112 Chemical Besearches upon Diseased Milk, 



of wet-nurses, and its regarded nutritive qualities, good and bad, 

 and the alterations it underwent. On the outbreaking among 

 the milch kine, he undertook most minute chemical investiga- 

 tions into the changes effected on the milk of the animals la- 

 bouring under the disease, and communicated the results to 

 the French Academy. A commission was thereupon appoint- 

 ed, which still farther prosecuted the inqmry, dwelling more- 

 over upon the effects produced by the use of the milk from the 

 diseased cows, and more especially insisting upon the more ge- 

 neral subject " of those researches which ought to be under- 

 taken, whereby chemistry would throw all possible light upon 

 murrains, upon epidemics and contagious diseases.''^ As the 

 report of this commission extends far beyond our limits, and 

 much of it bears upon the peculiarities of this epizootic, we 

 shall pass at once to the more important and general discus- 

 sion we have just announced. 



When murrains, and still more when epidemics or contagious 

 disorders which affect mankind occur, the serious losses Avhich 

 the former occasion among the animals which supply our daily 

 food, or which we employ in labour, and the heart-rending deso- 

 lation which the latter occasion among the crowded populations 

 they attack, and the hidden mystery respecting the nature of 

 those influences which threaten the existence of all who fall 

 within their sphere, are so many urgent causes which induce 

 us to seek for all the information we can possibly obtain. 

 It is under these circumstances, that often much astonishment 

 is expressed that chemistry can supply no response to the 

 crowd of inquiries which are made ; and the more so, that 

 much is expected, as it is generally understood that this 

 science can do much in penetrating into the intimate nature 

 of all bodies. If this science is still incapable of answering to 

 many of the questions which are suggested by the appearance 

 of these dreadful scourges, it will be useful to point out the 

 reasons of this inability, and afterwards to demonstrate what 

 may be expected when the limits which now confine its ope- 

 rations shall have been extended. 



The inquiries to which the science of chemistry should be 

 able to respond, respect the nature of matters belonging to two 

 very distinct categories, viz. 1*/, Concerning the organic ma- 



