate and identify specific pathogens, the germ theory of

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Speaker 1: disease was becoming more widely accepted, but flu like illnesses

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Speaker 1: were still something of an exception, especially in cases of

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Speaker 1: widespread outbreaks. Like this one. It started very suddenly, sickening

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Speaker 1: large numbers of animals, seemingly all at once. Keepers reported

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Speaker 1: whole stables of animals being sickened over less than forty

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Speaker 1: eight hours, and the illness wasn't spreading from one stall

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Speaker 1: to the next, as though each horse was contracting it

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Speaker 1: from the one next to them. It showed up all over,

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Speaker 1: so initially people thought it might be related to some

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Speaker 1: kind of atmospheric condition or the weather, rather than any

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Speaker 1: kind of contagion.

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Speaker 2: But the outbreak quickly reached places that had a totally

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Speaker 2: different landscape, climate, and weather than the parts of Canada

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Speaker 2: that were first affected. On October thirteenth, the disease reached Detroit, Michigan,

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Speaker 2: and Buffalo, New York. Half the horses in Rochester, New York,

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Speaker 2: were sick by the seventeenth and by the nineteenth, the

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Speaker 2: diseases in Syracuse. By October twenty second, it was in

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Speaker 2: New York City and Boston, and it became very obvious

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Speaker 2: that it was following transportation lines, specifically railroads and canals.

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Speaker 2: Infection rates were massive, effecting at least eighty percent of horses,

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Speaker 2: sometimes as many as ninety nine percent, as well as donkeys, mules,

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Speaker 2: and even some circus animals like zebras.

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Speaker 1: On October twenty eighth, the disease was reported in Washington,

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Speaker 1: d c. By the start of November, the illness had

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Speaker 1: hit Cleveland, Ohio, and Charleston, South Carolina. It was continuing

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Speaker 1: to spread in Canada as well, reaching Halifax, Nova, Scotia

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Speaker 1: on November fourth. By the eleventh, it was in Indianapolis, Indiana,

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Speaker 1: and Savannah, Georgia. It reached Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee

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Speaker 1: on the eighteenth.

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Speaker 2: The Episoatic was reported in Havana, Cuba, on December seventh.

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Speaker 2: In early February of eighteen seventy three, it reached Monterey, Mexico.

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Speaker 2: It didn't reach California until March, but by April it

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Speaker 2: had spread across much of the state. This included San Francisco,

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Speaker 2: where it reached on April nineteenth, and by the twenty

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Speaker 2: fifth all of the city's railroad horses were affected. The

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Speaker 2: Episoatic continued into Central America over the summer, reaching Guatemala

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Speaker 2: in July and El Salvador in August, and the outbreak

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Speaker 2: seems to have stopped there by December of eighteen seventy three,

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Speaker 2: there had been no reports of the disease south of

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Speaker 2: San Salvador. While we don't know the reasons for sure,

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Speaker 2: this part of Central America wasn't as densely populated, with

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Speaker 2: fewer horses and no railroads to rapidly carry animals from

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Speaker 2: place to place before people realized they were sick. The

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Speaker 2: Panama Railroad was built in eighteen fifty five, but that

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Speaker 2: was well over one thousand kilometers away from the farthest

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Speaker 2: south the epizootic was reported. The epizootic also didn't cross oceans.

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Speaker 2: Given how quickly the illness struck, how fast it spread,

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Speaker 2: and how long it lasted, any animals being transported across

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Speaker 2: the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean likely would have recovered by

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Speaker 2: the time that ship arrived, or if not, their illness

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Speaker 2: would have been obvious enough to keep the animals quarantined

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Speaker 2: aboard the ship. A few places were exempt, and a

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Speaker 2: lot of those were islands. The epizootic never reached Prince

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Speaker 2: Edward Islands because the seas around it were impassable due

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Speaker 2: to ice. When the disease was active in neighboring parts

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Speaker 2: of Canada on the opposite side of the continent. Vancouver

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Speaker 2: Island established a quarantine and banned horses and mules from

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Speaker 2: being brought onto the island. There were also no signs

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Speaker 2: of the illness in Key West Flora. While the disease

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Speaker 2: did reach some Caribbean islands, it missed others, including Hispaniola

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Speaker 2: and Jamaica. Parts of Mexico also seem to have been

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Speaker 2: protected mainly by their geography, especially the southern part of

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Speaker 2: the Baja California Peninsula and much of the Yucatan Peninsula.

