86 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



drawing from known and admitted facts more 

 rational and practical conclusions than those 

 which have been current up to the present 

 time. 



Much has been already said and argued 

 on the origin of the contagious typhus which 

 affects the ox; some adhering exclusively to 

 the special conditions observable in the breed 

 of those oxen which are reared and fed on the 

 steppes of Eussia and Hungary ; others, more 

 reasonably, as it seems to us, ascribing it to 

 the hygienic conditions generally, that is to say, 

 to the climate, the season, the feeding, &c., &c., 

 amidst which these animals are living. 



All these discussions upon what has been 

 said and argued on this subject have been 

 very useful. For, had it been rigidly proved 

 that the oxen of the steppes, by some peculiar 

 organization, carry within them those germs 

 or physiological elements which at given times 

 become the leaven of the distemper, and, at a 

 subsequent period, the elements of the con- 

 tagion, then, indeed, a fact of capital import- 

 ance and prominent authority would have been 

 established, and the attention of all men in- 

 terested in these inquiries would have been 



