68 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



To resume, then : these inquiries (which we 

 undertook without anticipating so rich a har- 

 vest) have proved, and made evident 



That the contagious typhus afflicting horned 

 cattle, has spread its destructive principle over 

 our globe ever since there have been animals 

 living on its surface. 



That from century to century, not to say 

 from year to year, it has carried its terrors 

 amidst nations and peoples. 



That the remedial measures which had been 

 taken and applied prior to the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, were utterly powerless 

 either to cure this disease or to prevent it. 



That at that period appeared two English 

 physicians, men of remarkable aptitude and 

 penetration, one of whom, Malcolm Flemming, 

 laid down in theory the bases of a preventive 

 treatment ; whilst the other, Peter Layard, 

 applied this theory to practice, by inoculating 

 sound and healthy animals with the morbid 

 virus of the typhus, in order to protect them 

 from the fatal effects of the contagion. 



That this all-important progress in medical 

 experience, has been absolutely forgotten ; so 

 much so, indeed, that the experiments of in- 