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Speaker 2: The rapid onset and dramatic infection rate of this disease

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Speaker 2: made it possible for people to see how it was spreading.

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Speaker 2: As this was happening, sometimes it was even possible to

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Speaker 2: trace which specific horses had been the likely carriers of

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Speaker 2: the disease as they were moved from place to place.

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Speaker 2: Here's a paragraph from a report that was prepared for

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Speaker 2: the US Department of Agriculture.

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Speaker 1: Quote. The first cases in Detroit were several sick horses

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Speaker 1: brought from Canada about the tenth or eleventh of October.

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Speaker 1: Others were attacked in less than two days, and the

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Speaker 1: malady appears to have been confined for nearly a week

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Speaker 1: to the two stables into which the Canadian beasts were brought.

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Speaker 1: The first cases in Syria our accused were in newly

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Speaker 1: arrived Canadian horses, and the malady spread promptly in city

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Speaker 1: and country. The earliest cases which I have been able

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Speaker 1: to trace in Ithaca were in the livery stables of

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Speaker 1: mister Jackson, who had just returned from running a mayor

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Speaker 1: in a more northern part of the state. In Pittsburgh,

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Speaker 1: the disease first appeared in the stables of Messrs Moreland

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Speaker 1: and Mitchell after the arrival of five or six horses

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Speaker 1: from New York, when the epizootic was then at its height.

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Speaker 1: In every instance, it spread rapidly in the new locality

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Speaker 1: from Washington, the first note of alarm was sounded on

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Speaker 1: October twenty eighth, to the effect that sick horses had

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Speaker 1: been brought into the city from the north, and on

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Speaker 1: November three it was reported to be generally prevalent. In

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Speaker 1: Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, the malady appeared about November fourth and

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Speaker 1: spread like fire along the canal and into the surrounding country.

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Speaker 1: On November nineteenth, it prevailed at points in Giles Rutherford,

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Speaker 1: Maury Davidson, and Sumner County's tennis which had been recently

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Speaker 1: visited by a circus coming from an infected locality, and

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Speaker 1: while the general district was free. At Newark, Delaware, the

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Speaker 1: first case was in a horse just arrived from Baltimore,

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Speaker 1: and others speedily followed. At Ellyria, Ohio, it was confined

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Speaker 1: for five days, and for five days only to teams

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Speaker 1: just back from Cleveland.

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Speaker 2: In addition to tracing the spread like this, doctors, veterinarians,

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Speaker 2: and health and sanitary officials also tried to study the

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Speaker 2: disease itself, including culturing blood, urine and mucus from infected

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Speaker 2: horses and the air and the bedding of their stables.

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Speaker 2: Health officials in multiple cities did really systematic research into

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Speaker 2: the animals, their illnesses, and their environments. At the same time,

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Speaker 2: the nature of this disease made this tricky to do

289
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Speaker 2: and a lot of places, including New York, by the

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Speaker 2: time health officials ordered an investigation into what was happening,

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Speaker 2: the epizootic had already peaked, so the time to do

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Speaker 2: that research was really limited. Multiple papers and reports published

293
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Speaker 2: at the time looked at the question of whether the

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Speaker 2: epizootic was caused by some kind of atmospheric phenomenon or

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Speaker 2: heat or cold or humidity or some other condition, and

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Speaker 2: concluded that it was not it was communicable. It spread

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Speaker 2: very rapidly through the eastern half of North America, where

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Speaker 2: cities were bigger and more densely populated and more connected

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Speaker 2: via railroads. As it moved west, the disease still spread

300
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Speaker 2: along the Transatlantic Railroad, but without as many big cities

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Speaker 2: or connected railroads, it slowed down. In more recent years,

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Speaker 2: there have been projects to use geographic information system or

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Speaker 2: GIS mapping to trace the spread of the epizootic along

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Speaker 2: the rail lines, and those results are really dramatic. You're

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00:19:53,240 --> 00:20:00,320
Speaker 2: just watching blobs of disease move follow the tracks. Not

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00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:04,360
Speaker 2: really a number for the total horse population in the

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Speaker 2: entire area that was affected by this episootic, but according

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Speaker 2: to the US Census, there were more than seven million

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Speaker 2: horses in the United States in eighteen seventy, so two

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Speaker 2: years before the episootic, with the human population then more

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Speaker 2: than thirty eight million. The epizootics mortality rate was estimated

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Speaker 2: at about two percent, although it could be as high

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Speaker 2: as ten percent in some places, especially if horses were

314
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Speaker 2: kept in very overcrowded and unsanitary stables, or if they

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00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,120
Speaker 2: were forced to work while they were sick. So it's

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Speaker 2: likely that in the United States alone, at least one

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Speaker 2: hundred and forty thousand horses died in this episootic.

