6 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



moment, raging in some part of the globe 

 among some species of animal, either birds, 

 pigs, horses, sheep, horned cattle, or, in fine, 

 attacks man himself. 



When, however, the peccant invasion falls 

 only on the vegetables and animals situated 

 at our antipodes, we seldom hear of the 

 ravages it commits ; and when we do, for- 

 getful of the affinity which links together 

 all the organic beings on the earth and their 

 mutual dependence, nothing can exceed the in- 

 difference we show to these calamities. Then, 

 when the danger threatens us nearer home, or 

 when the evil has invaded us, we have re- 

 course to quarantine as the grand preservative 

 to shield us. But this preservative remedy is 

 most frequently deceptive a mere illusion; 

 lor the real plague, typhus and cholera, borne 

 along by the winds of heaven, pass over the 

 longest distances and the highest obstacles, 

 and baffle all our calculations ; teaching us, by 

 their successive returns, that we shall con- 

 tinually be exposed to their destructive havoc 

 so long as we neglect to eradicate the evil at 

 its original source, that is, in those countries 

 from which it emanates. 



