OF THE OX. 21 



swelling of the lower lelly, violent affections of 

 the nerves, sudden death everything shows 

 the presence of a pestilential ferment, which 

 irritates the solids, infects and vitiates the 

 fluids, which is the cause of the putrefaction of 

 the humours, manifested hy the swelling of the 

 lower belly, which in that case depends on a 

 putrid fermentation so as to disengage air." 



A piece of iron, representing the sign of 

 the Cross, was heated in the fire, and when 

 red-hot was applied to the forehead of the sick 

 animals ; and this remedy was looked upon at 

 that time as the most effectual they could 

 apply. 



Gregoire de Tours makes mention of an 

 epidemic, the result of a long dry summer, 

 which, in 592, was very fatal in its havoc, 

 sparing no living creature whatever. 



Andre Duchesne, in his " History of Eng- 

 land," speaks of an epidemic which, in 1316, 

 during the reign of Edward II., owed its 

 origin, on the contrary, to a long season of 

 rains. 



The celebrated physicians Eamazzini and 

 Lancisi relate that in 1711, an ox which had 

 been imported from Hungary, that constant 