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Speaker 1: While the rest recovered. The time they were unable to

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Speaker 1: work caused some major issues in the places where they lived,

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Speaker 1: and we'll talk more about that after a sponsor break

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Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy two. Cities in North America were hugely

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Speaker 1: reliant on horses. Steam engines had been developed in the

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Speaker 1: eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and boats and trains were

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Speaker 1: increasingly being run on steam power. The same was true

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Speaker 1: of a lot of factories. It was increasingly common for

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Speaker 1: factories that needed some kind of power to run off

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Speaker 1: of steam engines rather than horses walking on treadmills or

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Speaker 1: something similar. But the public still had some concerns about steam,

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Speaker 1: specifically about the idea of steam boilers exploding in the

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Speaker 1: middle of a crowded street. This was not really an

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Speaker 1: unreasonable fear in the early days of steam technology, there

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Speaker 1: were things that needed to work out in terms of

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Speaker 1: state of safety. So consequently, a lot of cities banned

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Speaker 1: the use of steam engines on city streets to do

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Speaker 1: things like power cars and street cars, so horses were

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Speaker 1: still doing a lot of that work. A lot of

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Speaker 1: goods and people were being moved by train and ship,

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Speaker 1: but the coal to fuel those trains and ships was

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Speaker 1: being hauled by horses. The first practical automobiles were more

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Speaker 1: than a decade away, as were the first practical bicycles.

341
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Speaker 1: People traveled extensively on horseback or on horse drawn carriages.

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Speaker 1: In a lot of places, horse drawn wagons had replaced

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Speaker 1: hand carts for making deliveries and for carrying goods from

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Speaker 1: the port or the train depot. Horses pulled street cars,

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Speaker 1: fire engines, ambulances, and horses. Many of the canals of

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Speaker 1: the Great Lakes region were filled with barges that were

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Speaker 1: pulled by horses. In an era without effective refrigeration, a

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Speaker 1: lot of people relied on daily deliveries of milk and ice,

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Speaker 1: and those too were delivered thanks to horses. So when

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Speaker 1: cities entire populations of working horses got sick all at once,

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Speaker 1: it caused major problems. In New York City, for example,

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Speaker 1: the human population was about a million people and there

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Speaker 1: were about seventy thousand horses, and about fourteen thousand of

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Speaker 1: those horses worked on streetcar and stagecoach lines. Fourteen thousand

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Speaker 1: horses doing just that work for about three weeks, starting

356
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Speaker 1: on October twenty first, the city basically came to a standstill.

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Speaker 1: People and goods couldn't get where they needed to go,

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Speaker 1: at least not easily. Fifty teams of oxen were brought

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Speaker 1: in to try to help, but they were difficult to

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Speaker 1: manage on the city streets. Teams of men were also

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Speaker 1: hired to try to pull street cars and fire engines,

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Speaker 1: which was a lot harder and a lot slower than

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Speaker 1: using horses. The same thing happened in other cities besides

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Speaker 1: New York, including the oxen and the teams of men

365
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Speaker 1: trying to pull street cars. Newspaper coverage of some of

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Speaker 1: this makes it sound almost a bit humorous, or like

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Speaker 1: people valiantly trying to make the most of a bad situation,

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Speaker 1: but that wasn't the case everywhere. In some places, prisoners

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Speaker 1: were being forced to try to do the work of horses.

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Speaker 2: On the West Coast, Asians, especially Chinese people, were being

371
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Speaker 2: targeted by vehement and sometimes violent racism. That's something that

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Speaker 2: we have talked about on the show recently. This was

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Speaker 2: just ten years before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion

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Speaker 2: Act in San Francisco. Chinese people were hired to pull

375
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Speaker 2: wagons and carry cargo in place of horses, and then

376
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Speaker 2: they were written about in newspapers as though they were animals.

