OF THE OX. 53 



trials that the recovered animal was suffered 

 at last to feed all day in the field, according to 

 his pleasure. 



Such, then, was that formidable epizootia 

 which, in the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 swept away upwards of six millions of horned 

 cattle, and which occasioned a loss to Europe 

 exceeding fifty millions sterling perhaps we 

 might say a hundred millions for other do- 

 mestic animals, sheep, horses, &c. (as generally 

 happens in cases of epizootia), had likewise 

 suffered, in different degrees, from the various 

 complaints arising from inclement seasons. 



It was certainly necessary to our purpose 

 that we should have taken this retrospective 

 view of the cattle disease, and it will afford 

 us a valuable guide for the future. We may 

 now content ourselves with bringing together 

 the different annals in the chain of time which 

 elapsed between Layard's treatise, which was 

 published in 1757, and the present day. This 

 chain of time amounts to 10S years. 



