18 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



exposed, where the languishing, the sick, 



and the rotting are herded together, and 



they are carried off by hecatombs by this 

 wasteful and devouring typhus. 



II. 



We may readily conclude, from these gene- 

 ral observations on infectious and contagious 

 diseases, that they must have existed in all 

 former ages ; and if in our present advanced 

 state of civilization they are so destructive, 

 we may be sure that in those remote periods 

 they must have been, both as regards man as 

 well as the brute creation, the cause of general 

 extermination, in whatever parts of the earth 

 they prevailed. And indeed, whenever we 

 refer to ancient or modern history, we are con- 

 tinually struck with the analogy which exists 

 between the epidemic diseases signalized by 

 the general name of PLAGUE, and which de- 

 cimated all the living beings, and those 

 which more recently, and at the present 

 moment, have startled the world by their 

 fatal effects on men and animals. 



Moreover, we cannot too often repeat the 

 fact in order that those documents relating to 