377
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Speaker 2: A big obnoxious irony here is that Chinese people had

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Speaker 2: already been moving a lot of cargo around San Francisco

379
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Speaker 2: without the use of horses. They were using poles or

380
00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 2: baskets hung from poles. San Francisco had passed a law

381
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Speaker 2: banning this on public sidewalks in eighteen seven. That was

382
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Speaker 2: a law that didn't mention Chinese people specifically, but was

383
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Speaker 2: intentionally written to target them. Stevedores, deliverymen, and others who

384
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Speaker 2: relied on horses were basically out of work for about

385
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,920
Speaker 2: three weeks when the episootics struck their city. The few

386
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Speaker 2: whose horses had not gotten sick or who forced their

387
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Speaker 2: horses to work anyway, often charged a premium for their services.

388
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Speaker 2: This led to complaints of price gouging, but in some

389
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Speaker 2: cases it was more that these workers still needed to

390
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:34,320
Speaker 2: make ends meet if their horse could only work for

391
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,120
Speaker 2: a couple hours instead of all day. That was all

392
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Speaker 2: the time they had to earn a living. For cities

393
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 2: where the street cars were being pulled by horses, the

394
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 2: few remaining street cars became badly overcrowded, and that made

395
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 2: them much more difficult and dangerous for those few remaining

396
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Speaker 2: horses to pull. In New York City, Henry Berg, founder

397
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Speaker 2: of the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,

398
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 2: had been given police powers in cases of animal abuse.

399
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Speaker 2: He and his deputies started patrolling the streets, inspecting working

400
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 2: horses for signs of illness or signs of injury from

401
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 2: pulling those overcrowded street cars, and they forced their handlers

402
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 2: to take the horses back to the stables if necessary.

403
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:23,800
Speaker 2: A similar scene played out in Boston, with George Thorndike Angel,

404
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 2: founder of the Massachusetts SPCA, who dispatched teams to negotiate

405
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 2: with the street car drivers to let their sick horses rest.

406
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Speaker 1: The effects of this shut down were wide reaching. The

407
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: presidential election was held on November fifth, at which point

408
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: horses were sick in much of the Northeast, and there

409
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:45,440
Speaker 1: were concerns about people being able to get to the poles.

410
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,879
Speaker 1: Loads of vegetables and fish rotted at ports because the

411
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,959
Speaker 1: stevedores just couldn't move them. All mail service to and

412
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,880
Speaker 1: through the western part of North America slowed to a crawl.

413
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,159
Speaker 1: Mail made part of the journey by rail, but from

414
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:03,920
Speaker 1: there horses and wagons often carried it hundreds of miles

415
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: to its final destination. On November ninth, eighteen seventy two,

416
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 1: a fire started in a basement and a warehouse in Boston,

417
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,840
Speaker 1: and as it burned, it was fueled by gas explosions.

418
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,919
Speaker 1: The fire departments horses were too sick to work, so

419
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:24,679
Speaker 1: teams of men tried to pull the fire engines to

420
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 1: fight the blaze. This, of course, took a lot longer

421
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 1: than horses would have. This was one of several factors

422
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 1: that contributed to the spread of this fire. Others included

423
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: a lack of water pressure at a lot of the

424
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: fire hydrants, and the way the city itself had been built.

425
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Speaker 1: A lot of the buildings were really close together, and

426
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 1: many had wooden mansard roofs, so the fire spread really

427
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: easily between them. Eventually, gunpowder was used to collapse a

428
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:57,439
Speaker 1: number of buildings to create a fire break. This fire

429
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: was not fully extinguished until November eleventh, Fourteen people died

430
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 1: and seven hundred and seventy six buildings were destroyed across

431
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 1: sixty five acres of the city. In the spring of

432
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:14,480
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy three, the epizootics struck cavalry horses as the

433
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,399
Speaker 1: United States was at war with the Apache Nation in

434
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: the Southwest and the Modoc Nation in what's now northern California,

435
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 1: forcing soldiers to fight on foot instead. Sources used in

436
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:31,440
Speaker 1: this episode are contradictory regarding how much the epizootic impacted

437
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 1: Indigenous people's horses. At the same time, written records would

438
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: have come from reports from the Department of Indian Affairs,

439
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 1: which don't mention the epizootics impact on Indigenous peoples at all.

440
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 1: They may have been less affected. The disease spread extremely

441
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: easily among horses that were stabled together, but many Indigenous

442
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: people's horses were not stabled or were kept in individual

443
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: family dwellings rather than stabled together.

444
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 2: There's also some speculation that the epizootic was one of

445
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 2: the contributing factors to the Panic of eighteen seventy three.

446
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 2: Other more widely cided factors in this panic are the

447
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 2: eighteen seventy Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the government

448
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 2: to buy silver every month that market prices, regardless of

449
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 2: how those prices fluctuated.

