OF THE OX. 37 



and all three of them died in the course of a 

 few days. A new and peremptory order now 

 came from Wiburg to burn this skin, to burn 

 the house in which it had been dressed, to 

 burn even the presbytery itself, should it be 

 deemed necessary. The skin had already 

 passed through several hands. However, the 

 curate being still reluctant to part with it, 

 took it home again. " Can it be possible," 

 said he to himself, " that this skin has really 

 proved fatal to life ? What can have been the 

 cause, I wonder?" At the same time he 

 rubbed it in his hands and smelt it. Unlucky 

 curate ! A few days afterwards he himself 

 was taken ill and died. (Memoirs of the 

 Academy of Stockholm.} 



A native of Clermont Ferrand, in the 

 department of Puy de Dome, in France, the 

 birth-place of Pascal, one day finding an ox 

 which had died of the epizootia, stripped off 

 the skin and carried it away. After his return 

 home, the black typhus, and then gangrene, 

 broke out on one of his arms, which had to be 

 cut off, and the patient died of the effects of 

 the amputation. 



A butcher having slaughtered an ox smitten 



