OF THE OX. 71 



have the experience of the past added to our 

 own. To-day, we are called upon to resist 

 the baleful effects of cattle typhus ; but another 

 epizootia may come to-morrow, and strike our 

 horses and our sheep those domestic animals 

 which constitute our most precious possession. 

 The cholera hovers about us. If we do 

 nothing, if we talk and debate instead of 

 acting, these scourges will come upon us on 

 a sudden, and find us quite as helpless as ever 

 to resist their sway. 



These palpable truths deserve to be further 

 developed, and will be treated more copiously 

 at the end of this book. They will consti- 

 tute the complement of our work, necessarily 

 written in haste, since the danger we had to 

 expose was itself so urgent and alarming. 