450
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 1: The price of.

451
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 2: Gold was also legally linked to silver prices, and so

452
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 2: this led to financial disaster when the supply of silver

453
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 2: dramatically increased after the opening of several new silver mines

454
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 2: that led the price of gold to also plummet along

455
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 2: with the price of silver. Other issues included railroad failures,

456
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 2: including the failure of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad. The

457
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 2: stock market crashed in May of eighteen seventy three, leading

458
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 2: to widespread unemployment and bank failures. In addition to equines,

459
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 2: the Great Episootic of eighteen seventy two caused some illnesses

460
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 2: in humans, typically humans who cared for or worked with animals.

461
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 2: It may have also caused illnesses in some other animals,

462
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,800
Speaker 2: including pigs. There was an outbreak of.

463
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 1: Influenza in humans in eighteen seventy three and eighteen seventy four,

464
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: but it's not clear whether this was connected to the

465
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:22,480
Speaker 1: equine outbreak that started in eighteen seventy two. There was

466
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: also a paper published in twenty ten that traced a

467
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 1: connection between the equine epizootic and a massive fatal epizootic

468
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 1: among domesticated birds in the last months of eighteen seventy two.

469
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 1: The first such outbreak was reported in Poughkeepsie, New York,

470
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 1: on November fifteenth, That was eighteen days after the equine

471
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: flu was reported in that same city. In a number

472
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 1: of cities, researchers found a pattern of outbreaks of avian

473
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 1: disease that started between twenty and thirty days after the

474
00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: first report of horse disease. Most of them were in

475
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: that twenty to thirty day range, although there were some

476
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: intervals that were shorter or longer than that. Unlike in

477
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,080
Speaker 1: the equine outbreak, the mortality rate in this outbreak was

478
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 1: close to one hundred percent. This paper speculates that this

479
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 1: could be an early example of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

480
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: There's not nearly as much research into this avian episootic

481
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 1: as there is about the eighteen seventy two equine flu,

482
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: and this may be because of differences in attitudes about

483
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: birds and horses at the time and how these animals

484
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: were used and cared for. In general, flocks of chickens, ducks,

485
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: and similar birds were being kept on small farms, often

486
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 1: raised by wives and daughters. There was no national Poultry Growers'

487
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 1: Association or other national organization to take an interest in this, yet.

488
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 1: People also didn't typically seek veterinary care for birds like

489
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: they might have for a large animal like a horse.

490
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: We talked about shifts in the poultry into in the

491
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 1: US in our Chicken of Tomorrow episode in May of

492
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,080
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three.

493
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 2: Other more recent research has looked at the genetic lineage

494
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 2: of influenza viruses and found evidence of a shift in

495
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 2: avian flu around the time that this episootic happened, with

496
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 2: the equine virus closely paralleling the avian virus. Researchers who

497
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 2: did this work did not conclude that the virus jumped

498
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 2: from horses to birds or vice versa, but they did

499
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 2: note that the avian and equine viruses seem to be

500
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:37,000
Speaker 2: closely related. Equine influenza still exists today. It's endemic in

501
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 2: most of the world's horses, with the exception of horses

502
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 2: in Iceland and New Zealand. Vaccines were developed in the

503
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 2: nineteen seventies and have been refined since then. These are

504
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 2: typically given annually like a seasonal flu vaccine in humans,

505
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 2: although horses that are high risk in some way may

506
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 2: be vaccinated every six months instead of annually. There's also

507
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 2: more surveillance and monitoring of equine influenza today. This is

508
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 2: handled country by country, but the World Health Organization and

509
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:12,680
Speaker 2: World Organization for Animal Health are also involved. Today, most

510
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 2: of the world is not nearly as reliant on the

511
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 2: labor of horses as North America was at the end

512
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:23,080
Speaker 2: of the nineteenth century, but major equine flu outbreaks can

513
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 2: still cause a lot of issues and expense. In two

514
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, an outbreak of equine influenza virus struck Australia.

515
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 2: This was the first known incidents of the disease there,

516
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 2: so the horses had not been vaccinated. This was probably

517
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,520
Speaker 2: introduced to Australia by Japanese race horses that had been

518
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:46,360
Speaker 2: quarantined on arrival, but the illness spread at and then

519
00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 2: beyond the quarantine site. The biggest impact with this was

520
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:54,960
Speaker 2: on race horses, but later cost analysis showed that governments

521
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,320
Speaker 2: in Australia had spent five hundred and seventy one million

522
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:02,719
Speaker 2: dollars eradicating the disease. Ease including three hundred and seventy

523
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 2: million dollars in compensation to offset the disruption to the

524
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:08,040
Speaker 2: horse industry.

