Remarks upon pestilence and pestilential diseases : interspersed with some observations on the mortality amongst the horned cattle : wherein … certain early means of prevention and cure are recommended upon rational and experimental principles, William Hird (1753).
Unfortunately, scholarly sources containing biographical information about William Hird are difficult to come by. What can be said about him though, presumably, is that he was a doctor who produced this volume about disease in general, but also waded into animal diseases such as rinderpest, a disease of note in 18th century Europe. The Cherry Collection contains a handful of volumes written by human physicians who also wrote about animal diseases. Remarks Upon Pestilence and Pestilential Diseases is a relatively short work that mainly focuses on rinderpest, a serious epizootic affecting cattle in Europe in the 18th century. Rinderpest has quite a long a storied history, but it became particularly problematic in this period for continental Europe and quite a few works about it were published, some of which are contained in the Cherry Collection. Hird makes a number of observations about rinderpest, including an outline of its history, the symptoms it produces in cattle, and preventative measures that cattle owners could employ to protect their animals.