OF THE OX. 7 



And this is the place to observe, that the 

 cholera morbus threatens to keep a permanent 

 footing in the English possessions of India, 

 because the public works, by means of which 

 the great rivers used to be confined to their 

 beds, have not of late been repaired and kept 

 in good order in those countries; owing to 

 which neglect, their waters overflow the plains, 

 leaving, when they subside, those pestilential 

 deposits which afford a perpetual incubation 

 to the cholera. 



We are induced to dwell thus on the gene- 

 ral causes of these diseases, because the sick 

 plants, on which dumb animals feed, and the 

 sick animals, on which man himself feeds, have 

 a continual relation of cause and effect ; and we 

 shall have to refer to this subject and give it 

 weight, when we come to speak of the treat- 

 ment of these diseases. 



It is an important fact, which deserves our 

 most pointed attention and consideration, that 

 the vital resistance inherent in the animal 

 frame to withstand the attacks of these conta- 

 gious diseases, is very far from being the 

 same throughout the whole kind. Man, in this 

 respect, is the most favoured and best forti- 