525
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:13,279
Speaker 1: Not the most chipper story, but still super interesting. Do

526
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 1: you have listener mail to go along with it? I

527
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:16,799
Speaker 1: do kind of.

528
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:22,359
Speaker 2: So we had a number of people comments on our

529
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,880
Speaker 2: social media in some way about whether we could post

530
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 2: the recipe for the sugar cookies that we talked about

531
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:34,520
Speaker 2: in our nutmeg episode. That's months ago now, and I

532
00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:36,759
Speaker 2: did not answer any of the comments and they are

533
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:40,240
Speaker 2: now lost to time. So everyone get a pen and paper.

534
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 2: Two and a half cups sifted flour. It is written

535
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 2: that way, but in my experience, you need to measure

536
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:53,600
Speaker 2: first then sift, not try to sift then measure with

537
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,760
Speaker 2: this recipe. So two and a half cups sifted flour,

538
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:02,320
Speaker 2: two teaspoons baking powder, one half teaspoon nutmeg, one half

539
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 2: cup butter, one cup sugar, two eggs well beaten, one

540
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:14,319
Speaker 2: teaspoon vanilla, one tablespoon cream. Great thing about this is

541
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 2: that then you have a whole thing of cream to

542
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:20,839
Speaker 2: do whatever you want with after you've used that one

543
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:26,440
Speaker 2: tablespoons super delicious coffee. Uh yeah, that's one of the

544
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,040
Speaker 2: things that I do after making these. Okay, so those

545
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 2: are the ingredients. Now, Sift flour, baking powder, and nutmeg

546
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 2: together twice, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

547
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:43,759
Speaker 2: Add eggs, vanilla and cream. Beat well. Add flour mixture, gradually,

548
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:48,440
Speaker 2: beating after each addition until smooth. Form dough into a

549
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:52,240
Speaker 2: brick shape. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm.

550
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 2: Roll out on a floured surface. Cut into desired shape

551
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 2: with cookie cutter. Sprinkle with granulated or color sugar. Placed

552
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 2: on greased baking sheet. Make at three hundred and seventy

553
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 2: five degrees for about seven minutes. Yields two and a

554
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 2: half dozen cookies. Some things from my experience making this recipe,

555
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,360
Speaker 2: I usually do them on parchment instead of a greased

556
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 2: cookie sheet. There is definitely a sweet spot in how

557
00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:26,359
Speaker 2: firm you want the dough to be to roll it out,

558
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 2: and this recipe can be very tricky to make in

559
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:34,480
Speaker 2: a very warm kitchen because the dough gets too soft

560
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:37,840
Speaker 2: if you just leave it on the counter between matches

561
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:41,319
Speaker 2: in the oven to roll things out, and putting it

562
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 2: in the fridge for that whole time can make it

563
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 2: cross into the slightly too firm side so you just

564
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 2: got to kind of find that sweet spot and how

565
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:53,880
Speaker 2: soft the dough is and try to like maintain it

566
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:54,800
Speaker 2: at that temperature.

567
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 1: So that is the recipe.

568
00:36:56,560 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 2: This is from a little booklet that my mom made

569
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 2: about the holiday traditions and our family, and I pulled

570
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,799
Speaker 2: it out that I used this booklet basically for the

571
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 2: sugar cookies recipe at this point. But I pulled it

572
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:15,360
Speaker 2: out and was flipping through it before we recorded today,

573
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 2: and it made me a little teary looking at all

574
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:20,839
Speaker 2: these things that my mom wrote up about our family traditions.

575
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,240
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was very sweet.

576
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 2: So yeah, if anybody makes these sugar cookies, let me

577
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:32,240
Speaker 2: know how they turned out. My mom would be totally

578
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 2: fine with me sharing this recipe with people.

579
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: She literally put.

580
00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 2: It in a little booklet that she gave away. If

581
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:42,600
Speaker 2: you would like to send us the notes, we are

582
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:47,440
Speaker 2: at History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com and you can

583
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 2: subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and wherever

584
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:59,719
Speaker 2: else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff you missed

585
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 2: in History Classes, a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

586
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:07,720
Speaker 2: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

587
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:09,280
Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows,